| 1. |
- Balling, Gitte, et al.
(författare)
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The young read in new places, the older read on new devices : A survey of digital reading practices among librarians and Information Science students in Denmark
- 2019
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Ingår i: Participations. - 1749-8716. ; 16:1, s. 197-236
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article reports key findings from a quantitative online survey of everyday reading practices (N = 277) that targeted library professionals and students enrolled in an Information Science program in Denmark. The survey derived its rationale from the current upsurge in reading on smartphones but was constructed so as to give a comprehensive overview of all devices used for reading, as well as to map how these devices combine in respondents' reading behaviour with specific text genres and physical environments. The data documents a highly diversified reading ecology where most genres are read on most devices and where readers' choices and preferences vary with gender, age, and life situation. The clearest patterns emerge among female respondents (N = 221; M age = 39; range 19-65) who fall into distinct reader/user groups according to age. Most importantly, we found the variety of digital devices used for reading to increase rather than decrease with age, contrary tocommon assumptions. Meanwhile, the youngest of the female respondents seem to read in the greatest variety of environments, and to make the least use of printed reading materials.
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| 2. |
- Burke, Michael, et al.
(författare)
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Empathy at the confluence of neuroscience and empirical literary studies
- 2016
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Ingår i: Scientfic Study of Literature. - : John Benjamins Publishing Company. - 2210-4372 .- 2210-4380. ; 6:1, s. 6-41
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The objective of this article is to review extant empirical studies of empathy in narrative reading in light of (i) contemporary literary theory, and (ii) neuroscientific studies of empathy, and to discuss how a closer interplay between neuroscience and literary studies may enhance our understanding of empathy in narrative reading. An introduction to some of the philosophical roots of empathy is followed by tracing its application in contemporary literary theory, in which scholars have pursued empathy with varying degrees of conceptual precision, often within the context of embodied/enactive cognition. The presentation of empirical literary studies of empathy is subsequently contextualized by an overview of psychological and neuroscientific aspects of empathy. Highlighting points of convergence and divergence, the discussion illustrates how findings of empirical literary studies align with recent neuroscientific research. The article concludes with some prospects for future empirical research, suggesting that digitization may contribute to advancing the scientific knowledge of empathy in narrative reading.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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All meaning, all show? Towards a reader-centered theory of visual description
- 2011
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper I will propose a reader-centered theory of literary description. Drawing on the divide between conceptual interpretation and pre-conceptual storyworld imagery, I will look into which descriptive devices may be particularly productive of the two reading strategies, respectively. Whereas novels and short stories often intermingle the strategies by and large, isolated passages of the same texts usually do not have an equal potential to elicit both. The reasons to study description from a reader-centered perspective, while making it a pilot notion in tackling the dialectics of interpretation and imagery, are twofold: Firstly, description pertains largely to the generation of imaginary storyworlds. However, passages rich in description are often regarded as indicators of narrative mediation, a view that suggests availability to higher-order interpretation. Secondly, description has mainly been defined in terms of its semantics. Yet a comprehensive account of what description is should also encompass a theory of what it does.
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| 6. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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Audiobooks and print narrative : Similarities in text experience
- 2016
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Ingår i: Audionarratology. - Berlin : Walter de Gruyter. - 9783110472752 ; , s. 217-238
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Comparisons between audiobook listening and print reading often boil down to the fact that audiobooks impose limitations on the recipient's continuous in-depth reflection. As a result, audiobook listening is considered a shallow alternative to reading. This chapter critically revisits the following three intuitions commonly associated with such comparisons: 1) Audiobooks elicit more mental imagery than print. 2) Audiobooks invite more inattentive processing than print. 3) Audiobook listening is more contingent on the environment than print reading. Instead of postulating the superiority of print over audio, the chapter argues that the three intuitions are largely based on a misconception of print reading, its experiential characteristics, and its function.
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| 7. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Correlations between foregrounding, reading strategy and theory of mind
- 2015
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Ingår i: PALA 2015 Creative Style, University of Kent, 15-20 July 2015. ; , s. 76-76
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- A number of studies have recently been produced in the U.S. and Canada linking theory of mind (the ability to accurately assess the mental states of other people) to lifetime exposure to literary, especially stylistically foregrounded, fiction. The paper presents an experiment devised to partially replicate and further develop this strand of research outside the English-speaking world. Subjects (Norwegian teacher training undergraduates) were asked to read a short story while assessing their reading experience on a number of variables. They were also tested for general reading skills and, in two different sessions, for their theory of mind abilities. In addition, they provided personal background information concerning their reading behavior and attitudes to literature. One group of subjects read the original story, which was rich in foregrounding, while another group read a manipulated, subliterary version of the story where foregrounding was minimized. The foregrounded version was expected to correlate with a broader range of affective responses and increased scores on theory of mind. The paper offers a first analysis of the data with regard to these hypotheses.
