Cogn Process (2015) 16 (Suppl 1):S277–S279 DOI 10.1007/s10339-015-0706-9
SHORT REPORT
Prior knowledge of character locational stereotypes and representations during text comprehension Takatsugu Kojima1
Published online: 30 July 2015 Ó Marta Olivetti Belardinelli and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015
Abstract Certain character locational stereotypes are expected to affect constructions of mental representations during text comprehension. The present study examined whether readers’ prior knowledge of character locational stereotypes affects the construction of these character representations during text comprehension. Two short stories were presented to the participants. In one story, God, and two people wearing blue and green clothes, respectively, appeared in a room in that order (God condition). In the other, three people appeared in red, blue, and green clothes, respectively (three-people condition). The only difference between the two stories was the first character that appeared in the room. All participants were assigned to either the God or three-people condition. Participants read the story and provided an account of their own mental representation of where the three characters were located within the room, and explained the reasoning behind their descriptions. In the God condition, most participants stated that God was in the center (relative to the two people) because of locational stereotypes of God. In the three-people condition, most participants stated that the person in red was located in front of or closest to the participant because of the order in which the character appeared in the text. These results show that readers’ prior knowledge of character locational stereotypes affects their mental representation of spatial relationships between characters during text comprehension.
& Takatsugu Kojima
[email protected] 1
Division of Psychology, Department of Culture and Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, Seta Tsukinowa-cho, Otsu City, Shiga 520-2192, Japan
Keywords Character locational stereotype Mental model Locational representation Text comprehension
Introduction When we read a text, we need to link the information provided by the text with our prior knowledge and construct a mental representation based on such linked information. This mental representation is called a mental or situation model (Johnson-Laird 1983; Van Dijk and Kintsch 1983). Particularly in narrative texts, readers’ prior knowledge of characters and character stereotypes is expected to influence text comprehension. Previous research has reported that readers’ prior knowledge of characters is processed during text comprehension, which plays an important role in readers’ construction of mental representations of the text (e.g., Caillies et al. 2002; Filik 2008; Filik and Leuthold 2008, 2013; Peracchi and O’Brien 2004; Rapp et al. 2001; Rapp and Kendeou 2007). For example, if we know Superman and Spider-Man, both of whom are famous characters worldwide, we read the phrase Superman can fly around the Earth smoothly, but find the phrase Spider-Man can fly around the Earth strange. However, the effect of readers’ prior knowledge of characters has been examined mainly based on character behavior or behavioral stereotypes (e.g., Filik 2008; Filik and Leuthold 2008, 2013; Rapp et al. 2001). Therefore, little is known about the effect of other kinds of prior knowledge about the character. With reference to prior knowledge of the character, character locational stereotypes are important in constructing a spatial mental model during text comprehension, because they will influence the understanding of spatial situations and relationships between characters and
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objects in the text. For example, if you read God and Taro’s parents appeared in front of Hanako, where do you imagine they are located? In contrast, if you read Taro’s teacher and parents appeared in front of Hanako, where do you imagine they are located? According to Meier et al. (2007), representations of divinity would be generally linked to higher levels of vertical space. Therefore, you may imagine that the God appears in a little higher location in front of Hanako, but you will not do the same while imagining Taro’s teacher. The present study focused on the relationships between such character locational stereotypes and representations constructed during text comprehension, and examined the effect of locational stereotypes on mental models using a locational stereotype of God in Japan, which means that God is relatively centered.
Cogn Process (2015) 16 (Suppl 1):S277–S279
information for the three characters was not given to the readers, which enabled them to freely construct the locational representation of the three characters during text comprehension. Procedure The open-source Web-based survey software, Limesurvey, was used for data collection. The participants were assigned to either the God (n = 72) or three-people (n = 61) condition. The participants accessed the survey system via Web browsers, through the internet. They were first provided the instructions about the survey on the top of the page, after which they read the story and provided an account of their own mental representation of where the three characters were located within the room. They then explained the reasoning behind their descriptions.
Methods Results Participants One hundred and thirty-three Japanese university students (M = 20.77 years, SD = 4.14 years, ranging from 18 to 45 years) participated in the experiment for course credit. They were all native Japanese speakers. They were divided into two groups beforehand, and each group was assigned to one of the two different conditions, as described below.
Materials Two short stories were prepared as below, which depicted a situation in a room where three characters appeared one after another. In one story, the first character was God (God condition). In the other story, the first character was a person wearing red clothes (three-people condition). The readers were the protagonist in the two stories.
The descriptive data regarding the location of the first character (God or the red person) were categorized into four groups: Center, Front-Near, Front-Unclear, and Other. Center meant that the first character was centered relative to the other two characters. Front-Near meant that the first character was in front of the protagonist (participants), at a close distance or near the door. Front-Unclear meant that the first character was in front of the protagonist at an unclear or distant location. Other meant that the location of the first character did not fall under any of the three categories. Figure 1 shows the categories of the first character’s location in the two conditions. The difference between the responses in the two conditions was significant,
You found a strange square-shaped room in front of you. Each of the four walls of the room faced the north, south, east, and west. The room had a single door on the south wall. The door was close to a corner of a room between the south and west walls. When you opened the door, you saw XXX (the first character: God or a person in red clothes). Then, you looked very carefully and found a person wearing blue clothes, and a person wearing green ones. The only difference between the two stories was the first character that entered the room. Specific locational
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Fig. 1 Categories of the first character’s location in the two conditions
Cogn Process (2015) 16 (Suppl 1):S277–S279
v2(3, N = 133) = 59.68, p \ .01, Cramer’s V = 0.67. Further, a residual analysis revealed significant differences between the two conditions in all the categories of responses (ps \ .01), except for the ‘‘Other’’ group. The descriptive data on reasoning were also analyzed. In the God condition, locational representations of God were strongly linked to locational stereotypes of God in Japan, i.e., God is so sacred that people could not come closer, and was neatly centered. On the other hand, in the three-people condition, most participants reported the order of appearance in the text as the reason for the location of the person in red clothes.
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representations constructed from such stereotypes and descriptions. Compliance with ethical standards Conflict of interest interest.
The author declares that he has no conflict of
Research involving human participants and/or animals All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Concluding discussion References This study examined the effect of locational stereotypes on mental models using a locational stereotype of God in Japan. The results indicate that, in the God condition, about 70 % participants stated that God was in the center (relative to the two people) in their mental representations constructed from the text. The descriptive data on the participants’ reasoning in the God condition also supported the conclusion that locational stereotypes of God in Japan would strongly influence the construction of locational representations. Moreover, some participants indicated reasons such as a master–servant relationship between characters, characters’ feelings, sacredness of God, and so on, for their locational descriptions. This fact indicates the possibility that character locational stereotypes influence not only spatial but also other properties of a mental model. In the three-people condition, about 75 % participants stated that the person in red, the first appearing character, was located in front of or closest to the participant. The descriptive data on the participants’ reasoning in the threepeople condition showed that character’s locations were represented based on their order of appearance in the text. This order effect may relate to the effect of the order of information in cognitive mapping and spatial mental model constructions (e.g., Denis and Cocude 1992; Denis and Denhiere 1990; Ferguson and Hegarty 1994; Taylor and Tversky 1992). Finally, the present study was exploratory. Therefore, in order to clarify the effect of character locational stereotypes on text comprehension, additional experimental studies are required to examine the relationships between locational stereotypes, spatial descriptions, and the mental
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