Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Reading and Puzzle-Solving


A Disentanglement Puzzle
Over at OnFiction Raymond A. Mar reports on some new research about reading:
We all know people who are heavily influenced by whatever they happen to be reading or watching, crying at the drop of a hat. On the other hand, there are those who seem to have no difficulty withdrawing from a narrative world, seemingly unfazed by sad films and scary books. One interesting avenue of work has found that those who are intrigued by puzzles and enjoy complicated problem-solving--a trait known as “need for cognition”--are also more likely to be deeply engaged with a story. [...] In other words, the complexities of a narrative appear to be just another puzzle that some people enjoy unlocking.
Raymond's got more details in his post.


The photo is the work of Matěj Baťha who made it available via Wikimedia Commons with a Creative Commons licence.

1 comment:

  1. Great find! I just finished commenting on Raymond's post... Perhaps what I like best is the phrase "need for cognition." It seems to me that further study might consider what other narrative-based activities are connected to this "need for cognition." I am wondering, for example: is gaming puzzle-solving? Is watching stories on the boob-tube not puzzle-solving?

    ReplyDelete