Article published In:
Scientific Study of LiteratureVol. 11:2 (2021) ► pp.266–282
Exploring the dimensional relationships of story world absorption
A commentary on the role of attention during absorbed reading
Absorption has proven to be an important mediator of reading enjoyment and persuasive text effects (Green & Brock, 2000; Kuijpers et al.,
2014). Typically, absorbing experiences with narrative media are captured using self-report measuring instruments. One such
instrument is the Story World Absorption Scale, which is comprised of four dimensions: Attention, Emotional Engagement, Mental
Imagery, and Transportation (Kuijpers et al., 2014). As of yet, we do not know how
these dimensions relate to one another. Data from four different studies (one survey and three experiments) using the Story World
Absorption Scale were investigated with the use of structural equation modeling to attempt to answer this question. The results
show that attention fulfills a crucial role in the absorption experience confirming the work of Kuiken and Douglas (2017, 2018) on absorption-like states. The
findings inspire a discussion on how we (should) use multi-dimensional instruments in the field of empirical literary studies.
Keywords: absorption, attention, reading experience, meta-analysis, structural equation modeling, story world absorption scale
Article outline
- Introduction
- Dimensions of narrative absorption
- The present research
- Method
- Sample characteristics
- Measures
- Data analyses
- Results
- Hypothesis 1
- Hypothesis 2
- General discussion
- The role of attention in absorption
- Reconceptualization of the story world absorption construct
- Future research
- Acknowledgements
-
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Cited by (3)
Cited by three other publications
Kuijpers, Moniek M., Massimo Lusetti, Piroska Lendvai & Simone Rebora
2024. Validation of the Story World Absorption Scale through annotation of online book reviews. Journal of Cultural Analytics 9:1 
Dayter, Daria, Miriam A. Locher & Thomas C. Messerli
2023. Pragmatics in Translation,
Kuzmičová, Anežka, Markéta Supa & Martin Nekola
2022. Children’s perspectives on being absorbed when reading fiction: A Q methodology study. Frontiers in Psychology 13
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