Does a single session of reading literary fiction prime enhanced mentalising performance? Four replication experiments of Kidd and Castano (2013)

Figures & data

Table 1. RMET analyses.

	Independent variable	df	F	Partial eta squared	p
Experiment 1
Condition		1	.58	.00	.45
Author recognition		1	23.57	.13	<.01
Author recognition × condition		1	1.22	.01	.27
Error		152
Experiment 2
Condition		2	2.67	.02	.07
Author recognition		1	26.02	.10	<.01
Author recognition × condition		2	2.22	.02	.11
Error		224
Experiment 3
Time		1	16.02	.05	<.01
Condition × time		3	.39	.00	.76
Author recognition × time		1	6.32	.02	<.05
Author recognition × condition × time		3	1.01	.01	.39
Error		317
Experiment 4
Condition		3	1.38	.01	.25
Author recognition		1	45.74	.14	<.01
Author recognition × condition		3	.09	.00	.97
Error		286

Table 2. Means (adjusted for other terms in the models), standard deviations and confidence intervals of RMET scores.

Experiment		Literary fiction	Popular fiction	No reading	Non-fiction
1	Mean	28.23			27.76
	SD	3.64			4.55
	95% CI	[27.37, 29.09]			[26.90, 28.62]
2	Mean	27.17	27.12		28.31
	SD	3.94	3.89		3.50
	95% CI	[26.37, 27.97	[26.30, 27.94]		[27.99, 29.11]
3a	Mean	27.84	27.64	25.97	26.69
	SD	5.28	5.47	6.60	6.90
	95% CI	[26.68, 29.00]	[26.48, 28.79]	[24.89, 27.04]	[25.51, 27.87]
3b	Mean	26.89	26.63	25.47	25.59
	SD	5.88	5.52	7.01	6.51
	95% CI	[25.78, 28.00]	[25.53, 27.73]	[24.44, 26.50]	[24.46, 26.71]
4	Mean	28.12	28.70	27.43	27.71
	SD	3.83	4.18	5.03	4.06
	95% CI	[27.08, 29.17]	[27.72, 29.67]	[26.59, 28.26]	[26.74, 28.68]

Note: 3a: pre-manipulation; 3b: post-manipulation.

Table A1. Power analysis for experiments from the original article, Kidd and Castano (2013).

	Condition 1		Condition 2		Sample size	Effect size (Cohen’s f)	Power
	Name	Mean	Name	Mean
Experiment 1	Literary fiction	25.90	Non-fiction	23.47	86	.25	.63
Experiment 3	Literary fiction	25.92	Popular fiction	23.22	69	.26	.57
Experiment 4	Literary fiction	26.19	Popular fiction	23.71	72	.24	.52
Experiment 5	Literary fiction	26.21	Popular fiction	24.96	237^a	.15	.63
Experiment 5	Literary fiction	26.21	No-reading	25.20	237^a	.12	.45

^aestimated

We further calculated the power analysis from the present article. The Cohen’s effect sizes (f) from the original Kidd and Castano (2013) experiments for literary and popular fiction comparison ranged from .15 to .26. Therefore, we calculated the power of our studies on the basis of both lowest and highest estimated effect sizes.

Table A2. Power analysis for the experiments from the present article.

	Condition 1	Condition 2	Sample size	Power (f = .15)	Power (f = .26)
Experiment 1	Literary fiction	Non-fiction	156	.46	.90
Experiment 2	Literary fiction	Non-fiction	156	.46	.90
Experiment 2	Literary fiction	Popular fiction	154	.46	.89
Experiment 3	Literary fiction	Non-fiction	155	.46	.90
Experiment 3	Literary fiction	Popular fiction	158	.47	.90
Experiment 3	Literary fiction	No-reading	170	.49	.92
Experiment 4	Literary fiction	Non-fiction	131	.40	.84
Experiment 4	Literary fiction	Popular fiction	128	.39	.83
Experiment 4	Literary fiction	No-reading	155	.46	.90
Combined data	Literary fiction	Non-fiction	598	.96	.99
Combined data	Literary fiction	Popular fiction	518	.93	.99
Combined data	Literary fiction	No-reading	482	.91	.99
Combined data^a	Literary fiction	Non-fiction	487	.91	.99
Combined data^a	Literary fiction	Popular fiction	410	.86	.99
Combined data^a	Literary fiction	No-reading	351	.80	.99

^aCombined data with exclusion criteria on native speakers and naive participants applied for Experiment 3 and Experiment 4

Table B1. The list of Readings from the Present article and the original article, Kidd and Castano (2013).