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| 8. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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Does it make a difference where you read?
- 2014
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Cognition is situated and the environment is part of the cognitive system. These are two of the basic tenets of embodiment, a research framework rapidly growing in popularity. They are abstract enough to have inspired a diverse array of approaches to literature and reading. Some of these approaches look into how the minds of literary characters engage with their environment; some study how this environment informs readers’ imagination; others analyze the spatiality of literary metaphor. What all these approaches have in common is a primary focus on environment as encoded in a text. Meanwhile, this lecture will take the notions of environment and situatedness more literally and explore physical site-sensitivity in the reading of literary narrative. Leaving aside the obvious cases of overly distractive reading situations, I will outline some new theoretical distinctions applying to the relationship between narrative style and reading environment. I will propose that it does make a difference where you read, and recount several levels at which physical environment may structure your experience and understanding of a text.
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| 9. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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Does it Matter Where You Read? Situating Narrative in Physical Environment
- 2016
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Ingår i: Communication Theory. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1050-3293 .- 1468-2885. ; 26:3, s. 290-308
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While language use in general is currently being explored as essentially situated in immediate physical environment, narrative reading is primarily regarded as a means of decoupling one's consciousness from the environment. In order to offer a more diversified view of narrative reading, the article distinguishes between 3 different roles the environment can play in the reading experience. Next to the traditional notion that environmental stimuli disrupt attention, the article proposes that they can also serve as a prop for mental imagery and/or a locus of pleasure more generally. The latter 2 perspectives presuppose a more clear-cut distinction between consciousness and attention than typically assumed in the communication literature. The article concludes with a list of implications for research and practice.
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| 10. |
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| 11. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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Fidelity without mimesis : Mental imagery from visual description
- 2012
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Ingår i: Mimesis. - London : College Publications. - 9781848900561 ; , s. 271-313
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, I oppose the common assumption that visual descriptions in prose fiction are imageable by virtue of perceptual mimesis. Based on introspection as well as convergent support from cognitive science and other disciplines, I argue that visual description (and the mental imagery it elicits), unlike narrative (and the mental imagery it elicits), often stands in no positive relation to perceptual mimesis because it lacks a structural counterpart in perceptual experience. I present an alternative way of defining the kind of mental imagery elicited by visual descriptions, and propose a number of text variables underlying the imageability or non-imageability of any such description.
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| 12. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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How the reader’s body meets the reader’s consciousness : four basic types of narrative mental imagery
- 2013
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Although readers' reports of their lifetime experience with narrative prose reading abound in recollections of mental images, narrative imagery experiences (NIEs) are rarely examined in their own right. Moreover, there is relatively little potential for comprehensive theory building in the extant body of research concerning readers' mental imagery. For instance, theoretical inquiries into the mechanics of mental imaging are often inconclusive as to their claims on the matter of consciousness. Empirical studies of reader response, when expressly focusing on the conscious experience of mental imagery, typically ask readers to check a generic questionnaire item (e.g., “The text calls up an image in my mind.”) but do not solicit further description. Finally, assumptions vary widely across approaches and scholarly traditions regarding the relationship of mental imagery to other dimensions of readerly experience, such as medium awareness or higher-order meaning-making (interpretation). In response to the above, my talk will survey current experimental findings in the field of embodied cognition in order to offer a tentative typology of the basic NIEs, grounded in a circumscribed set of parameters. Roughly speaking, I will argue that NIEs can be either referential (story-based) or verbal (discourse-based). I will further argue that within these two categories, they can be experienced from two different bodily perspectives: an inner (first-person) perspective and an outer (third-person) perspective. This will allow me to isolate four NIE prototypes, each with a specific combination of properties relative to medium awareness and higher-order meaning-making. I will call these NIEs 1. Experience-imagery (referential & inner), 2. Description-imagery (referential & outer), 3. Speech-imagery (verbal & outer) and 4. Rehearsal-imagery (verbal & inner). I will conclude with a note on the applicability of my NIE typology on metaphor and other poetic imagery experiences (PIEs).
