Linking Epistemic Monitoring to Perceived Realism: the Impact of Story-World Inconsistency on Realism and Engagement

ABSTRACT Discourse comprehension research demonstrates that understanding new information as it arises in a text, requires that readers retrieve information from earlier in the text and from preexisting knowledge brought to the reading experience, known as bridging and elaboration, respectively. Epistemic monitoring may detect inconsistencies that arise during bridging and elaboration, and these inconsistencies may interfere with comprehension and the construction of mental models. The present study links these processes with readers’ perceptions of narrative and external realism. It investigates the influence of inconsistencies – references to modern technologies in written short stories set before those technologies existed – on two types of realism judgments and on five dimensions of narrative engagement. Experimentally introduced inconsistencies designed to interfere with elaboration and, subsequently with the construction of a story world model, reduced perceived external realism and narrative realism. The effect on narrative realism was mediated by external realism. Results further indicate that narrative realism causally preceded imagery production, and that imagery production fully mediated the relation between narrative realism and emotional engagement, and partially mediated the relation between narrative realism and a sense of presence in the story.