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Evil geniuses: inferences derived from evidence and preferences
Michael C Mensink1, David N Rapp
1Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, 56 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. mens0058@umn.edu
Memory & Cognition
|March 23, 2011
Summary
Reader preferences and character traits influence story comprehension. When preferences align with character descriptions, readers form stronger expectations, impacting how they process narrative events and character behaviors.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Narrative Psychology
- Computational Linguistics
Background:
- Readers form expectations about characters based on textual descriptions.
- Reader preferences for character actions can influence narrative interpretation.
- Discrepancies between textual cues and reader desires pose processing challenges.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the cognitive consequences when reader preferences and character trait implications diverge.
- To examine how the interplay between reader desires and textual information shapes narrative comprehension.
- To explore the impact of preference-trait alignment on judgments of character likelihood and reading times.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments using short narrative texts.
- Manipulation of reader preferences (positive, negative, neutral) toward characters.
- Inclusion of behavioral descriptions implying specific character traits.
- Measurement of participants' judgments of character likelihood and reading times for story outcomes.
Main Results:
- When reader preferences and implied character traits matched, participants strongly inferred those traits.
- Mismatches between preferences and implied traits systematically reduced judgments of character likelihood.
- Alignment between preferences and implied traits affected reading times for narrative outcomes.
Conclusions:
- Narrative comprehension is a dynamic process influenced by both authorial text and reader-generated desires.
- Reader preferences actively shape inferences about characters and events, modulating the impact of textual descriptions.
- The convergence or divergence of expectations and preferences critically impacts how readers process stories.
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