Present article	Literary fiction	Popular fiction	Non-fiction
Experiment 1	“The Runner” by Don DeLillo	x	“How the Potato Changed the World” by Charles C. Mann
	“Blind Date” by Lydia Davis	x	“Bamboo Steps Up” by Cathie Gandel
	“Chameleon” by Anton Chekhov	x	“The Story of the Most Common Bird in the World” by Rob Dunn
Experiment 2	“The Tiger’s Wife” by Téa Obreht	“Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn	“How the Chicken Conquered the World” by Jerry Adler and Andrew Lawler *
	“Uncle Rock” by Dagoberto Gilb	“Space Jockey” by Robert Heinlein	“Mistletoe: The Evolution of a Christmas Tradition” by Rob Dunn *
	“The Vandercook” by Alice Mattinson	“Jane” by Mary Roberts Rinehart	“The Venus Flytrap's Lethal Allure” by Abigail Tucker *
Experiment 3	“The Runner” by Don DeLillo	“Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn	“How the Potato Changed the World” by Charles C. Mann
	“Uncle Rock” by Dagoberto Gilb	“Space Jockey” by Robert Heinlein	“The Story of the Most Common Bird in the World” by Rob Dunn
	“The Vandercook” by Alice Mattinson	“Jane” by Mary Roberts Rinehart	“How the Chicken Conquered the World” by Jerry Adler and Andrew Lawler *
Experiment 4	“Corrie” by Alice Munro	“Too Many Have Lived” by Dashiell Hammett	“How the Potato Changed the World” by Charles C. Mann
	“Leak” by Sam Ruddick	“Space Jockey” by Robert Heinlein	“Exploring the Titanic of the Ancient World” by Jo Marchant *
	“Nothing Living Lives Alone” by Wendell Berry	“Lalla” by Rosamunde Pilcher	“Can the Siberian Tiger Make a Comeback” by Matthew Shaer *
Kidd and Castano (2013)	Literary fiction	Popular fiction	Non-fiction
Experiment 1	“The Runner” by Don DeLillo	x	“How the Potato Changed the World” by Charles C. Mann
	“Blind Date” by Lydia Davis	x	“Bamboo Steps Up” by Cathie Gandel
	“Chameleon” by Anton Chekhov	x	“The Story of the Most Common Bird in the World” by Rob Dunn
Experiment 2	“The Tiger’s Wife” by Téa Obreht	“Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn	x
	“The Round House” by Louise Erdrich	“The Sins of the Mother” by Danielle Steel	x
	“Salvage the Bones” by Jesmyn Ward	“Cross Roads” by W. Paul Young	x
Experiment 3	“Corrie” by Alice Munro	“Too Many Have Lived” by Dashiell Hammett	x
	“Leak” by Sam Ruddick	“Space Jockey” by Robert Heinlein	x
	“Nothing Living Lives Alone” by Wendell Berry	“Lalla” by Rosamunde Pilcher	x
Experiment 4	“Uncle Rock” by Dagoberto Gilb	“Jane” by Mary Roberts Rinehart	x
	“Corrie” by Alice Munro	“Too Many Have Lived” by Dashiell Hammett	x
	“Nothing Living Lives Alone” by Wendell Berry	“Space Jockey” by Robert Heinlein	x
Experiment 5	“The Vandercook” by Alice Mattinson	“Jane” by Mary Roberts Rinehart	x
	“Uncle Rock” by Dagoberto Gilb	“Too Many Have Lived” by Dashiell Hammett	x
	“Corrie” by Alice Munro	“Space Jockey” by Robert Heinlein	x

Kidd, D. C., & Castano, E. (2013). Reading literary fiction improves theory of mind. Science, 342(6156), 377–380. doi: 10.1126/science.1239918

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