University of Stuttgart, Anglistik, Keplerstrasse 17, 70174 Stuttgart, Germany.
Cortex. 2018 Aug;105:135-143. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2017.08.020. Epub 2017 Aug 24.
Visualization is defined as the production of mental images in the process of reading (Esrock 2005: 633). This article is concerned with varieties of visualization during an absorbing reading of a fictional narrative, the mental images that range from an indistinct and largely automatic default visualization to the much more vivid images that occur at significant stages in the narrative. Neuroscientific studies of vision have collected a large and impressively varied body of experimental evidence for two major processing streams - the dorsal and the ventral-specialized for vision-for-action and vision for-perception respectively. Further experiments distinguish different dispositional specializations: visualizers with a high spatial visualizing ability demonstrating a more efficient use of resources in the dorsal pathway, and those with a high object visualization and more efficient use of the ventral pathway (Kozhevnikov et al., 2010: 29). We can assume that both types of mental processing will be prompted in fictional narratives with differences in prominence depending on their authors' inclinations and the design and purpose of the narrative text. According to Amedeo D'Angiulli (2013: 7), who conducted elaborate tests of vividness in mental imagery using written descriptive passages as stimulus, dynamic imagery was significantly less vivid than static imagery. These results confirm traditional literary criticism based on introspection which argues that detailed description of static objects elicits an especially lively imagination. However, narratives can provoke even stronger visualizations by rendering subjective moments of seeing in which a fictional character is emotionally involved. In encouraging readers to shift now and then from the default mode of motion-oriented visualizing to a more affective and more conscious object visualization, literary fictions exercise their power to evoke imaginings that one would not generate by oneself. This may indicate that literary narratives can prove a training ground for expanding one's visualizing capacities.
可视化是指在阅读过程中产生心理图像的过程（Esrock 2005：633）。本文关注的是在吸收性阅读虚构叙事时的各种可视化形式，这些心理图像从模糊且基本自动的默认可视化到在叙事中重要阶段出现的更生动的图像不等。视觉的神经科学研究收集了大量令人印象深刻的实验证据，证明了两个主要的处理流——分别为动作视觉和感知视觉专业化的背侧和腹侧专业化。进一步的实验区分了不同的倾向性专业化：具有高空间可视化能力的视觉者在背侧通路中更有效地利用资源，而那些具有高物体可视化能力和更有效地利用腹侧通路的视觉者（Kozhevnikov 等人，2010：29）。我们可以假设，这两种类型的心理处理都会在虚构叙事中被激发出来，其突出程度取决于作者的倾向以及叙事文本的设计和目的。根据 Amedeo D'Angiulli（2013：7）的说法，他使用书面描述性段落作为刺激物，对生动的心理意象进行了精心测试，动态意象明显不如静态意象生动。这些结果证实了基于内省的传统文学批评，即详细描述静态物体可以激发特别生动的想象力。然而，叙事可以通过呈现虚构角色情感参与的主观视觉时刻来引发更强烈的可视化。通过鼓励读者时而从以运动为导向的默认可视化模式切换到更具情感和更有意识的对象可视化模式，文学小说发挥了唤起人们自己不会产生的想象的力量。这可能表明，文学叙事可以被证明是扩展可视化能力的训练场。
