What effect describes when an audience creates a narrative relationship between two different shots in their minds?

The Kuleshov Effect refers to the phenomenon in film where the audience interprets meaning based on the juxtaposition of two different shots. This effect illustrates how viewers create a narrative link between images, often using context to derive emotional or thematic significance from what they see. For instance, if one shot shows a neutral face and the next shot presents a bowl of soup, viewers may infer that the person is hungry, demonstrating how their minds synthesize the information to form a coherent narrative.

Continuity editing, while important in cinema for maintaining a seamless flow of action and ensuring spatial and temporal clarity, is not specifically about the audience creating narratives between unrelated shots. The 180-degree rule is a guideline regarding screen direction that helps maintain spatial orientation between characters in a scene, rather than the relationship created between separate shots. A montage sequence involves the combination of various shots edited together to create a specific effect or to condense time, which also does not directly address the audience's mental narrative synthesis prompted by two different images.

Therefore, the Kuleshov Effect is the best choice as it directly encapsulates the way an audience connects two shots to form a narrative understanding, relying on associative thinking and interpretation.