Keith Oatley

List of John Benjamins publications for which Keith Oatley plays a role.

Journal

Book series

Djikic, Maja, Keith Oatley and Mihnea C. Moldoveanu 2013 Reading other minds: Effects of literature on empathyScientific Study of Literature 3:1, pp. 28–47 | Article
The potential of literature to increase empathy was investigated in an experiment. Participants (N = 100, 69 women) completed a package of questionnaires that measured lifelong exposure to fiction and nonfiction, personality traits, and affective and cognitive empathy. They read either an essay or… read more
Oatley, Keith 2013 Worlds of the possible: Abstraction, imagination, consciousnessWriting and the Mind, Olson, David R. and Marcelo Dascal † (eds.), pp. 448–468 | Article
The ability to think in abstractions depends on the imagination. An important evolutionary change was the installation of a suite of six imaginative activities that emerge at first in childhood, which include empathy, symbolic play, and theory-of-mind. These abilities can be built upon in adulthood… read more
Djikic, Maja, Keith Oatley and Matthew Carland 2012 Genre or artistic merit? The effect of literature on personalityScientific Study of Literature 2:1, pp. 25–36 | Article
We tested whether the genre of a literary text (essay as compared with short story) or its artistic merit would be primarily responsible for the variability in the self-perceived personality traits that individuals experience when they read. One hundred participants were randomly assigned to read… read more
There has been a growing understanding of how the mind and brain work in readers’ and writers’ engagement with fiction. This is worthwhile because fiction occupies much time in people’s lives and because it enables them to understand others and themselves. At the same time, the future of research… read more
Mar, Raymond, Maja Djikic and Keith Oatley 2008 Effects of reading on knowledge, social abilities, and selfhood: Theory and empirical studiesDirections in Empirical Literary Studies: In honor of Willie van Peer, Zyngier, Sonia, Marisa Bortolussi, Anna Chesnokova and Jan Auracher (eds.), pp. 127–137 | Article
Reading exhibits a principle of expertise: the more one does it the more skilled one is likely to become both in the activity and in content knowledge. Our experiences with text lead to the acquisition of both vocabulary and general knowledge. Research from our group examines how reading can have… read more
Oatley, Keith and Philip. N. Johnson-Laird 2002 7. Emotion and reasoning to consistency: The case of abductive inferenceEmotional Cognition: From brain to behaviour, Moore, Simon C. and Mike Oaksford (eds.), pp. 157–182 | Chapter