The Felt Experience of Reading: From Realist Fiction to Immersive Technologies (Part II)

Creative Language Technologies

This is episode #19 of the podcast and it’s Thursday, the 9th of June, 2022.

I interviewed Dr. Elaine Auyoung, Donald V. Hawkins Professor and Associate Professor of English at the University of Minnesota, and Affiliate Faculty of the Center for Cognitive Sciences. She is the author of “When Fiction Feels Real: Representation and the Reading Mind”, recently released in paperback from Oxford University Press. In addition to the project on “Unselfing” described on her faculty webpage, Elaine is also working on a book project on “Becoming Sensitive”, which uses cognitive research on expertise and perceptual learning to show how training in the arts and humanities prepares learners to notice and respond to information in ways that are important for future problem solving but have been difficult to assess.

We had a fascinating discussion on many important topics covered in Elaine’s book, but the episode went over the usual podcast duration, so I’ve decided to split it into two parts. This is Part II.

We continued our discussion from Part I on how to bridge the gap between readers’ experience and the experience of firsthand perception — i.e., how well can we know what we don’t experience directly? We then moved to the vocabulary of 'bereavement' addressing the question ‘What happens when novels end?” As always, we concluded with a discussion on technology covering e-books, multimedia experiences, and VR. Elaine was also happy to introduce us to her current project on ‘Becoming Sensitive’ where she debates the importance of the Arts and Humanities in preparing learners to make and represent information in ways that are important for future problem solving.

Here is the show.

Show Notes:

- how well can we know what we don’t experience directly? (and limitations of language)
- leaving room between imagination and experience
- the vocabulary of 'bereavement': What happens when novels end?
- the future of digital books and the future of experiencing fiction in VR: 1st person vs. 3rd person immersion
- the role of language in immersive environments
- Elaine’s current project, ‘Becoming Sensitive’
- perceptual learning: the ability to differentiate one’s experience (preparing us for noticing or for being sensitive)

Dr. Auyoung’s faculty webpage:
https://cla.umn.edu/about/directory/profile/eauyoung

Link to paperback edition of Dr. Auyoung book:
https://www.amazon.com/When-Fiction-Feels-Real-Representation/dp/0197621279/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1MMDE5NRJ6GV4&keywords=when+fiction+feels+real&qid=1650048589&sprefix=when+fiction+feels+real%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-1