Abstract
It is well established that readers form mental images when reading a narrative. However, the consequences of mental imagery (i.e. the influence of mental imagery on the way people experience stories) are still unclear. Here we manipulated the amount of mental imagery that participants engaged in while reading short literary stories in two experiments. Participants received pre-reading instructions aimed at encouraging or discouraging mental imagery. After reading, participants answered questions about their reading experiences. We also measured individual trait differences that are relevant for literary reading experiences. The results from the first experiment suggests an important role of mental imagery in determining reading experiences. However, the results from the second experiment show that mental imagery is only a weak predictor of reading experiences compared to individual (trait) differences in how imaginative participants were. Moreover, the influence of mental imagery instructions did not extend to reading experiences unrelated to mental imagery. The implications of these results for the relationship between mental imagery and reading experiences are discussed.
Highlights
It is well established that readers perceive mental images during reading (Green & Brock, 2000; Jacobs, 2015)
The results from this first experiment show that mental imagery-inducing reading instructions were associated with a stronger absorption experience, in particular a stronger attention towards the story, a stronger experience of transportation into the story world and more reported use of mental imagery
Because of the theoretical relationship between this personality characteristic and reading experiences, it is interesting to find that this personality characteristic is positively associated with reading experiences across the board
Summary
It is well established that readers perceive mental images during reading (Green & Brock, 2000; Jacobs, 2015). An eye tracking study showed that people are responsive to mental simulation-eliciting content in stories (Mak & Willems, 2019). Mak and Willems (2019) found that individual differences in the responsiveness to simulation-eliciting content were related to participants’ subjective experiences (such as absorption and appreciation). This is only one example of work showing that mental simulation during reading is associated with absorption in and appreciation of stories (see Green, 2004; Green & Brock, 2002; Kuijpers, Hakemulder, Tan, & Doicaru, 2014; Mol & Jolles, 2014; Weibel, Wissmath, & Mast, 2011)
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