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| 13. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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Imaginace v procesu četby : pohled kognitivní vědy
- 2012
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Tento příspěvek sleduje dvojí cíl. Zaprvé hodlám kriticky nastínit postavení a pojetí imaginace v anglosaské kognitivní vědě. Ta přirozenému jazyku dlouho upírala jeho přirozenost a myšlení považovala za abstraktní symboly bez vazby na hmatatelný svět. Nastupující generaci se postupně daří jazyk a myšlení ukotvovat v realitě, konkrétně v lidské tělesnosti (embodiment). V kognitivní vědě tak začíná převládat názor, že jazyk je nástrojem reprezentace a že klíčem k porozumění je právě imaginace (mental imagery), tj. přímý přenos smyslové zkušenosti. Například četba pohádky o perníkové chaloupce se podle takového pojetí jazyka neobejde bez nervové aktivity v některých z částí čtenářova těla, které by se v praxi podílely na loupání perníku ze střechy venkovského stavení. Že jazykové dorozumění zásadně podmiňují naše smysly, mohou přívrženci některých fenomenologických tradic považovat za zjevné. V tomto směru je kognitivní věda vlastně zpozdilá. V otázce imaginace navíc běžně hřeší tím, že nerozlišuje mezi imaginací ve smyslu nevědomých reprezentací a smyslovými představami, které subjektivně prožíváme. Oproti kontinentálním humanitním tradicím má však i jednu výhodu: soustavně vyvíjí experimentální metody, jejichž pomocí pak sbírá empirická data. Druhým cílem tohoto příspěvku bude představit výsledky experimentu, v němž jsem ve spolupráci s psychology z albertské univerzity skloubila fenomenologicky inspirované intuice o imaginaci v procesu četby s empirickými přístupy kognitivní vědy.
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| 14. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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Literary narrative and mental imagery : A view from embodied cognition
- 2014
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Ingår i: Style. - 0039-4238 .- 2374-6629. ; 48:3, s. 275-293
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The objective of this article is twofold. In the first part, I will discuss two issues central to any theoretical inquiry into mental imagery: embodiment and consciousness. I will do so against the backdrop of second-generation cognitive science, more specifically the increasingly popular research framework of embodied cognition, and I will consider two caveats attached to its current exploitation in narrative theory. In the second part, I will attempt to cast new light on readerly mental imagery by offering a typology of what I propose to be its four basic varieties. The typology is grounded in the framework of embodied cognition and it is largely compatible with key neuroscientific and other experimental evidence produced within the framework.
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| 15. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
-
Literature and readers' empathy : A qualitative text manipulation study
- 2017
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Ingår i: Language and Literature. - : SAGE Publications. - 0963-9470 .- 1461-7293. ; 26:2, s. 137-152
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The alleged crisis of the humanities is currently fueling renewed interest in the affective benefits of literary reading. Several quantitative studies have shown a positive correlation between literary reading and empathy. However, the literary nature of the stimuli used in these studies has not been defined at a more detailed, stylistic level. In order to explore the stylistic underpinnings of the hypothesized link between literariness and empathy, we conducted a qualitative experiment in which the degree of stylistic foregrounding was manipulated. Subjects (N = 37) read versions of Katherine Mansfield’s “The Fly,” a short story rich in foregrounding, while marking striking and evocative passages of their choosing. Afterwards, they were asked to select three markings and elaborate on their experiences in writing. One group read the original story, while the other read a ‘non-literary’ version, produced by an established author of suspense fiction for young adults, where stylistic foregrounding was reduced. We found that the non-literary version elicited significantly more (p < 0.01) explicitly empathic responses than the original story. This finding stands in contradiction to widely accepted assumptions in recent research, but can be assimilated in alternative models of literariness and affect in literary reading. We present an analysis of the data with a view to offering more than one interpretation of the observed effects of stylistic foregrounding.
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| 16. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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m-Reading : Fiction reading from mobile phones
- 2020
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Ingår i: Convergence. The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. - : SAGE Publications. - 1354-8565 .- 1748-7382. ; 26:2, s. 333-349
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mobile phones are reportedly the most rapidly expanding e-reading device worldwide. However, the embodied, cognitive and affective implications of smartphone-supported fiction reading for leisure (m-reading) have yet to be investigated empirically. Revisiting the theoretical work of digitization scholar Anne Mangen, we argue that the digital reading experience is not only contingent on patterns of embodied reader–device interaction (Mangen, 2008 and later) but also embedded in the immediate environment and broader situational context. We call this the situation constraint. Its application to Mangen’s general framework enables us to identify four novel research areas, wherein m-reading should be investigated with regard to its unique affordances. The areas are reader–device affectivity, situated embodiment, attention training and long-term immersion.
