Speaker: Birte Thissen @Birte
Affiliation: New York University
Co-authors: Monika Tschense & Gebriele Oettingen
Title: Flow between the Lines: Text Inferences and Flow during Fiction Reading
Abstract (long version below): This study investigated the relationship between flow states during fiction reading and text comprehension on the inference level specifically (‘reading between the lines’). A sample of 124 readers read the short story ‘Hills like White Elephants’ by Ernest Hemingway, in which text comprehension largely relies on drawing correct inferences. Then, they answered a reading-specific flow questionnaire as well as text comprehension questions. Regression analyses revealed that flow scores, as expected, predicted better inference drawing beyond participants general reading proficiency. Thus, a state of flow might enable readers to better read between the lines, arguably the highest form of text comprehension.
Long abstract
Introduction
Optimal activity engagement has been conceptualized by motivational psychologists through flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975), a specific state of mind that is characterized by high attentional absorption, processing fluency, and intrinsic enjoyment (Csikszentmihalyi & LeFevre, 1989; Jackson & Marsh, 1996). As such, flow has also been shown to improve performance in various activity contexts (Barthelmäs & Keller, 2021; Engeser & Rheinberg, 2008; Jackson et al., 2001). For fiction reading, first studies corroborate both the occurrence of flow states (Thissen et al., 2018; Thissen et al., 2020; Thissen et al. 2021) as part of positive reading experiences, as well as their potential benefits for text comprehension performance (Thissen et al., 2024). Thus, a more fluent processing of the text, deeper absorption with the story world, and stronger enjoyment of the reading process in a state of flow may result in a particularly vivid mental story model (Buselle & Bilandzic, 2008). This vivid mental story model could, in turn, enable the reader to draw more correct inferences from the text, meaning that even a text that requires ‘reading between the lines’ would be better understood by a reader in flow. Since authors often chose to deliberately give crucial text information only implicitly (Benson, 1975) and readers can find tremendous enjoyment in piecing together the thus incomplete explicit text information (Clinton, 2015), this particularly deep form of text comprehension constitutes an interesting area for reading research. Against expectations, the to the best of our knowledge only study to look into the flow-inferences relationship in reading so far did not find a significant result (Thissen et al., 2024), which may, however, be explained by the nature of the text stimulus and poor psychometric performance of the inference-level text comprehension measure. Therefore, the current study is aimed at looking into the predictive value of flow for the correctness of text inferences, specifically, by presenting a text stimulus that is especially suited for ‘reading between the lines’ as well as matching, newly-developed text comprehension items.
Methods
A sample of 124 undergraduate psychology students participated in this online reading study, in which they were first asked to complete a test for general reading proficiency (SLS; Lüdtke et al., 2019) before reading the short story ‘Hills like White Elephants’ by Ernest Hemingway. This text stimulus is considered to be one of the prime examples for Hemingway’s ‘theory of omission’ (Benson, 1975), according to which a minimalistic writing style focused on the narrative’s surface elements such as plotline and dialogues, while omitting underlying elements such as motives, thoughts, and feelings, will lead to especially engaging reading experiences. Thus, this text stimulus can be expected to present the reader with a specific challenge to read between the lines in order to fully grasp the narrative. Directly after reading this text, participants filled out the Fiction Reading Flow Scale (FRFS; Thissen et al., 2020) as well as text comprehension questions that had been developed specifically to assess inference drawing.
Conclusion
After psychometrical analyses of the text comprehension questions, an inference score was calculated for each participant. In order to test whether flow can explain positive variance in inference-level text comprehension beyond general reading proficiency, inference scores were regressed upon FRFS flow scores and SLS reading proficiency scores. Due to a non-normal distribution of the model’s residuals, box-cox transformation was applied. Both flow and reading proficiency positively predicted the readers’ ability to draw correct inferences from the given short story. Thus, irrespective of their general skill level in regard to text comprehension, experiencing flow during reading improved the reader’s inference drawing. This finding provides first evidence for a positive performance effect of flow also on the inference-level of text comprehension in reading. Moreover, it shows that the immediate reading experience is a crucial factor in the processing of text information in addition to individual reading proficiencies. If this finding can be replicated with other text stimuli, it may inform our understanding of how readers optimally process texts when ‘reading between the lines’. In an applied context, such as learning settings at school, flow might also be considered as a factor of interest for reading assignments when correct inference-drawing is to be practiced.
References
Barthelmäs, M., & Keller, J. (2021). Antecedents, Boundary Conditions and Consequences of Flow. In C. Peifer & S. Engeser (Eds.), Advances in Flow Research (pp. 71-108). Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-53468-4_3
Benson, J. J. (1975). The short stories of Ernest Hemingway: Critical essays. Duke University Press.
Busselle, R., & Bilandzic, H. (2008). Fictionality and perceived realism in experiencing stories: A model of narrative comprehension and engagement. Communication theory, 18(2), 255-280. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2885.2008.00322.x
Clinton, V. (2015). Examining associations between reading motivation and inference generation beyond reading comprehension skill. Reading Psychology, 36(6), 473-498. doi: 10.1080/02702711.2014.892040
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975). Beyond boredom and anxiety. Jossey-Bass.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., & LeFevre, J. (1989). Optimal experience in work and leisure. Journal of personality and social psychology, 56(5), 815-822. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.56.5.815
Engeser, S., & Rheinberg, F. (2008). Flow, performance and moderators of challenge-skill balance. Motivation and Emotion, 32, 158-172.
Jackson, S. A., & Marsh, H. W. (1996). Development and validation of a scale to measure optimal experience: The flow state scale. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 18(1), 17-35. Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure Optimal Experience: The Flow State Scale in: Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology Volume 18 Issue 1 (1996)
Jackson, S. A., Thomas, P. R., Marsh, H. W., & Smethurst, C. J. (2001). Relationships between flow, self-concept, psychological skills, and performance. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 13(2), 129-153. doi: 10.1080/104132001753149865
Lüdtke, J., Froehlich, E., Jacobs, A. M. & Hutzler, F. (2019). The SLS-Berlin: Validation of german computer-based screening test to measure reading proficiency in early and late adulthood. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1682. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01682
Thissen, B. A. K., Menninghaus, W., & Schlotz, W. (2018). Measuring optimal reading experiences: The Reading Flow Short Scale. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2542. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02542
Thissen, B. A., Menninghaus, W., & Schlotz, W. (2020). The pleasures of reading fiction explained by flow, presence, identification, suspense, and cognitive involvement. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 15(4), 710-724. doi: 10.1037/aca0000367
Thissen, B. A., Schlotz, W., Abel, C., Scharinger, M., Frieler, K., Merrill, J. & Menninghaus, W. (2021). At the Heart of Optimal Reading Experiences: Cardiovascular Activity and Flow Experiences in Fiction Reading. Reading Research Quarterly 57(3), 831-845. doi:10.1002/rrq.448
Thissen, B.A.K. & Tschense, M. (2024). Reading into Flow: Text Comprehension and Flow during Fiction Reading. [Manuscript in preparation].