scholarly journals The role of empirical methods in investigating readers’ constructions of authorial creativity in literary reading

2020 ◽  
pp. 096394702095220
Author(s):  
Fabio Parente ◽  
Kathy Conklin ◽  
Josephine M Guy ◽  
Rebekah Scott

The popularity of literary biographies and the importance publishers place on author publicity materials suggest the concept of an author’s creative intentions is important to readers’ appreciation of literary works. However, the question of how this kind of contextual information informs literary interpretation is contentious. One area of dispute concerns the extent to which readers’ constructions of an author’s creative intentions are text-centred and therefore can adequately be understood by linguistic evidence alone. The current study shows how the relationship between linguistic and contextual factors in readers’ constructions of an author’s creative intentions may be investigated empirically. We use eye-tracking to determine whether readers’ responses to textual features (changes to lexis and punctuation) are affected by prior, extra-textual prompts concerning information about an author’s creative intentions. We showed participants pairs of sentences from Oscar Wilde and Henry James while monitoring their eye movements. The first sentence was followed by a prompt denoting a different attribution (Authorial, Editorial/Publisher and Typographic) for the change that, if present, would appear in the second sentence. After reading the second sentence, participants were asked whether they had detected a change and, if so, to describe it. If the concept of an author’s creative intentions is implicated in literary reading this should influence participants’ reading behaviour and ability to accurately report a change based on the prompt. The findings showed that readers’ noticing of textual variants was sensitive to the prior prompt about its authorship, in the sense of producing an effect on attention and re-reading times. But they also showed that these effects did not follow the pattern predicted of them, based on prior assumptions about readers’ cultures. This last finding points to the importance, as well as the challenges, of further investigating the role of contextual information in readers’ constructions of an author’s creative intentions.

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weixu Ding ◽  
Eugene Choi ◽  
Atsushi Aoyama

This study is different from the usual cases that testing the intuitive factor as rewarding that affects the employees’ knowledge sharing. In this study, the focus shifts to concentrating on the emotional factors such as interpersonal trust and the prosocial motives. Empirical methods are used to test the hypotheses, and the results show that interpersonal trust affects employees’ knowledge sharing significantly. Moreover, the prosocial motives have been evidenced that it moderately mediates the relationship between interpersonal trust and knowledge sharing. This study has well evidenced all the hypotheses and gives suggestions for the future research at the end.


2019 ◽  
pp. 15-86
Author(s):  
Christine Holbo

The transformation of literary realism in the late nineteenth century took place within the context of a categorical shift in American social epistemologies. The first chapter presents an interdisciplinary, generational portrait of this shift by examining a set of key texts from the years 1896–98 as summaries of the reconstruction of law, literature, and philosophy since the Civil War. Two important works by the James brothers, philosopher William James’s “The Sentiment of Rationality” and Henry James’s What Maisie Knew, demonstrate how the relationship between “sentiment” and “rationality” had been transformed. By attacking the nineteenth century’s trust in the emotions alongside its belief in a transcendent concept of reason, William and Henry James made a case for a new kind of moral imagination grounded in the uncertainty of the emotions and the unknowability of other selves. While the James brothers greeted the collapse of the sentimental paradigm as an emancipatory moment for individuals and for the novel itself, the lawyer and novelist Albion Tourgée saw it as imperiling the ability of Americans to speak, write, or think about freedom. Best known as Homer Plessy’s lawyer in Plessy v. Ferguson, Tourgée was also the most passionate defender of the emancipatory role of the sentimental novel. Exploring Tourgée’s opposition to pluralistic relativism in his brief on behalf of Homer Plessy and his literary analysis of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, this chapter explores the opposition between the Jameses’ celebratory vision of epistemological perspectivalism and Tourgée’s defense of sentimental reason.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 193
Author(s):  
Hua Guo

Previous literary studies on the revision of “Leda and the Swan” by William B. Yeats are mainly concerned with its psychological, social and historical implications conveyed by the relationship between Leda and the swan, and seldom explain the realization of this relationship in linguistic terms and its reception by the readership. Stylistic studies can furnish linguistic evidence for literary interpretation. Building on previous literary criticism and stylistic analysis, this study takes the first stanza as an example and conducts a cognitive stylistic analysis of the poem’s three versions by means of Langacker’s reference point model and dynamic discourse analysis framework. The poet’s aspiration to achieve subtle balance in the relationship through syntactic and semantic alteration is thus better understood and the possibility of applying Langacker’s cognitive grammar to stylistic analysis of poetry is tentatively explored.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marloes Mak ◽  
Clarissa de Vries ◽  
Roel M. Willems

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 378-386
Author(s):  
Lyudmila N. Molchanova ◽  
◽  
Larisa N. Malikhova ◽  
Alesya A. Kuznetsova ◽  
Anna V. Stulova ◽  
...  

