14 posts · 7,713 views
Creative Writing from Brain Scientist's Perspective
Livia Blackburne
14 posts
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- December 19, 2011
- 01:50 PM
- 181 views
Spoilers: Good or Bad?
by Livia Blackburne in A Brain Scientist's Take on Writing
One of my favorite Threadless T shirts
I hate spoilers. Once I turned on the TV and accidentally watched last 10 min. of The Usual Suspects (I hadn't seen it before). Whoops. I also figured out the ending of The Sixth Sense halfway through and was grumpy the rest of the movie because I'd missed out on the surprise.
But do spoilers actually decrease enjoyment?
Spoiler alert: A recent study says no.
Researchers at UCSD conducted an experiment to see how spoilers affect readers' enj........ Read more »
Leavitt JD, & Christenfeld NJ. (2011) Story spoilers don't spoil stories. Psychological science, 22(9), 1152-4. PMID: 21841150
- November 25, 2011
- 05:39 PM
- 160 views
The Psychology of Attraction: The Intertwining of Sex and Aggression
by Livia Blackburne in A Brain Scientist's Take on Writing
A Quick Note: Write to Done is seeking nominations for their Top 10 Blogs for Writers Contest. If you enjoy the articles on this blog, I would really appreciate a mention here. :-)
"His gaze flickered to my lips. I got that. He was once again furious with me and once again perfectly ready to have sex with me. The conundrum that was Barrons. Apparently it was impossible for him to feel anything as far as I was concerned without getting angry about it. Did anger make them want to have sex with ........ Read more »
Barclay, A., & Haber, R. (1965) The relation of aggressive to sexual motivation1. Journal of Personality, 33(3), 462-475. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1965.tb01398.x
- October 9, 2011
- 07:05 PM
- 249 views
The Psychology of Attraction: Uncertainty
by Livia Blackburne in A Brain Scientist's Take on Writing
A while back, I was reading a romance. In the story, the girl meets a charming, handsome guy, and things are proceeding as usual. But then, out of the blue, a boy she’d hated for years suddenly kisses her and runs away. ZOMG! I was mildly interested in guy number one, but when guy number two showed up, I really took notice.
Jump cut to another story, where a girl meets an old flame. He's distant, but sometimes shows flashes of interest. As the shared moments continue, I’m avidly turning th........ Read more »
Whitchurch ER, Wilson TD, & Gilbert DT. (2011) "He loves me, he loves me not . . . ": uncertainty can increase romantic attraction. Psychological science, 22(2), 172-5. PMID: 21169522
- September 5, 2011
- 06:04 PM
- 398 views
The Psychology of Attraction: Fear
by Livia Blackburne in A Brain Scientist's Take on Writing
Happy Labor Day! If you haven't looked at the comments in my critique styles post, take a look. People have left quite a few amusing comments. Also, I forgot to mention that the five profiles I posted are actually caricatures of the five members of my critique group. Can you guess which one is me?
I've been reading some articles on the psychology of attraction and thought it'd be interesting to write about ways to attract the opposite sex. As writers, our interest in this is of course str........ Read more »
Dutton, D., & Aron, A. (1974) Some evidence for heightened sexual attraction under conditions of high anxiety. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30(4), 510-517. DOI: 10.1037/h0037031
- August 13, 2011
- 02:18 PM
- 386 views
Yes, Reading About Edward Cullen Will Make You Sparkle
by Livia Blackburne in A Brain Scientist's Take on Writing
Every once in a while I present some tools in the writer’s arsenal for taking over the world. We've talked about writers as brain manipulators, and storytelling as Vulcan mind meld. Today, I will show you how Stephanie Meyer and JK Rowling are actually Borg queens, assimilating all unsuspecting readers in their path.
Reading assimilation is a common experience. Perhaps you're walking to work after reading Harry Potter and find yourself wishing for a broomstick. Or you step into the sun afte........ Read more »
Gabriel S, & Young AF. (2011) Becoming a Vampire Without Being Bitten: The Narrative Collective-Assimilation Hypothesis. Psychological science. PMID: 21750250
- May 7, 2011
- 11:43 AM
- 678 views
Your Memory For Construction Workers Is Worse Than You Think (Unless You Are One)
by Livia Blackburne in A Brain Scientist's Take on Writing
I recently read Bamboo People by Mitali Perkins, an eye-opening novel about child soldiers in modern-day Burma. It tells the story of two boys from different ethnic groups: Chiko, a Burmese boy forced into the Army, and Tu Reh, a Karenni boy whose family is driven from their home by Burmese soldiers. When chance events throw the two together, Chiko and Tu Reh get to know each other not as faceless enemies, but as people.
There's quite a bit of social psychology research on group identity, in-gr........ Read more »
Daniel J. Simons, & Daniel T. Levin. (1998) Failure to detect changes to people during a real-world interaction. PSYCHONOMIC BULLETIN . info:/
- March 22, 2011
- 11:34 PM
- 620 views
Why Justin Timberlake Should Avoid Transitive Verbs
by Livia Blackburne in A Brain Scientist's Take on Writing
As writers, we're always trying to find words that perfectly capture our meaning. "I broke the cookie jar" has a different feel than "The cookie jar broke." But does it really matter? Would the average reader really notice the difference? A recent study suggests that subtle wording changes can have real psychological effects.
