Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination
- The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Surveying the Imagination Landscape
- Part I Theoretical Perspectives on the Imagination
- Part II Imagery-Based Forms of the Imagination
- Part III Intentionality-Based Forms of the Imagination
- Part IV Novel Combinatorial Forms of the Imagination
- 27 On the Interaction Between Episodic and Semantic Representations – Constructing a Unified Account of Imagination
- 28 How Imagination Supports Narrative Experiences for Textual, Audiovisual, and Interactive Narratives
- 29 Development of the Fantasy-Reality Distinction
- 30 Imagining the Real: Buddhist Paths to Wholeness in Tibet
- 31 Hypothetical Thinking
- 32 The Counterfactual Imagination: The Impact of Alternatives to Reality on Morality
- 33 A Look Back at Pioneering Theories of the Creative Brain
- Part V Phenomenology-Based Forms of the Imagination
- Part VI Altered States of the Imagination
- Name Index
- Subject Index
- References
28 - How Imagination Supports Narrative Experiences for Textual, Audiovisual, and Interactive Narratives
from Part IV - Novel Combinatorial Forms of the Imagination
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2020
Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination
- The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Surveying the Imagination Landscape
- Part I Theoretical Perspectives on the Imagination
- Part II Imagery-Based Forms of the Imagination
- Part III Intentionality-Based Forms of the Imagination
- Part IV Novel Combinatorial Forms of the Imagination
- 27 On the Interaction Between Episodic and Semantic Representations – Constructing a Unified Account of Imagination
- 28 How Imagination Supports Narrative Experiences for Textual, Audiovisual, and Interactive Narratives
- 29 Development of the Fantasy-Reality Distinction
- 30 Imagining the Real: Buddhist Paths to Wholeness in Tibet
- 31 Hypothetical Thinking
- 32 The Counterfactual Imagination: The Impact of Alternatives to Reality on Morality
- 33 A Look Back at Pioneering Theories of the Creative Brain
- Part V Phenomenology-Based Forms of the Imagination
- Part VI Altered States of the Imagination
- Name Index
- Subject Index
- References
Summary
Narrative fiction is a major component of entertainment and culture, comprising books, television, movies, and video games. Our comprehension of these narratives is predicated in part on the imagination, which allows us to simulate fictional events, characters, and worlds. Beyond basic comprehension, the imagination also enables us to generate personalized and unique interpretations of a narrative, effectively allowing us to co-create narratives alongside the author. In this chapter, we discuss the ways in which imagination is used to understand fictional stories across a variety of mediums. We begin with a discussion of mental models, exploring how we use the imagination to translate narrative cues, such as words on a page, into complex and elaborate mental representations. Next, we discuss how the imagination encourages narrative engagement, by allowing us to feel physically transported into fictional worlds. Following that, we examine how the imagination is used to personalize narrative comprehension, through interpreting ambiguous or auxiliary narrative content and through incorporating past personal experiences and current beliefs into the narrative. Finally, we close with a discussion of how modern interactive media may uniquely engage our imagination by providing audiences with the freedom to create their own narratives.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination , pp. 466 - 478Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020
References
Abraham, A. (2016). The Imaginative Mind. Human Brain Mapping, 37(11), 4197–4211.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alderson-Day, B., Bernini, M., and Fernyhough, C. (2017). Uncharted Features and Dynamics of Reading: Voices, Characters, and Crossing of Experiences. Consciousness and Cognition: An International Journal, 49, 98–109.Google Scholar
Appel, M., and Richter, T. (2010). Transportation and Need for Affect in Narrative Persuasion: A Mediated Moderation Model. Media Psychology, 13(2), 101–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barthes, R. (1974). S/Z. English edition. Translated by Richard Miller. New York, NY: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Bezdek, M. A., Foy, J. E., and Gerrig, R. J. (2013). “Run for It!”: Viewers’ Participatory Responses to Film Narratives. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 7(4), 409.Google Scholar
Bower, G. H., and Morrow, D. G. (1990). Mental Models in Narrative Comprehension. Science, 247(4938), 44–48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braun, I. K., and Cupchik, G. C. (2001). Phenomenological and Quantitative Analyses of Absorption in Literary Passages. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 19(1), 85–109.Google Scholar