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| 17. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Mental imagery from visual description
- 2012
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- One of the most challenging topics for cognitive literary study is the reader's mental imagery. In this talk I will focus on the particular kind of mental imagery prompted by the stylistic device of visual description. Although valuable predictive inquiries have been made into readers' mental imagery in general, its relation to visual description is largely undertheorized. In spite of the fact that visual description is unique, compared to other modes of verbal representation, in its potential to control the specific contents of one's mental image. Referring to my own experimental data from an imagery study conducted under the tutorship of Professors Bortolussi and Dixon of Alberta, I will use the example of visual description to make the following points regarding all predictive inquiry into the cognitive effects of literary style, and into readers' mental imagery in particular: 1) To advance literary study, prediction about the parameters of literary processing (e.g., the occurrence of visual imagery) should be made conjointly with prediction about the specific value of these parameters (e.g., the contents of the visual image). 2) Therefore, cognitive science can be fully helpful to literary study only insofar as it encompasses phenomenology and other methods of informed introspection. 3) That prediction made from within traditional scientific paradigms sometimes runs counter to phenomenological prediction does not necessarily entail mutual exclusivity. Rather, the tension between the two is precisely what is distinctive for literature as an object of scientific knowledge.
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| 18. |
- Kuzmicova, Anezka, 1982-
(författare)
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Mental Imagery in the Experience of Literary Narrative : Views from Embodied Cognition
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Defined as vicarious sensorimotor experiencing, mental imagery is a powerful source of aesthetic enjoyment in everyday life and, reportedly, one of the commonest things readers remember about literary narratives in the long term. Furthermore, it is positively correlated with other dimensions of reader response, most notably with emotion. Until recent decades, however, the phenomenon of mental imagery has been largely overlooked by modern literary scholarship.As an attempt to strengthen the status of mental imagery within the literary and, more generally, aesthetic discipline, this dissertation proposes an analysis positioned at a confluence of literary theory and the cognitive sciences, especially the emergent research framework of embodied cognition.Questions asked throughout the dissertation include the following:a) What are the basic varieties of mental imagery in the reading of literary narrative?b) By what contents or narrative strategies are they most likely to be prompted?c) What is it like to experience a mental image of a particular variety?d) What are its psychophysiological underpinnings?e) How does a mental image of a particular variety relate to perception?f) How does it relate to higher-order meaning-making?Four prototypical imagery varieties are distinguished on the basis of two variables with two values each (referential vs. verbal domain; inner vs. outer stance). Gradual transitions and in-between imagery varieties are acknowledged. The imagery typology and related hypotheses are grounded in introspection but carefully supported with indirect empirical evidence and, whenever possible, formulated so as to facilitate direct validation.
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| 19. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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Motor representation in literary narrative reading: grasping immersion
- 2009
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- During the past two decades, converging evidence has been accumulated within cognitive science and related disciplines pointing toward an embodied and situated view of cognition, including abstract conceptual thinking. Moreover, researchers have begun investigating and acknowledging extensively the crucial role of motor activity, be it overt or covert, in both cognition and perception. With the gradual discovery of mirror neurons, accompanied by a reemergence of grounded theories of mind, the once so sharp dividing line between lower and higher cognition, as well as between action and perception, has become considerably blurred. Complex phenomena such as consciousness, selfhood, empathy, language production and language comprehension are currently being discussed in terms of motor imagery and represented movement. This body of research, largely supported by neuroimaging studies, not only questions accepted concepts of human psyche. It also opens up new ways of elucidating aesthetic, and most notably literary, experience. By narrowing down our notion of unmarked experience as such, it stipulates a fruitful revision of distinguished key terms in narrative theory – realism, representation, immersion, to name just a few. Elaborating on some of the expanding yet still little known empirical research in embodied language processing, as well as on studies carried out by its precursors in discourse research and on recent work in phenomenology and cognitive neuroscience, this paper aims to briefly outline a theory of motor representation in literary narrative reading. It will be argued that reader immersion stands in direct proportion to certain forms of encoded bodily movement, and that the reader's feeling of being physically present in a literary world is enhanced or suppressed by the narrative favouring the motor or sensory mode, respectively. Demonstrated throughout the paper by the example of quotidian artefact embedding in early modern (Flaubert), late modern (Robbe-Grillet) and contemporary (Toussaint) French novel, the motor vs. sensory distinction will serve as a point of departure when new theoretical concepts are introduced, such as ”pragmatic” vs. ”semantic” description, or ”egocentric” vs. ”allocentric” narrative perspective. In addition, a few more diffuse, larger text unit and world knowledge factors assumed to affect motor representation, e.g. narrative prominence (”linguistic” vs. ”literary” foregrounding of movement) or context dependence (”volatile” vs. ”scripted” movement), will be discussed, with continuous reference to relevant results in empirical narratology and stylistics. The particular emphasis on quotidian artefact embedding in narrative accounts of states and events will be motivated by the unique position artefact manipulation occupies in human motor repertoir, and thereby also in the simulation processes and agency and intentionality judgements determining all human-world and social interaction. Stimulating several utterly private sensorimotor faculties other than bodily movement, above all proprioception and touch, and addressing most directly the reader's procedural memory, artefact nouns – when embedded in the literary narrative in a particular manner – will be argued to arouse a strong Barthesian ”reality effect”.
