Conscious and Unconscious Processes in Readers' Narrative Experiences

Most cognitive science research on the experience of narratives has focused on unconscious processes: Theories have centered on the automatic processes that provide the backbone of readers' experiences of texts. This essay outlines a theoretical approach that recognizes the interplay between unconscious and conscious processes. In particular, I sketch a dualprocess account of literary reading. Dual-process accounts-which have become ubiquitous in contemporary psychology-assert that people have two classes of processes that guide their life experiences: System 1 yields judgments based on intuition; System 2 yields judgments based on reflection. I use this dual-process account to explore particular aspects of literary reading.