Skip to Main Content
Frequently Asked Questions
Submit an ETD
Global Search Box
Need Help?
Keyword Search
Participating Institutions
Advanced Search
School Logo
Files
File List
osu1287349750.pdf (478.43 KB)
ETD Abstract Container
Abstract Header
The Experience of Psychological Transportation: The Role of Cognitive Energy Exertion and Focus during Exposure to Narratives
Author Info
Shedlosky, Randi
Permalink:
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1287349750
Abstract Details
Year and Degree
2010, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Psychology.
Abstract
Narratives vicariously take people to new places, introduce them to new people, and provide them with new experiences. When exposed to narratives, people may become immersed in these narrative worlds, an experience that Green and Brock (2000, 2002) called psychological transportation. While they provided three domains of antecedents for transportation in their transportation-imagery model (i.e., individual characteristics, narrative characteristics, and context characteristics), it is not clear why such antecedents may contribute to transportation. Thus, the current set of studies takes multiple approaches to demonstrate two critical elements of the transportation experience. First, based on Green and Brock’s (2000) own operationalization of transportation, I propose that one key element of the experience is the expenditure of cognitive energy. Such cognitive resources are directed towards attending to the narrative, developing mental images relevant to the narrative, and intensifying emotional responses. Consequently, variables that influence the amount of energy that people use during narrative exposure can impact transportation; in the current set of studies, I examine variables such as task difficulty, ego-depletion, and uncertainty reduction. However, considering previous distinctions between transportation and elaboration, described by Green and Brock (2000), I also suggest that the level of energy alone does not explain the phenomenological experience of transportation. Thus, the second key element of the transportation experience is the focus of energy expended. Based on previous work in emotions and motivation (e.g., Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2008), under an approach motivation, positive affect may narrow attention. From such previous work, I suggest that a motivation which makes the expenditure of effort desirable takes that exerted energy and focuses it on the activity, or in the case of transportation, the narrative. As I explore in the current set of studies, when expending effort is desirable (as in the case of those high in need for cognition; Cacioppo & Petty, 1982) or when it is in the service of growth, such as for self-expansion or learning goals. Together the six studies presented provide preliminary evidence for the roles of energy exertion and focus in the experience of transportation.
Committee
Robert Arkin, M (Advisor)
Russell Fazio, H (Committee Member)
Lisa Libby, K (Committee Member)
Joanne Turner (Committee Member)
Pages
124 p.
Subject Headings
Literature
;
Psychology
;
Social Psychology
Keywords
transportation
;
narrative
;
parasocial relationships
;
fictional characters
;
expectations
;
social influence
;
need for cognition
;
ego-depletion
Recommended Citations
Refworks
EndNote
RIS
Mendeley
Citations
Shedlosky, R. (2010).
The Experience of Psychological Transportation: The Role of Cognitive Energy Exertion and Focus during Exposure to Narratives
[Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1287349750
APA Style (7th edition)
Shedlosky, Randi.
The Experience of Psychological Transportation: The Role of Cognitive Energy Exertion and Focus during Exposure to Narratives.
2010. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation.
OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center
, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1287349750.
MLA Style (8th edition)
Shedlosky, Randi. "The Experience of Psychological Transportation: The Role of Cognitive Energy Exertion and Focus during Exposure to Narratives." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1287349750
Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)
Abstract Footer
Document number:
osu1287349750
Download Count:
1,533
Copyright Info
© 2010, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.