Reading Patterns, Engagement Style and Theory of Mind

Title

Reading Patterns, Engagement Style and Theory of Mind

Creator

Das A.; Vasudevan M.H.

Description

Theory of mind (TOM) refers to a set of abilities which enables understanding of mental states including beliefs, emotions and intentions of self and others. The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of different reading patterns including frequency of reading fiction and genre preference on TOM performance. It also aims to compare the accuracy of TOM performance under explicit goal directed and non-directed reading conditions. To achieve this objective, a sample of 72 Indian college students were randomly allocated to two groups and were evaluated on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) and the Short Story Task (SST). The two groups differed with respect to task instructions aimed at mobilizing different manner of engagement (goal directed and nondirected) with the prose in the SST. The individual reading habits and preferences of all the participants were recorded by a self report questionnaire. Scores on the novel SST showed significant positive correlation with RMET scores. No significant difference in TOM performance with respect to the different engagement styles was found, indicating that TOM abilities function continuously and equally effectively when being used in goal directed and nondirected conditions. Notably, participants who reported to prefer literary fiction performed significantly better on the SST task than the participants who prefer popular fiction. This positive link between literary fiction and TOM has important implications in clinical and developmental fields and necessitates further research. 2021, National Academy of Psychology (NAOP) India.

Source

Psychological Studies, Vol-67, No. 2, pp. 252-260.

Date

2022-01-01

Publisher

Springer

Subject

Literary fiction; Reading patterns; Short story task; Theory of mind

Coverage

Das A., Christ (Deemed To Be University), Bengaluru, India; Vasudevan M.H., Christ (Deemed To Be University), Bengaluru, India

Rights

Restricted Access

Relation

ISSN: 332968

Format

Online

Language

English

Type

Article

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-021-00635-6

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