Uncharted features and dynamics of reading: Voices, characters, and crossing of experiences.
Readers often describe vivid experiences of voices and characters in a manner that has been likened to hallucination. Little is known, however, of how common such experiences are, nor the individual differences they may reflect. Here we present the results of a 2014 survey conducted in collaboration with a national UK newspaper and an international book festival. Participants (n=1566) completed measures of reading imagery, inner speech, and hallucination-proneness, including 413 participants who provided detailed free-text descriptions of their reading experiences. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that reading imagery was related to phenomenological characteristics of inner speech and proneness to hallucination-like experiences. However, qualitative analysis of reader's accounts suggested that vivid reading experiences were marked not just by auditory phenomenology, but also their tendency to cross over into non-reading contexts. This supports social-cognitive accounts of reading while highlighting a role for involuntary and uncontrolled personality models in the experience of fictional characters.
Department of Psychology, Durham University, Science Laboratories, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom. Electronic address: benjamin.alderson-day@durham.ac.uk.
Ben
B
Alderson-Day
Department of English Studies, Durham University, Hallgarth House, 77 Hallgarth Street, Durham DH1 3AY, United Kingdom.
Marco
M
Bernini
Department of Psychology, Durham University, Science Laboratories, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom.
Charles
C
Fernyhough
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006212:Hallucinations; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011932:Reading; D055815:Young Adult
Creativity; Hallucinations; Imagery; Inner speech; Theory-of-mind