Among the numerous factors of the subject genesis of teachers, social intelligence plays an important role. Social intelligence is defined as a special quality of a person, her ability to understand, differentiate and predict the verbal and non-verbal behavior of other people and the consequences, quickly and easily come into contact with them, which determine the effectiveness of social interaction. The results of the relationship between social intelligence and mental burnout were obtained by researchers. The problem of the role of social intelligence in overcoming mental burnout is relevant and poorly researched. The teachers working at the Kursk boarding school for children with disabilities at the Kursk boarding school for children with disabilities (all participants are females; N = 50; professional experience up to 43 years) voluntarily took part in the study. Observation and conversation, as well as standardized techniques for diagnosing burnout and social intelligence, were used from a number of empirical methods. To process the research results, computer methods were used by the mathematics of statistical analysis. It has been empirically proven that the underdeveloped ability of teachers to understand the change in the meaning of similar verbal reactions of students, their parents, colleagues, administration (F=4,38; df=2,47; β =-0,412; р=0,019), as well as to logically generalize and highlight common and significant signs in their various non-verbal reactions (F=3,90; df=2,47; β = 0,364; p=0,030) increase the risk of mental burnout. On the contrary, well-developed abilities to foresee the consequences of the behavior of other people in a certain situation can be considered as a factor in overcoming psychosomatic and psycho-vegetative disorders (F = 136,66; β = -0,952; р =0,0000), irritability, resentment, harshness, rudeness, emotional and personal isolation (F = 115,17; β = -0,840; р = 0,0000), the feeling that it is emotionally impossible to help their wards (F = 115,33; β = -0,936; р = 0,0000).


1985 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 51-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Sheppard

The relationship between London and the rest of the nation is an important but perhaps somewhat neglected aspect of English history. In recent years this theme has, it is true, directly or indirectly, engaged the attention of a number of distinguished scholars, but it is still not generally recognised to be as vital an ingredient in the history of this country as is the rôle of Paris in the history of France. Henry James even went so far as to say that ‘all England is in a suburban relation’ to London, and the standpoint of this paper is equally metropolitan. Its theme is that the loss of its normal preeminence which London seemed to sustain in the nineteenth century was in reality short-lived, and more apparent than real.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Parr

Abstract This commentary focuses upon the relationship between two themes in the target article: the ways in which a Markov blanket may be defined and the role of precision and salience in mediating the interactions between what is internal and external to a system. These each rest upon the different perspectives we might take while “choosing” a Markov blanket.


Crisis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 212-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Joiner ◽  
Melanie A. Hom ◽  
Megan L. Rogers ◽  
Carol Chu ◽  
Ian H. Stanley ◽  
...  

Abstract. Background: Lowered eye blink rate may be a clinically useful indicator of acute, imminent, and severe suicide risk. Diminished eye blink rates are often seen among individuals engaged in heightened concentration on a specific task that requires careful planning and attention. Indeed, overcoming one’s biological instinct for survival through suicide necessitates premeditation and concentration; thus, a diminished eye blink rate may signal imminent suicidality. Aims: This article aims to spur research and clinical inquiry into the role of eye blinks as an indicator of acute suicide risk. Method: Literature relevant to the potential connection between eye blink rate and suicidality was reviewed and synthesized. Results: Anecdotal, cognitive, neurological, and conceptual support for the relationship between decreased blink rate and suicide risk is outlined. Conclusion: Given that eye blinks are a highly observable behavior, the potential clinical utility of using eye blink rate as a marker of suicide risk is immense. Research is warranted to explore the association between eye blink rate and acute suicide risk.


2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 170-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin N. Stevens ◽  
Joseph R. Bardeen ◽  
Kyle W. Murdock

Parenting behaviors – specifically behaviors characterized by high control, intrusiveness, rejection, and overprotection – and effortful control have each been implicated in the development of anxiety pathology. However, little research has examined the protective role of effortful control in the relation between parenting and anxiety symptoms, specifically among adults. Thus, we sought to explore the unique and interactive effects of parenting and effortful control on anxiety among adults (N = 162). Results suggest that effortful control uniquely contributes to anxiety symptoms above and beyond that of any parenting behavior. Furthermore, effortful control acted as a moderator of the relationship between parental overprotection and anxiety, such that overprotection is associated with anxiety only in individuals with lower levels of effortful control. Implications for potential prevention and intervention efforts which specifically target effortful control are discussed. These findings underscore the importance of considering individual differences in self-regulatory abilities when examining associations between putative early-life risk factors, such as parenting, and anxiety symptoms.


2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole L. Hofman ◽  
Austin M. Hahn ◽  
Christine K. Tirabassi ◽  
Raluca M. Gaher

Abstract. Exposure to traumatic events and the associated risk of developing Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms is a significant and overlooked concern in the college population. It is important for current research to identify potential protective factors associated with the development and maintenance of PTSD symptoms unique to this population. Emotional intelligence and perceived social support are two identified protective factors that influence the association between exposure to traumatic events and PTSD symptomology. The current study examined the mediating role of social support in the relationship between emotional intelligence and PTSD symptoms. Participants included 443 trauma-exposed university students who completed online questionnaires. The results of this study indicated that social support mediates the relationship between emotional intelligence and reported PTSD symptoms. Thus, emotional intelligence is significantly associated with PTSD symptoms and social support may play an integral role in the relationship between emotional intelligence and PTSD. The current study is the first to investigate the role of social support in the relationship between emotional intelligence and PTSD symptoms. These findings have important treatment and prevention implications with regard to PTSD.


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