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| 20. |
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| 21. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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Neuronarratology
- 2009
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Ingår i: Neuronarratology.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 22. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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Outer vs. Inner Reverberations : Verbal Auditory Imagery and Meaning-Making in Literary Narrative
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Literary Theory. - : Walter de Gruyter GmbH. - 1862-5290 .- 1862-8990. ; 7:1-2, s. 111-134
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is generally acknowledged that verbal auditory imagery, the reader’s sense of hearing the words on a page, matters in the silent reading of poetry. Verbal auditory imagery (VAI) in the silent reading of narrative prose, on the other hand, is mostly neglected by literary and other theorists. This is a first attempt to provide a systematic theoretical account of the felt qualities and underlying cognitive mechanics of VAI, based on convergent evidence from the experimental cognitive sciences, psycholinguistic theory, and introspection. More generally, the aim is to isolate a new set of embodied experiences which, along with more widely researched phenomena such as sensorimotor enactment or emotion, contribute to our understanding of literary narrative. The central argument is that distinctions within the domain of embodied VAI also apply to higher-order meaning-making, i. e., that discrete types of VAI are associated with discrete tendencies in spontaneous literary interpretation. Spontaneous literary interpretation stands for any process of meaning-making, however inarticulate, that reaches the reader’s consciousness in an uninterrupted course of reading.
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| 23. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Personal relevance in narrative reading
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Narrative studies, and literary scholarship overall, are currently experiencing a renewed interest in the mechanisms behind readers’ affective and cognitive responses, especially empathy. Recent experimental research shows literary narratives to prompt empathy in the short and long term. However, it is unlikely that any particular text exerts the same affective and potentially edifying power indiscriminately on all readers, regardless of what Caracciolo (2014) terms “experiential background”. In our paper, we will review experimental and other empirical evidence on narrative processing in order to unravel which types of personal relevance are more likely to be impactful than others, which types of impact (e.g. aesthetic, therapeutic, persuasive) they have been found to generate, and where their power might become excessive or outright detrimental to reader experience.
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| 24. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Personal Relevance in Story Reading : A Research Review
- 2019
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Ingår i: Poetics today. - : Duke University Press. - 0333-5372 .- 1527-5507. ; 40:3, s. 429-451
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although personal relevance is key to sustaining an audience’s interest in any given narrative, it has received little systematic attention in scholarship to date. Across centuries and media, adaptations have been used extensively to bring temporally or geographically distant narratives “closer” to the recipient under the assumption that their impact will increase. In this article, we review experimental and other empirical evidence on narrative processing in order to unravel which types of personal relevance are more likely to be impactful than others, which types of impact (e.g., aesthetic, therapeutic, persuasive) they have been found to generate, and where their power becomes excessive or outright detrimental to reader experience. Together, the evidence suggests that narratives are read through the lens of the reader’s self-schema independently of genre, although certain groups of readers, especially in certain situations, may experience personal relevance and related effects more strongly than others. The literature further suggests that large-scale similarities between reader and character (e.g., gender) may not per se be enough for relevance effects to arise and that emotional valence has a role to play in the process alongside thematic saliency.
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| 25. |
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| 26. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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Presence in the reading of literary narrative : A case for motor enactment
- 2012
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Ingår i: Semiotica. - : Walter de Gruyter GmbH. - 0037-1998 .- 1613-3692. ; 189:1-4, s. 23-48
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Drawing on research in narrative theory and literary aesthetics, text and discourseprocessing, phenomenology and the experimental cognitive sciences,this paper outlines an embodied theory of presence (i.e., the reader’s sense ofhaving entered a tangible environment) in the reading of literary narrative.Contrary to common assumptions, it is argued that there is no straightforwardrelation between the degree of detail in spatial description on one hand, andthe vividness of spatial imagery and presence on the other. It is also arguedthat presence arises from a first-person, enactive process of sensorimotorsimulation/resonance, rather than from mere visualizing from the perspectiveof a passive, third-person observer. In sections 1 to 3, an inter-theoretical argumentis presented, proposing that presence may be effectively cued by explicit(or strongly implied) references to object-directed bodily movement. Insection 4, an attempt is made at explaining which ways of embedding suchreferences in the narrative may be particularly productive at eliciting presence.
