Better you than I: Perspectives and emotion simulation during narrative comprehension

Abstract

Recent studies suggest that readers develop richer multidimensional situation models when they mentally participate as characters in narrative worlds. The present study tested this by examining whether readers differentially represent situational elements when they read narratives using the pronoun “you” or “I” to describe a protagonist, and whether the pronoun “you” would make readers more likely to react to the emotional valence of narratives, embodying the affective states of protagonists. Response times and error rates to comprehension questions demonstrated a richer representation of the spatial organisation of narrative worlds with the pronoun “you” relative to “I”. Further, readers were more emotionally reactive to valenced narrative events with the pronoun “you”. Results demonstrate that readers differentially represent narrative worlds as a function of perspective, developing richer spatial mental models of layouts and a greater internalisation of emotional events when directly addressed as a protagonist.

Keywords:

• Action understanding
• Discourse comprehension
• Embodied cognition
• Emotion
• Language
• Perspective taking

Acknowledgements

TD was supported by a NARSAD Young Investigator Award (with the Sidney Baer Trust). The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not reflect those of the United States Army.

Notes

¹Note that average reading times for each passage did not differ as a function of narrative perspective (ps>.05).