Psychologist from Stanford University were interested in the distinction between agentive (a.k.a. transitive) or nonagentive (a.k.a. nontransitive) verbs. For exampl........ Read more »
Fausey CM, & Boroditsky L. (2010) Subtle linguistic cues influence perceived blame and financial liability. Psychonomic bulletin , 17(5), 644-50. PMID: 21037161
- February 21, 2011
- 11:02 PM
- 773 views
Men Prefer Reading About Men, and So Do Women
by Livia Blackburne in A Brain Scientist's Take on Writing
Note: Congratulations to J. J. Brown for winning a copy of The Forest For the Trees. I will be contacting you for your mailing address. Also, I'm doing a Goodreads question and answer session on reading, writing, neuroscience, and psychology. If you're a Goodreads member, come on by. And finally, remember to submit entries for the guest post contest.
Would The Hunger Games have made it big if Katniss had been a boy? If Pride and Prejudice had been about five Bennett brothers........ Read more »
Bortolussi, M., Dixon, P., & Sopčák, P. (2010) Gender and reading. Poetics, 38(3), 299-318. DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2010.03.004
- January 27, 2011
- 12:36 PM
- 470 views
Typing vs. Longhand: Does it Affect Your Writing?
by Livia Blackburne in A Brain Scientist's Take on Writing
Do you write longhand or on a computer? How does this affect your writing process? I ran across a study with interesting results.
The researchers wanted to know how computer writing differed from pen and paper writing. They recruited university faculty and graduate students to write two reports, one on a computer and one on pen and paper. The participants were given background information for the reports (about a new system of bank charges and new company regulations) two days beforehand. ........ Read more »
VANWAES, L., & SCHELLENS, P. (2003) Writing profiles: the effect of the writing mode on pausing and revision patterns of experienced writers. Journal of Pragmatics, 35(6), 829-853. DOI: 10.1016/S0378-2166(02)00121-2
- December 21, 2010
- 01:39 PM
- 576 views
What Mirror Images and Foreign Scripts Tell Us About the Reading Brain
by Livia Blackburne in A Brain Scientist's Take on Writing
Here’s a simple exercise. Count the number of times the letter ‘A’ appears in the sentences below. Easy enough, but, there's a catch. You have to do it without reading the words.
Ready?
One day, after Little Red Riding hood woke up, mother called her into the kitchen and handed her a basket of cakes and pastries. “Take these to grandmother. She's sick, and perhaps these cakes will make her feel better.”
If you have been reading for years, you probably found it difficult, if not imp........ Read more »
Baker CI, Liu J, Wald LL, Kwong KK, Benner T, & Kanwisher N. (2007) Visual word processing and experiential origins of functional selectivity in human extrastriate cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104(21), 9087-92. PMID: 17502592
- November 4, 2010
- 11:27 AM
- 755 views
Erotic Romance, Condoms, and Social Responsibility
by Livia Blackburne in A Brain Scientist's Take on Writing
Hey folks. Sorry for the sporadic posting lately. My writing time for the last two months has been tied up on a sekrit project. In true graduate student fashion, I attacked the project with some top sekrit procrastination, and things got pretty hectic towards the end. But that should be wrapping up soon.
But enough about me. Let's talk about something more interesting. Like erotic romance novels. And condoms. And of course, science.
Raymond Moore at On Fiction recently described a study abou........ Read more »
Diekman, A., McDonald, M., & Gardner, W. (2000) LOVE MEANS NEVER HAVING TO BE CAREFUL. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 24(2), 179-188. DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-6402.2000.tb00199.x
- August 23, 2010
- 12:02 PM
- 845 views
How Language Affects Thought -- plus book giveaway!
by Livia Blackburne in A Brain Scientist's Take on Writing
I recently read Dreaming in Hindi, Katherine Russell Rich’s memoir of her year in India learning Hindi. Rich intersperses quirky anecdotes of learning and culture shock with scientific insights about learning a second language. I was excited see her mention two of my favorite studies on language and thought.
Psychologists and philosophers have long debated whether language shapes the way we think. While the most drastic viewpoint – that thought can’t exist without language -- has falle........ Read more »
Boroditsky, L. (2001) Does Language Shape Thought?: Mandarin and English Speakers' Conceptions of Time. Cognitive Psychology, 43(1), 1-22. DOI: 10.1006/cogp.2001.0748
- August 9, 2010
- 12:56 PM
- 909 views
Storytellers and How They Force Their Brainwaves on Their Audience
by Livia Blackburne in A Brain Scientist's Take on Writing
In a previous post, I suggested that writers were brain manipulators. Now I'm refining the description. It's more like a Vulcan mind meld.
A recent experiment by scientists at Princeton University shows neural coupling (coordinated brain activity) between a storyteller and a listener. The researchers used fMRI to scan a speaker’s brain as she told an unrehearsed story about an experience from high school. They then scanned 10 volunteers as they listened to a recording of the story.
The ba........ Read more »
Stephens GJ, Silbert LJ, & Hasson U. (2010) Speaker-listener neural coupling underlies successful communication. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 20660768
- July 31, 2010
- 04:37 PM
- 713 views
The Power of Touch
by Livia Blackburne in A Brain Scientist's Take on Writing
Touch imagery has always been a useful storytelling tool. Even when we're not putting together a lyrical masterpiece, it sneaks into our language. We talk about warm smiles, slippery personalities, getting caught between a rock and a hard place.
As it turns out, touch imagery might be more than just a product of an overactive metaphor engine. It may have something to do with the underlying way our brain structures our thoughts. Psychologists sometimes call it the scaffolded mind hypothesi........ Read more »
Williams, L., & Bargh, J. (2008) Experiencing Physical Warmth Promotes Interpersonal Warmth. Science, 322(5901), 606-607. DOI: 10.1126/science.1162548
Ackerman, J., Nocera, C., & Bargh, J. (2010) Incidental Haptic Sensations Influence Social Judgments and Decisions. Science, 328(5986), 1712-1715. DOI: 10.1126/science.1189993
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