An initial study (Ram 1) in Denmark in 1970 determined whether methods could be developed to assess the effect of textual passages on readers' experiences of a short story. Subjects, 717 Danish secondary students, were given a questionnaire to check on the effect of specific auctorial techniques and to chart readers' attitudes and the way they changed during the reading. Results showed that it is possible to chart many aspects of the literary experience both during and after the reading in a way which is meaningful to virtually all readers and that the information obtained can be subjected to statistical analysis. Descriptions of the planning and the development of three more studies (Ram 2, 3, and 4) are based on the results of the original study. These descriptions include the purposes of the studies, the problems of translation, and the development of the questionnaire. Ram 2 will chart 600 Danish readers' immediate attitude to the short story. Ram 3 will use four different versions of the text to chart the effect of narrative techniques with 1,600 Danes. Ram 4 will do the same in the United States. (Five tables of data are included, and four references and an appendix containing a set of questionnaires and the translation of the original short story used in the study are attached.) (MS)