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| 27. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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Reading alone can be lonely : physical reading environments as social spaces
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper reports a qualitative study of reading practices which identified an underexplored factor in reading behaviour and experience - the sheer physical presence and concurrent activity of other people in the environment where individuals engage in silent reading. It demonstrated how solitary silent reading is subject to social contingencies at a physical, embodied level. Student focus groups in six European countries were interviewed on how they select and experience generic (e.g. indoors vs.outdoors) as well as specific (e.g. homevs. library) reading environments, in relation to what (genre), why (purpose),and how (device) they read. Across all samples, participants spontaneously attested to varied forms of sensitivity to physical company and social space in their daily efforts to align body with mind for reading. Contrary to common assumptions, participants did not prefer or require solitude and privacy for reading, and few reported being indifferent to their immediate social surroundings.The paper will focus on these emergent trends and discuss their implications for educational practice.
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| 28. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Reading and company : embodiment and social space in silent reading
- 2018
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Ingår i: Literacy. - : Wiley. - 1741-4350 .- 1741-4369. ; 52:2, s. 70-77
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Reading, even when silent and individual, is a social phenomenon and has often been studied as such. Complementary to this view, research has begun to explore how reading is embodied beyond simply being ‘wired’ in the brain. This article brings the social and embodied perspectives together in a very literal sense. Reporting a qualitative study of reading practices across student focus groups from six European countries, it identifies an underexplored factor in reading behaviour and experience. This factor is the sheer physical presence, and concurrent activity, of other people in the environment where one engages in individual silent reading. The primary goal of the study was to explore the role and possible associations of a number of variables (text type, purpose, device) in selecting generic (e.g. indoors vs outdoors) as well as specific (e.g. home vs library) reading environments. Across all six samples included in the study, participants spontaneously attested to varied, and partly surprising, forms of sensitivity to company and social space in their daily efforts to align body with mind for reading. The article reports these emergent trends and discusses their potential implications for research and practice.
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| 29. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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Reading, consciousness, and personal resonance to literature in education
- 2019
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Ingår i: Research in Literature in Language Learning Environments. ; , s. 14-14
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- What do we know about the particular mental state of readers absorbed in literature? Researchers, educators and the public alike worry about its frailty and importance for sustainable society development, but its nature remains largely unknown. This talk will present a critical argument on how the reading consciousness tends to be understood in education. I will tackle three pervasive ideas: 1) the idea that the reader’s consciousness is a container of sorts; 2) the idea that the reader’s consciousness should exclude stimuli from one’s immediate environment; and especially 3) the idea that readers should abstract their personal concerns away when learning to read literature. The talk will draw on my research in literary reader response, embodied cognition, and reading behaviour across multiple countries and contexts, ranging from highly skilled adult readers to pupils in primary classrooms.
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| 30. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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Reading strategy and personal relevance : a study of young adults
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The current decrease in young adult literacy is commonly discussed among cognitive scientists in light of two assumptions: that fiction reading fosters empathy and that it fosters critical thought. I ran a study with a sample of young adults (age 17-18, N = 111), probing both assumptions. Subjects read an actual news story on the topic of social mobility, filling out quantitative and qualitative questionnaires, some of which targeted the subjects’ reading behavior and attitude to fiction. The rhetoric of the story was skewed to the point of distorting basic facts. The data shows an association between self-reported relative frequency of fiction reading and empathy with socially disadvantaged job seekers mentioned in the story. However, there was an independent effect of personal relevance; subjects from disadvantaged social backgrounds were more likely to empathize than others. As for critical reading strategies, resistance to the rhetoric of the story was high, but subjects who reported reading fiction more frequently, as well as those who reported reading more distinctly literary fiction, were more perceptive towards possible interpretations. The findings are presented with a particular view to discussing the variable of personal relevance, which is rarely controlled in experimental designs but emerges as a key determinant in natural reading selections and strategies.
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| 31. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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Sharing Tacit Knowledge through Literature
- 2019
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This talk will have two parts. Firstly, I will offer an outlook on literary narrative as an interface for activating and developing the reader’s tacit, embodied knowledge. Having engaged in theoretical and empirical research on the embodied and situated facets of reading for about a decade, I will especially focus on sensorimotor mental imagery – how it is supported by textual features, the environment where we read, and the reader’s personal situation more generally. Secondly, I will look at the affordances of different kinds of literature for interpersonal sharing. I will propose that some literary texts are more “tacit” in their makeup than others and that this has consequences for how our experiences of them are shared in everyday conversation and other social interactions, including educational practice. I will argue for the benefits of sharing tacit text experience in literary learning across educational tiers, and include a practical example of how this may be done.