Burch, A., and Burch, A. [HAWPOfficial]. (2012, November 13). Dinner Metaphors – Hey Ash Whatcha Playin’? [Video file]. youtube.com/watch?v=SCjp7T6xVnU.Google Scholar
Busselle, R., and Bilandzic, H. (2008). Fictionality and Perceived Realism in Experiencing Stories: A Model of Narrative Comprehension and Engagement. Communication Theory, 18(2), 255–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Busselle, R., and Bilandzic, H. (2009). Measuring Narrative Engagement. Media Psychology, 12(4), 321–347.Google Scholar
Chow, H. M., Mar, R. A., Xu, Y., et al. (2015). Personal Experience with Narrated Events Modulates Functional Connectivity within Visual and Motor Systems during Story Comprehension. Human Brain Mapping, 36, 1494–1505.Google Scholar
Cohen, J. (2001). Defining Identification: A Theoretical Look at the Identification of Audiences with Media Characters. Mass Communication & Society, 4(3), 245–264.Google Scholar
Cupchik, G. C. (2002). The Evolution of Psychical Distance as an Aesthetic Concept. Culture & Psychology, 8(2), 155–187.Google Scholar
Ferstl, E. C., and von Cramon, D. Y. (2002). What Does the Frontomedian Cortex Contribute to Language Processing: Coherence or Theory of Mind? NeuroImage, 17, 1599–1612.Google Scholar
Fong, K., and Mar, R. A. (2015). What Does My Avatar Say about Me?: Inferring Personality from Avatars. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41, 237–249.Google Scholar
Gardner, W. L., and Knowles, M. L. (2008). Love Makes You Real: Favorite Television Characters Are Perceived as “Real” in a Social Facilitation Paradigm. Social Cognition 26(2): 156–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gavaler, C., and Johnson, D. (2017). The Genre Effect: A Science Fiction (vs. Realism) Manipulation Decreases Inference Effort, Reading Comprehension, and Perceptions of Literary Merit. Scientific Study of Literature, 7(1), 79–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gernsbacher, M. A. (1997). Two Decades of Structure Building. Discourse Processes, 23(3), 265–304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gernsbacher, M. A., Hallada, B. M., and Robertson, R. R. W. (1998). How Automatically Do Readers Infer Fictional Characters’ Emotional States? Scientific Studies of Reading, 2, 271–300.Google Scholar
Gerrig, R. J. (1993). Experiencing Narrative Worlds: On the Psychological Activities of Reading. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Green, M. C. (2004). Transportation into Narrative Worlds: The Role of Prior Knowledge and Perceived Realism. Discourse Processes, 38(2), 247–266.Google Scholar
Green, M. C., and Brock, T. C. (2000). The Role of Transportation in the Persuasiveness of Public Narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(5), 701.Google Scholar
Green, M. C., Brock, T. C., and Kaufman, G. F. (2004). Understanding Media Enjoyment: The Role of Transportation into Narrative Worlds. Communication Theory, 14(4), 311–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, M. C., Strange, J. J., and Brock, T. C. (eds.). (2002). Narrative Impact: Social and Cognitive Foundations. New York, NY: Psychology Press/Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Hirsh, J. B., Mar, R. A., and Peterson, J. B. (2012). Psychological Entropy: A Framework for Understanding Uncertainty-Related Anxiety. Psychological Review, 119, 304–320.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1983). Mental Models: Towards a Cognitive Science of Language, Inference, and Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Keefe, D. E., and McDaniel, M. A. (1993). The Time Course and Durability of Predictive Inferences. Journal of Memory and Language, 32(4), 446–463.Google Scholar
Koopman, E. M. E. (2015). How Texts About Suffering Trigger Reflection: Genre, Personal Factors, and Affective Responses. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 9(4), 430–441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koopman, E. M. E. (2016). Effects of “Literariness” on Emotions and on Empathy and Reflection After Reading. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 10(1), 82–98.Google Scholar
Kotovych, M., Dixon, P., Bortolussi, M., and Holden, M. (2011). Textual Determinants of a Component of Literary Identification. Scientific Study of Literature, 1(2), 260–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurby, C. A., and Zacks, J. M. (2012). Starting from Scratch and Building Brick by Brick in Comprehension. Memory & Cognition, 40(5), 812–826.Google Scholar
