Abstract
40 introductory psychology students, tested individually, listened to 4 diverse poetic selections. Each poem was classified as either high or low in “ornamentation” [shadowy imagery] and in “occupancy” [regularity of meter]. A third independent variable was a relaxed versus an involved set of listening instructions. Results were obtained on 3 dependent measures: (a) The Spellweaving Poetry Scale yielded an ornamentation X occupancy interaction; (b) poem duration estimation error yielded an ornamentation main effect and an ornamentation X occupancy interaction; (c) line recognition yielded main effects for ornamentation and occupancy. It was concluded, in contrast to some earlier views, that some aspect of ornamentation is probably the most important determinant of the spellweaving effect.
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We wish to thank Dr. Ronald E. Shor for his valuable assistance in carrying out this study.
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Blight, J.G., Huggard, D. The Spellweaving Poetry Phenomenon: Exploratory Attempts to Discover its Causes and Measure its Effects. Psychol Rec 25, 509–524 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394343
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03394343