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ERIC Number: EJ1031583
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0163-853X
EISSN: N/A
Readers' Responses When Characters Act on Completed Goals: Impact of Characters' Mental States and Readers' Task Focus
Foy, Jeffrey E.; Gerrig, Richard J.
Discourse Processes: A multidisciplinary journal, v51 n4 p312-332 2014
Research has demonstrated that readers track the objective status of characters' goals (i.e., whether the goals have been completed). We suggest that readers also use characters' subjective representations--characters' mental states with respect to goals--to comprehend actions. We explored circumstances in which local information about characters' subjective representation of a goal mismatched global information about the goal's objective status. In Experiments 1 and 2, we found that reading times were always affected by local information about characters' subjective representations but were unaffected by global information about objective goal status. In Experiments 3a and 3b, we asked participants to make judgments about characters' actions. We found that readers' judgments were affected both by global information about goal completion and by characters' subjective representations. These studies provide evidence that readers attend to characters' subjective representations of their goals and that different tasks affect whether readers focus on local or global information.
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New York
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A