Larsen, S. F., and Laszlo, J. (1990). Cultural-Historical Knowledge and Personal Experience in Appreciation of Literature. European Journal of Social Psychology, 20(5), 425–440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacDonald, M. C., and Just, M. A. (1989). Changes in Activation Levels with Negation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15(4), 633.Google Scholar
Mar, R. A. (2011). The Neural Bases of Social Cognition and Story Comprehension. Annual Review of Psychology, 62, 103–134.Google Scholar
Mar, R. A. (2018). Evaluating Whether Stories Can Promote Social Cognition: Introducing the Social Processes and Content Entrained by Narrative (SPaCEN) Framework. Discourse Processes, 5(6), 454–479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsh, E. J., Meade, M. L., and Roediger, H. L. (2003). Learning Facts from Fiction. Journal of Memory and Language, 49(4), 519–536.Google Scholar
Martínez, M. A. (2014). Storyworld Possible Selves and the Phenomenon of Narrative Immersion: Testing a New Theoretical Construct. Narrative, 22(1), 110–131.Google Scholar
Miall, D. S., and Kuiken, D. (1994). Beyond Text Theory: Understanding Literary Response. Discourse Processes, 17, 337–352.Google Scholar
Morrow, D. G., Greenspan, S. L., and Bower, G. H. (1987). Accessibility and Situation Models in Narrative Comprehension. Journal of Memory and Language, 26(2), 165–187.Google Scholar
Nath, T. (2016). Investing in Video Games: This Industry Pulls in More Revenue than Movies. Nasdaq, June 13. Music. nasdaq.com/article/investing-in-video-games-this-industry-pulls-in-more-revenue-than-movies-music-cm634585.Google Scholar
Newzoo. (2017). The American Gamer | 2017. June 14. newzoo.com/insights/infographics/the-american-gamer-2017/.Google Scholar
Oliver, M. B., Bowman, N. D., Woolley, J. K., et al. (2016). Video Games as Meaningful Entertainment Experiences. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 5(4), 390–405.Google Scholar
Polichak, J. W., and Gerrig, R. J. (2002). “Get Up and Win!”: Participatory Responses to Narrative. In Green, M. C., Strange, J. J., and Brock, T. C. (eds.), Narrative Impact. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 71–95.Google Scholar
Rapp, D. N. (2016). The Consequences of Reading Inaccurate Information. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 25(4), 281–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rapp, D. N., Gerrig, R. J., and Prentice, D. A. (2001). Readers’ Trait-Based Models of Characters in Narrative Comprehension. Journal of Memory and Language, 45, 737–750.Google Scholar
Rumelhart, D. E. (1975). Notes on a Schema for Stories. In Bobrow, D. G. and Collins, A (eds.), Representation and Understanding: Studies in Cognitive Science. New York, NY: Academic Press, 2–34.Google Scholar
Seilman, U., and Larsen, S. F. (1989). Personal Resonance to Literature: A Study of Remindings While Reading. Poetics, 18(1–2), 165–177.Google Scholar
Stein, N. L., and Glenn, C. G. (1975). An Analysis of Story Comprehension in Elementary School Children: A Test of a Schema. ERIC Document Reproduction Service. ED 121 ( 474), 53–120.Google Scholar
Sun, L. (2014). What EA Must Do to Make “Mass Effect 4” a Blockbuster. The Motley Fool, July 5. fool.com/investing/general/2014/07/05/what-ea-must-do-to-make-mass-effect-4-a-blockbuste.aspx.Google Scholar
Tal-Or, N., and Cohen, J. (2010). Understanding Audience Involvement: Conceptualizing and Manipulating Identification and Transportation. Poetics, 38(4), 402–418.Google Scholar
The Adventure Zone Tumblr. (2017). On The Adventure Zone Graphic Novel, Blue Taako, and Representation. The Adventure Zone, June 2. theadventurezone.tumblr.com/post/161367685782/on-the-adventure-zone-graphic-novel-blue-taako.Google Scholar
Trabasso, T., and van den Broek, P.W. (1985). Causal Thinking and the Representation of Narrative Events. Journal of Memory and Language, 24(5), 612–630.Google Scholar
van Dijk, T. A., and Kintsch, W. (1983). Strategies of Discourse Comprehension. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Zacks, J. M., Speer, N. K., and Reynolds, J. R. (2009). Segmentation in Reading and Film Comprehension. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 138(2), 307.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zunshine, L. (2006). Why We Read Fiction: Theory of Mind and the Novel. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press.Google Scholar
Zwaan, R. A. (1999). Situation Models: The Mental Leap into Imagined Worlds. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8(1), 15–18.Google Scholar
Zwaan, R. A. (2004). The Immersed Experiencer: Toward an Embodied Theory of Language Comprehension. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 44, 35–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zwaan, R. A., and Radvansky, G. A. (1998). Situation Models in Language Comprehension and Memory. Psychological Bulletin, 123(2), 162.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
- 3
- Cited by