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| 32. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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Sheer sharing : the gratifications of not talking about books
- 2019
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Ingår i: Literacy and Play for All. ; , s. 57-57
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Social sharing is a known prerequisite to fostering a love of reading and literature, both in the home and in formal educational settings. In this context, current research and discourse tend to emphasize the importance of book talk. Introducing its various forms in formal education, however, we walk a thin line between enriching individual students’ literary experiences and spoiling some of the more intimate aesthetic effects for them by the very act of talking and analyzing. Referring to findings from varied disciplines as well as to practical examples, this paper will make a case for the distinct forms and gratifications of sheer sharing, that is, of having a text in common but not talking about it. I will argue that sheer sharing can be just as formative to literacy as book talk proper, and that while certain types of literature thrive on purposeful book talk, others may in fact exert more power if they are shared tacitly. The mechanisms in focus here are readers’ mental imagery and experiences of personal resonance.
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| 33. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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Tablety na školách
- 2015
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Annan publikation (populärvet., debatt m.m.)
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| 34. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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The audiobook experience : attention and mental imagery
- 2014
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The audiobook experience differs radically from traditional silent reading in several respects, one of them being mental imagery. While mental imagery in silent reading taps equally into the referential (story content; all sensory modalities) and verbal (narrative qua discourse; auditory and kinesthetic) domains, listening activates the auditory circuitry to a degree that leaves little need or capacity for verbal mental images. In traditional silent reading, continuous shifts between referential and verbal imaging coincide with the general distribution of one's attention between story and discourse. But how is attention distributed in narrative audiobook processing? On the one hand, one might speculate that the medium, liberating the listener from the visually taxing burden of reading, allows richer possibilities for referential imaging and a deeper focus on story content. On the other hand, the overt voicing of the discourse can make people attentive to linguistic qualities that otherwise would go unnoticed. Moreover, people use audiobooks widely while performing physical tasks or during transportation, thus receiving a flux of sensorimotor stimuli from the environment concurrent with the spoken narrative. This may interfere with, rather than encourage, referential imagery, or even any deeper focus whatsoever. In my talk I will try to systematize and reconcile some of these contradictions from an aesthetic and psychological perspective. Reviewing extant comparative data on literary listening and reading, I will thus elaborate on recent attempts to define the phenomenology of the audiobook as a specific medium. I will support my conclusions with anecdotal evidence from my own experience of listening to vs. reading Ernest Hemingway's The Garden of Eden, a novel high in referential imageability as well as linguistic craftsmanship.
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| 35. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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The reading consciousness : three common assumptions revisited
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper revisits three common ideas about how consciousness works when we read fiction. Firstly, I will contest the notion that the reading consciousness is a container of sorts, containing a circumscribed amount of textual stimulus. Secondly, I will argue against the view that readers abstract their personal concerns away in reading, and that they do so with benefit. Thirdly, I will show how the reading consciousness encompasses rather than excludes the physical situation and environment of reading. For each idea revisited, I will discuss practical implications for how reading could be taught, assessed, and staged in educational settings.
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| 36. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-
(författare)
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The Words and Worlds of Literary Narrative : The Trade-off between Verbal Presence and Direct Presence in the Activity of Reading
- 2013
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Ingår i: Stories and Minds. - Lincoln, Nebraska : University of Nebraska Press. - 9780803244818 ; , s. 107-128
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter disputes the notion, endorsed by much of narrative theory, that the reading of literary narrative is functionally analogous to an act of communication, where communication stands for the transfer of thought and conceptual information. The paper offers a basic typology of the sensorimotor effects of reading, which fall outside such a narrowly communication-based model of literary narrative. A main typological distinction is drawn between those sensorimotor effects pertaining to the narrative qua verbal utterance (verbal presence) and those sensorimotor effects pertaining to the imaginary physical world(s) of the story (direct presence). While verbal presence refers to the reader's vicarious perception of the voices of narrators and characters, direct presence refers to the emulated sensorimotor experience of the imaginary worlds that the narrators' and characters' utterances refer to. The paper further elaborates on how, by which kinds of narrative content and structure, direct presence may be prompted. The final section addresses some of the observational and historical caveats that must be attached to any theoretical inquiry made into the sensorimotor effects of reading. As a preliminary for further research, a few ideas about the model's potential for empirical validation are put forward. A brief, tentative history of the sensorimotor benefits of literary narrative reading is then outlined.
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| 37. |
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| 38. |
- Kuzmičová, Anežka, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Visual imagery in reading
- 2014. - 2
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Ingår i: Encyclopedia of aesthetics. - New York : Oxford University Press. - 9780199747108 ; , s. 416-420
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 39. |
- Mangen, Anne, et al.
