IMAGES OF SOCIAL CATEGORIES VERSUS IMAGES OF LITERARY AND NONLITERARY OBJECTS

The study explores the experiential nature of literary text processing by contrasting imagery functions in literary context and in several non-literary contexts such as real life, newspapers, reports, and images of social categories. An imagery RT paradigm was used to measure image- accessibility and the content of the images was also analysed. Intensive image production, which was found in literary contexts, parallels the perceptual nature of immediate experiences, while images generated after reading a newspaper report were similar to images of social categories. Results are interpreted in terms of the mental model theory. © 1990.