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Is less readable liked better? The case of font readability in poetry appreciation
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, PLoS ONE, 14(12), PLoS ONE, Vol 14, Iss 12, p e0225757 (2019), PLoS ONE 14 (2019) 12, PLoS One, 14, PLoS One, 14, 12, PLoS One
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- Public Library of Science, 2019.
-
Abstract
- Previous research shows conflicting findings for the effect of font readability on comprehension and memory for language. It has been found that—perhaps counterintuitively–a hard to read font can be beneficial for language comprehension, especially for difficult language. Here we test how font readability influences the subjective experience of poetry reading. In three experiments we tested the influence of poem difficulty and font readability on the subjective experience of poems. We specifically predicted that font readability would have opposite effects on the subjective experience of easy versus difficult poems. Participants read poems which could be more or less difficult in terms of conceptual or structural aspects, and which were presented in a font that was either easy or more difficult to read. Participants read existing poems and subsequently rated their subjective experience (measured through four dependent variables: overall liking, perceived flow of the poem, perceived topic clarity, and perceived structure). In line with previous literature we observed a Poem Difficulty x Font Readability interaction effect for subjective measures of poetry reading. We found that participants rated easy poems as nicer when presented in an easy to read font, as compared to when presented in a hard to read font. Despite the presence of the interaction effect, we did not observe the predicted opposite effect for more difficult poems. We conclude that font readability can influence reading of easy and more difficult poems differentially, with strongest effects for easy poems.
- Subjects :
- Male
Emotions
Poetry as Topic
Social Sciences
Cognition
Reading (process)
Surveys and Questionnaires
Font
Psychology
media_common
Language
Grammar
Multidisciplinary
Poetry
Experimental Design
Phonology
Syllables
Middle Aged
Research Design
PsyArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Cognitive Psychology
Medicine
Female
Marktkunde en Consumentengedrag
Cognitive psychology
Research Article
Marketing and Consumer Behaviour
Adult
Adolescent
Science
media_common.quotation_subject
Research and Analysis Methods
GeneralLiterature_MISCELLANEOUS
Young Adult
Life Science
Humans
Syntax
Aged
Cognitive Psychology
Biology and Life Sciences
Linguistics
Language & Communication
Readability
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Psychology|Cognitive Psychology
PsyArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Cognitive Psychology|Language
Comprehension
PsyArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences
Reading
Narrative, Cognition & Communication
bepress|Social and Behavioral Sciences
Cognitive Science
Photic Stimulation
Neuroscience
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Volume :
- 14
- Issue :
- 12
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLoS ONE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....584be40fe79f791cfc6c7873a548f272