(författare)
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Empathy and literary style : A theoretical and methodological exploration
- 2018
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Ingår i: Orbis Litterarum. - : Wiley. - 0105-7510 .- 1600-0730. ; 73:6, s. 471-486
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article presents the design, methodology, and materials of an inter-Nordic, empirical study of literary reading among students in teacher education, in which relations between literary style and experiential aspects of literary reading (e.g. empathy and transportation) were assessed empirically. The primary aim of the article is to introduce paradigms and measures from interdisciplinary empirical research on literary reading which is less known in a Nordic context but which is rapidly gaining momentum internationally. The participants in the study read Katherine Mansfield's short story "The Fly" (1922) in the original version versus in a manipulated version in which typical features of literariness (e.g. metaphors and similes) were removed. Combining quantitative measures of empathy, appreciation of literature, and aspects of reading engagement with qualitative methods, the aim is to probe deeper into readers' subjective reading experience.
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| 40. |
- Moret-Tatay, Carmen, et al.
(författare)
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Just Google It : An Approach on Word Frequencies Based on Online Search Result
- 2018
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Ingår i: The Journal of general psychology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0022-1309 .- 1940-0888. ; 145:2, s. 170-182
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Word frequency is one of the most robust factors in the literature on word processing, based on the lexical corpus of a language. However, different sources might be used in order to determine the actual frequency of each word. Recent research has determined frequencies based on movie subtitles, Twitter, blog posts, or newspapers. In this paper, we examine a determination of these frequencies based on the World Wide Web. For this purpose, a Python script was developed to obtain frequencies of a word through online search results. These frequencies were employed to estimate lexical decision times in comparison to the traditional frequencies in a lexical decision task. It was found that the Google frequencies predict reaction times comparably to the traditional frequencies. Still, the explained variance was higher for the traditional database.
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| 41. |
- Schilhab, Theresa, et al.
(författare)
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Decreasing materiality from print to screen reading
- 2018
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Ingår i: First Monday. - : University of Illinois Libraries. - 1396-0466. ; 23:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The shift from print to screen has bodily effects on how we read. We distinguish two dimensions of embodied reading: the spatio-temporal and the imaginary. The former relates to what the body does during the act of reading and the latter relates to the role of the body in the imagined scenarios we create from what we read. At the level of neurons, these two dimensions are related to how we make sense of the world. From this perspective, we explain how the bodily activity of reading changes from print to screen. Our focus is on the decreased material anchoring of memories.
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| 42. |
- Vogrinčič Čepič, Ana, et al.
(författare)
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Vpliv fizičnega prostora in družbenegaokolja na bralno izkušnjo : izsledki študiješestih fokusnih skupin
- 2018
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Ingår i: Knjižnica. - 0023-2424 .- 1581-7903. ; 62:3, s. 51-67
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Namen: Namen prispevka je obravnavati branje kot fizično dejavnost, ki je vpisana v prostor in nosi številne sociološke konotacije. Branje analizira kot utelešeno (angl. embodied) in družbeno prakso in ugotavlja medsebojno sodoločenost teh dveh dimenzij.Metodologija/pristop: V fokusnih skupinah smo izvedli pogovore s študenti iz šestih evropskih držav in jih spraševali o vplivu oziroma vlogi, ki jo vrsta besedila, namen branja in bralna naprava igrajo pri izboru konkretnega bralnega okolja. Sodelovalo je 21 deklet in 15 fantov različnih do- in podiplomskih programov s povprečno starostjo 21,5 leta.Rezultati: Izkazalo se je, da sogovorniki večinoma niso brezbrižni do svojega bralnega okolja. Kot prostor branja so najpogosteje navedli dom, knjižnice oziroma čitalnice, poleg tega pa še druge javne kraje, npr. kavarne in parke, okolja, kjer ljudje pogosto berejo, čeprav prvotno niso namenjena branju. Na tej osnovi članek poroča o zaznanih bralnih smernicah in premišlja o njihovih morebitnih implikacijah za akademsko raziskovanje in vsakdanjo prakso.Omejitve raziskave: Vzorec raziskave je majhen, izziv sta predstavljali skupinska dinamika in neverbalna komunikacija.Izvirnost/uporabnost raziskave: Študija se razlikuje od prevladujočih pristopov k branju, ki »bralni um« praviloma obravnavajo kot začasno odvezan od vseh dražljajev v fizičnem okolju. Kot pokaže, prav teh ne gre ignorirati ne v praksi ne v kontekstu raziskovanja.
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