Thesis
The imaginal role of schema instantiation in transportation
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2006
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/508
Abstract
When people engage with narratives, often they experience the sensation of being "lost" in the story. This is the process of transportation, which has been described as a "melding of attention, imagery, and feelings" (Green & Brock, 2000). However, no further explication has been given to the precise psychological mechanisms that underlie this process. The purpose of this thesis was to isolate the origin of the mental imagery that partially constitutes transportation. In theory, this might be a product of schema instantiation, or the application of episodic information to generic memory structures. To test this theory, subjects in two groups read a short story. Those in the experimental group also performed a secondary task designed to limit the encoding of and thus memory for story details (episodic information). Findings indicate that, although the task did significantly interfere with memory of story details, greater memory for story details was only nearly-significantly correlated with transportation. However, further analysis of only the experimental group uncovered a significant relationship, suggesting that the error was in the experimental design.
Metrics
7 File views/ downloads
17 Record Views
Details
- Title
- The imaginal role of schema instantiation in transportation
- Creators
- Sonny. Rosenthal
- Contributors
- Rick W. Busselle (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Edward R. Murrow College of Communication
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525024201842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis