‘ __.__.—._ __..._-—.._—.____ _.__._-u ___. MSU LIBRARIES m RETURNING MATERIALS: P1ace in book drop to remove this checkout from your record. FINES wilI be charged if book is returned after the date stamped be1ow. QEM 9725/ AN EXPLORATORY STUDY TO DETERMINE PROCEDURES FOR REVEALING CHILDREN'S AESTHETIC RESPONSES TO A SELECT SAMPLING OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE BY Constance L. Marks A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Administration and Curriculum 1983 «to © Copyright by CONSTANCE L. MARKS 1983 ’42‘3?Ky‘ ABSTRACT An Exploratory Study to Determine Procedures for Revealing Children's Aesthetic Responses to a Select Sampling of Children's Literature BY Constance L. Marks The purposes of this study were to develop a procedure for revealing children's aesthetic response to contemporary picture books approached as an art form and to determine if aesthetic response could be tangibly documented. The ex- tension questioning technique and videotape recording pro- cedures were used to reveal and document aesthetic response. Four fifth grade subjects each read and responded to four literary selections in picture-book format. Selec- tions were chosen which appealed to the readers' sensibili- ties and which contained artistic literary qualities inher- ent in fiction possessing the potential to be viewed as literary works of art. The literary selections served as the stimuli for reexperiencing the selection and for intro- spective examination of the dynamics of the processing behaviors during reading. The inter-rater reliability of the major instrument used in the content analysis of the response protocols was 86.5%. Constance L. Marks Research Questions 1. Can the aesthetic response to specific contempor- porary literary works of art be documented tan- gibly? Can videotape documentation, combined with ex— tension questioning techniques, constitute a procedure for revealing children's aesthetic response? a. Sub-question: Can aspects of aesthetic response be documented on videotape? b. Sub-question: Can children verbalize the nature of their feelings, thoughts, and images involved in the aesthetic response experience? What aspects of aesthetic response stance are identifiable in children's oral responses to literature? What specific aspects of a literary selection, in picture book form, shape the aesthetic re- sponse; i.e., content, depth of coverage of the topic, concept of story (plot, theme, characteri- zation, mood, setting, point of view, dialogue, style), illustration, literary genré, and'format? Are there any identifiable patterns in children's ability to verbalize aspects of their aesthetic responses after four response sessions? Constance L. Marks Major Findings 1. Aesthetic response as an experienced event did occur and was tangibly documented for these fifth grade subjects with literature approached as an art. Extension questioning and documentation through videotape constitutes a procedure for revealing aesthetic response. The participant stance of involvement and the observer stance of distance were identified in the aesthetic response. The literary genré, content in the story, depth of coverage, illustrations, the child's concept of story,and the picture book format do have a shap- ing effect on children's aesthetic response to literature approached as an art. Response to the picture book format was reflected in children's aesthetic response. The subjects. responded to content, style, and physical aspects in the illustrations. DEDICATION Dedicated to those peOple who supported me during difficult times: My parents: Edna Miskinis Marks Michael Marciniak Marks My daughters: Jennifer Noel Meyerle Julianne Holly Meyerle My mentor: Dr. Patricia J. Cianciolo My friend: Linda A. Covey ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank: . . . my committee members for their relentless quest for quality under the perceptive and knowledgeable direc- tion of Dr. Patricia J. Cianciolo. They are Dr. Shirley Brehm, Dr. Bruce Miles, and Dr. James Snoddy; . . . my family and personal/professional friends who sustained and encouraged me throughout my graduate work. They are Dr. Michael and Ms. Bonnie Marks, Ms. Rosemarie Schons, Dr. Thomas and Ms. Josephine Hill, Ms. Beth and Mr. Joe Maatman, Ms. Mae Graper-Adams, Ms. Julie Oljeto Thornes, Mr. Nathan Orr Thornes, and the staff of Okemos Public Schools; . . . my diligent and giving raters. They are Ms. Barbara Amsberg, Dr. Bette Bosma, Dr. Marcia Boznango, Ms. Carolyn Dudley, Ms. Joan Fairey, Ms. J. Leigh Fairey, Ms. Beth LaForce, Ms. Jean McGarvey, Ms. Barbara Meloche, and Ms. Barbara Stevens; . . . my respected subjects, Mr; James Bernard, Ms. Emily Koch, Ms. Pricilla Hamilton, Mr. Whit Schoenbein, Ms. Lisa Vaughn, and Mr. Ben Workman; and . . . my competent typists, Ms. Barbara Reeves and Ms. Cathy Rynbrandt. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List Of Tables 0 I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Statement of the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . Purpose of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . Need for the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Significance of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Definition of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Organization of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE . . . . . . . Professional Sources and Research Pertaining to Aesthetic Response . . . . . . . . . . . Research Involving the Components of Aesthetic Response . . . . . . . . . . Children's Responses to Visual Art and Illustration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Children's Preferences in Visual Art and Illustration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Children's Response Involving Physical Aspects and Content in Visual Art and Illustration . . . . . . . . . . . . Children's Sensitivity to Style, Format, and Their Aesthetic Appreciation of Visual Arts and Illustration . . . . . . . . . . . Research Involving Concept of Story . . . . . . CHAPTER III: DESIGN AND PROCEDURES . . . . . . . . Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Selection of POpulation . . . . . . . . . . . . Selection of Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ll 14 16 17 18 20 22 22 28 44 47 52 55 73 79 79 80 105 106 109 D“ "u C... CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS OF RESULTS . . . . . . . . . . 110 Instrumentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Research Question One . . . . . . . . . . 114 Research Question Two . . . . . . . . . . 157 Sub-question A . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Sub-question B . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Research Question Three . . . . . . . . . 168 Research Question Four . . . . . . . . . 193 Research Question Five . . . . . . . . . 214 Summation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 CHAPTER V: ANALYSIS OF STRUCTURED INTERVIEW DATA 219 Structured Interview Question One . . . . . . 219 Structured Interview Question Two . . . . . . 220 Structured Interview Question Three . . . . . 222 Structured Interview Question Four . . . . . 222 Structured Interview Question Five . . . . . 224 Structured Interview Question Six . . . . . . 225 Structured Interview Question Seven . . . . . 226 Structured Interview Question Eight . . . . . 227 Structured Interview Question Nine . . . . . 228 Structured Interview Question Ten . . . . . . 229 Structured Interview Question Eleven . . . . 230 Structured Interview Question Twelve . . . . 231 Structured Interview Illustration Question One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Structured Interview Illustration Question Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Structured Interview Illustration Question Three . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Structured Interview Illustration Question Four . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Summation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 CHAPTER VI: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . 239 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 Purpose and Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 Summary of the Findings . . . . . . . . . . . 243 Research Question One . . . . . . . . . . 243 Research Question Two . . . . . . . . . . 248 Sub-question A . . . . . . . . . . . 248 Sub—question B . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Research Question Three . . . . . . . . . 250 Research Question Four . . . . . . . Research Question Five . . . . . . . Additional Findings . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Suggested Changes for Procedures . . . . Recommendations for Further Research . . APPENDICES Parent/Guardian Letter of Permission Child's Permission Statement Response Sheet . . . . . . . Equipment . . . . . . . . . . Instrument I . . . . . . . . . . . Definitions of Terms for Instrument Instrument II . . . . . . . . . . . . Documented Data for All Transcripts . Population Profile Data, All Subjects/ All Books . . . . . . . . . . . . NQHEQWMUOW> BIBLIOGRAPHY O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0 Step I Reliability Directions to Raters Step II Reliability Directions to Raters 252 254 255 256 259 261 264 265 266 267 268 269 273 275 287 288 304 306 3.4 3.5 3.6 LIST OF TABLES Summary of Basic Design of Study . . . . . . Setting and Equipment for Taping Sessions . Chart of Rater Agreement for Division of Transcripts into Response Units . . . . . . Rater Reliability for Step I, Dividing Transcripts into Response Units . . . . . . Percent Agreement of All Raters across All cells 0 I O O O O O O O O O I O O O O 0 Frequency Percentage of Agreement for All Raters with All Variables on Instrument II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total Response Units of All Subjects with All BOOkS O O O O O I O O O O O O O O O 0 Profile: Population/All Subjects with All Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Profile: Population/All Subjects with All Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Profile Population/All Subjects with All Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Population Profile: All Subjects/A11 Books Book Profile: All Subjects with The ACCident O O I O I O O O O O O O O I O 0 0 0 Subject Profile: Subject A/All Books . . . Subject Profile: Subject B/All Books . . . Subject Profile: Subject C/All Books . . . Subject Profile: Subject D/All Books . . . Affect, Present Tense, and Identification Variables in Rank Order . . . . . . . . . . 81 84 100 101 103 104 116 117 128 144 155 163 170 174 178 182 191 Affect: All Subjects . . . . . . . . . Association: All Subjects . . - - - - . Identification: All Subjects . . . . . Physical Effect: All Subjects . . . . . Book Reference: All Subjects/Illustration Book Reference: All Subjects/Text . . . Book Reference: All Subjects/Both . . . Concept of Story: Rank Order Subject Profile with All Books . . . . . . . . . Order of Selection with All Subjects . . Gains/Losses from Selection One to Selection Four 0 O O O O O O C O O O O O O O O O O 195 196 197 198 205 206 207 210 215 217 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Statement of the Problem The emphasis of this study was to determine proce- dures for revealing children's aesthetic responses to selections of literature, to determine what occurred when the reader responded to the book as a literary work of art culminating in an aesthetic experience for the child. The focus of one's response to literature may be to use it as a humanity or as an art form. When viewed as a humanity, literature is a source by which children gain an under- standing of themselves and their relationship to other people and their world. It can be read to provide answers for universal questions such as "Why am I like I am?" "Who am I?" "What is life?" or "What is my world?"1 2 Over time, according to Miller and Probst,3 literature has been used predominantly as a humanity in the schools. There is no denying that literature can validly be used as a humanity. However, there is a need for 1Patricia J. Cianciolo, Picture Books for Children (Chicago: American Library Association, 1981), P. 14. 2Bruce Miller, Teaching the Art of Literature (Illi- nois: National Council Teachers of English, 1980), p. x. 3Robert E. Probst, "Response Based Teaching of Liter- ature," English Journal, 70 (November, 1981), pp. 43-44. educators to focus on response to literature as an art form, response which directs attention to the aesthetic values of a selection. It must be noted that response to literature as an art does not preclude its simultaneous use as a humanity. When the literature work is approached as an art, readers experience it aesthetically. The read- er's attitude or attention is completely attuned to what he/she is affectively living through during the reading. This experience centers the attention of the child upon just one object, the selection of literature, which fills and even overwhelms the mind of the reader.4 An aesthetic response constitutes a gratifyingly subjective experience which is realized through the uninterrupted involvement of a reader's sensibilities and a literary selection ap- proached as an art form. The restricted sense of aesthetic, one which is involved in this study, is connected with the experience of or the perceiving and appreciation of a work of art. In perceiving the work of art aesthetically, we are no longer concerned with its matter per se, but with what Dufrenne calls "the sensuous"5 experience. It is a sensu- ous experience in that, according to Racy, "It is centered 4Miller, p. ix. 5Mikel Dufrenne, The Phenominology of Aesthetic Ex- perience (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1973), p. 13. not on the object itself but on one's own organism and its response"6 to the qualities of the object of art. Rosenblatt elucidated this special kind of experi- ence, namely the aesthetic response experience, in 1938 in her now classic Literature as Exploration.7 In it she offered the literary experience-as-an-event, or transac- tional theory of literature. In this kind of response to literature, the reader, the text, and the illustrations become "aspects of a total situation, each conditioned by and conditioning the other,"8 actively creating the inter- ior happening, the event, the aesthetic response experi- ence. Berleant, in The Aesthetic Field: a Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experience, details the aesthetic character of an experience. With the disappearance of distance, the reader, working imaginatively and intuitively, draws upon his/her personal and cultural autobiography to supply the concrete content of literature. As the reader partici- pates in the creation of the experience, the object be- comes real, more significant. Consequently, the qualities of the aesthetic experience assume an immediacy, an 6R. F. Racy, "The Aesthetic Experience," British Journal of Aesthetics, 9 (October, 1969), pp. 347-348. 7Louise M. Rosenblatt, Literature as Exploration, 3rd ed. (New York: Noble and Noble, 1976). 8Louise M. Rosenblatt, The Reader, the Text, and the Poem: The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978), p. 17. intensity which demands the contribution of the reader's organic vitality as part of his/her full response. This evokes complete sensory involvement which infuses the reader's encounter with the arts, resulting in a rich, full experience. The aesthetic experience is non— cognitive in the sense of being pre-cognitive.9 Literary Work of Art Aesthetic experience evoked through the reader's absorbing, subjective involvement with a literary work of art is ultimately responded to by the reader as "an event, 10 an object, and as a message." As an event, the transaction of the reader with an art object is rich with heightened awareness, is complex and gratifyingly full. Part of the richness of art, according to Berleant, "lies in the ability to tap the innermost recesses of memory, of vague recollection and add the dimension of the past to what is most intensely present."11 The uniqueness of the reader's sensibilities and experiential domain effect his/her involvement in or iden- tification with the process of perception so that the per- ceiver sees even the structured object according to his/ her past experience and habits. 9Arnold Berleant, The Aesthetic Field: A Phenomenol- ogy of the Aesthetic Experience (Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1970), PP. 96-117. 10 11 Miller, p. ix. Berleant, p. 110. As an object, the concept of transaction emphasizes the relationships with and continuing awareness of the text by the reader. This can be thought of as the merging of the artistic components of form and the content of the work. As this merging occurs through careful reading, constitution or realization of the total impression of the work of art takes place. Of this Miller stated: An ordered reading not only constituted the details accurately; it also puts those details together in a comprehensiveness that allows a passage to become whole by uniting its parts into a total impression.l It is this completeness, this centrality that is achieved by the reader. "When this unity with oneself becomes the 13 I" focal point, there arises 'great art. As meaning/message, response to a literary work of art cannot solely be assigned to the author's objective text, nor to the subjective reader, for reading is an interactive experience brought about by an informed reader intent on a particular pattern of symbols. Rosenblatt offered the following description of the complex transac- tion which occurs between the personal domain of the reader and the structured symbolic text. Through the medium of words, the text brings into the reader's consciousness certain concepts, certain sensuous experiences, certain images of things, peOple, actions, scenes. The special meanings and, more particularly, the submerged 12Miller, p. 50. l3Wolfgang Iser, The Implied Reader (Baltimore: The Johns HOpkins University Press, 1974), p. 123. associations that these words and images have for the individual reader will largely determine what the work communicates to him. The reader brings to the work the personality traits, mem- ories of past events, present needs and preoccu- pations, and particular mood of the moment, and a particular physical condition. These and many other elements in a never-to-be duplicated com- bination determines his response to the peculiar contribution of the text.1 This transaction of an audience member with a selec- tion of art involves the three processes of apprehending, appreciation, and understanding. Apprehending art is to engage in a perceptual activity. It is the act of experi- encing and is the prerequisite of involvement. Apprecia- ting art is to engage in one particular way of apprehend- ing it in a specifically aesthetic way. Conversely, understanding art is a reflective, cognitive activity of identifying and analyzing data, formulating relevant abstractions, and developing explanatory hypotheses about the nature and meaning of art.15 Howard Gardner emphasized three characteristics of art, the first being intention of communication, the second being the non-translatability of a pieCe of art, and the third being the use of a sensory medium. Of the first characteristic, communication, he stated: Every art form involves communication on the part of one person (or subject) to another by means of a symbolic object that the first sub- ject has created and that the second is able in l4Rosenblatt, Reader, Text, and Poem, pp. 30—31. lSBerleant, pp. 122-123. some wa to understand, react to, or appre- ciate.l Of the second characteristic, non-translatability, he em- phasized that it referred to the inability of a work of art to be readily rendered in another symbol system such as the paraphrasing of a poem. Of the third characteris- tic, that art forms tend to be presented in a sensory med- ium which appeals to the sensibilities of the perceiver,l7 Bertram Jessup clarified and made concrete Gardner's assumption. He emphasized: Every work of art is a physical thing, a per- ceptual object, which is an organization or com- position of sensuous materials. Relative to artistic creation, the sensuous materials may be either (a) merely sensuous materials, such as pigment, sound, work, stone, textural appearance or feel, etc., or (b) meaningful or expressive sensuous material, i.e., material which repre- sents, states, suggests or symbolizes.18 Further, in order for a work to have artistic value, it must have the following requirements outlined by Roman Ingarden in "Artistic and Aesthetic Values": 1. It is neither a part nor an aspect of any of our empirical experiences or mental states during commerce with a work of art and, therefore, does not belong to the category of pleasure or enjoyment. 2. It is not something attributed to the work in virtue of being regarded as an instrument for arousing this or that form of pleasure. 16Howard Gardner, The Arts and Human Development (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1973): P. 30. 17Ibid., p. 33. 18Bertram Jessup, "What Is Great Art?" British Jour— nal of Aesthetics, 2 (January, 1962), p. 28. 3. It reveals itself as a specific characteris- tic of the work itself. 4. It exists if and only if the necessary con- ditions for its existence are present in the qualities of the work itself. 5. It is such a thing that its presence causes the work of art to partake of an entirely special form of being distinct from all other cultural products.19 Consequently, if the object lacks an aggregate of artistic qualities of determinants of artistic value, it ceases to be a work of art. Artistic value, then, accord= ing to Ingarden, is defined as "something which arises in the work of art itself and has its existential ground in that."20 Structure of the Literary Work of Art Ingarden's theory on the essence and structure of the literary work of art is the theoretical basis for this study. He postulates that the literary work of art is a multi-layered object consisting of the following four strata. Based on the discussions in three separate sources by or about Ingarden, each of the four strata are described briefly below. They are: l. word sounds and phonetic formulations which determine the voice, tone, reflection, rhythm and tempo of a literary selection; 19Roman Ingarden. "Artistic and Aesthetic Values," British Journal of Aesthetics, V. 4 #3 (July, 1964), P. 204. 20 Ibid., p. 205. 2. meaning units which refer to the intention of the sentences, the state of affairs or occurrences within the work which form the idea of the work; 3. schematized aspects which involve the con- scious experience of perceiving a totality from a particular perspective which allows the reader to complete and comprehend the object; and 4. represented objectivities through which the reader submits him/herself to the story breaking with his/her environment, enter ing the virtual world of the work.21 Thus, the work of literature is a schematic multi- strata construct of artistic components, the parts of which follow one another in a time sequence, thereby creating a represented world. The artistic components or potential features of a work acted upon, completed, and made actual by the reader through aesthetic response con- stitutes the aesthetic object or literary work of art having aesthetic value. Purpose of the Study The purposes of this study were as follows: 1. to develop a procedure for revealing chil- dren's aesthetic response toga contemporary picture book, wherein a fusion of text and 21Roman Ingarden, The Literary Work of Art: An Inves- tigation on the Borderlines of Anthology, Logic, and Theory of Literature, trans. George G. Gabowicz (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1973), pp. 34—255; Roman Ingarden, The Cognition of the Literary Work of Art, trans. Ruth Ann Crowley and Kenneth R. Olson (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1973), pp. 19-72; and Sibyl Cohen, "Roman Ingarden's Aesthetics of Literature," (Ph.D. dissertation, Temple University, 1976), pp. 7-20. 10 illustration presents the story and the message, utilizing an extension questioning technique to elicit immediate verbal re- experience of the reading experience; and 2. to determine if, in actual fact, there is present an aesthetic response in children's response to literature approached as an art form. This researcher used an extension questioning metho- dology and videotape recording procedures for revealing children's aesthetic responses to contemporary picture books. The subject's own re-experienced behaviors and the literary selections served as the stimuli for introspec- tive examination of the dynamics underlying his/her response experience. The researcher used the extension questioning technique to facilitate the subject's intro- spection or examination of his/her mental state or proces- sing behaviors he/she used while reading. Questions were directed at what the subject was thinking, feeling, or imagining during the reading response. Four subjects each read and responded to four selec- tions of literature on videotape. Their responses were transcribed and analyzed for purposes of determining the presence of and procedures for revealing aesthetic response. A fifth session involving a structured inter— view was used to determine the child's gained knowledge of artistic literary conventions in response. De 11 The Need for the Study The arts in the school exist dichotomously. They are considered by some to be the health of society, aesthetic needs being the highest level of needs in Maslow's hier- archy (preceded by physiological, safety, belongingness and love, esteem, self-actualization, and cognitive 22 needs). Yet Rosenblatt maintains that the arts are approached with trepidation, possibly born of educator's "trained incapacity."23 Literary work in particular can correctly be considered both an art and a humanity. Rosenblatt and Miller claim that as literature is presently taught, it has little meaning or little effect on the lives of most children. They attribute this situa- tion to the curriculum makers. Of this Rosenblatt stated: In their eagerness to fulfill the dominant demand of the sixties for a "sequential and cumulative curriculum" [based on the principles of Jerome Bruner24], they failed to build on an adequate theory of the nature of literature. Much of the current interest in the response of the reader to children's literature can be attributed to the Dartmouth Conference of 1966. This assembly of educators 22Abraham H. Maslow, Motivation and Personality (New York: Harper and Brothers), 1954, Chapters 12 and 13. 23Thornstein Veblen, quoted in Louise Rosenblatt, "The Promise of English" (National Council of Teachers of English Distinguished Lectures, 1970), p. 15. 24See J. S. Bruner, The Process of Education (Cam- bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962). 25Louise M. Rosenblatt, "Pattern and Process--a Pole- mic," English Journal, 58 (October, 1968), p. 1006. 12 emphasized a shift from the skills and cultural heritage models of teaching literature which stressed analysis of and testable knowledge about the text. They emphasized a student-centered growth model of experiencing litera- ture. The student-centered model is based on the impor- tance of the reader's interaction with the text. Walter Slatoff said of the skill- and heritage-oriented litera- ture programs: We have developed elaborate vocabularies for classifying and anatomizing literary works; we scarcely know how to talk about their powers and effects. We have an immense accumulation of knowledge about authors, periods, movements, and individual texts; we know almost nothing about the . . . interaction of man and book.26 Noted literary researchers and educators such as Rosen— blatt, Squire, Slatoff, Iser, Holland, Bleich, and Miller, addressing this problem from diverse perspectives, have all called for more research in understanding what stu- dents feel,think, or react to at any moment during their deep involvement with a book. Purves and Beach, in their survey of studies of response to literature, stated: A very few studies have attempted to explore the process of the individual's response, what happens to the reader from when he picks up the work to when he finishes it 27 26Walter Slatoff, With Respect to Readers: Dimen- sions of Literary Response (Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univer- sity Press, 1970), p. 187. 27Alan C. Purves and Richard Beach, Literature and the Reader: Research in Response to Literature, Reading Interests and the Teaching of Literature (Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1972), p. 43. 13 D. W. Harding, in a study group presented at the Dartmouth Conference in 1966, stated: It has been said that, in adolescence espe- cially, education is designed "to starve out," through silence and misrepresentation, the capacity to have genuine and strongly felt ex- perience, and to replace it by the conventional symbols that serve as the common currency of daily life . . . . It is still the spontaneous, vivid and immediate that is most feared the more because so much desired (by adults).28 International importance of research in the area of chil- dren's response to literature is evidenced by the theme "Responses to Children's Literature" of the Fourth Sympo- sium of the International Society for Children's Litera- ture held at the University of Exeter in England in 1978.29 Recent research by Howard Gardner documents this deficiency, indicating that young children tend to be literalists and that adolescents tend to be less imagina- 30 tive than they were in the elementary grades. A corre- lation must exist between these statements and research 28D. W. Harding, "Response to Literature: The Report of the Study Group" in Response to Literature: Papers Relating to the Anglo-American Seminar on the Teaching of English at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, ed. James R. Squire (Illinois: National Council of Techers of English, 1966), p. 15. 29Geoff Fox and Gafham Hammond, eds., with Stuart Armor, Responses to Children's Literature: Proceedings of the Fourth Symposium of the International Research Society for Children's Literature held at the University of Exeter, September 9-12, 1978 (London: K. G. Saur, 1980). 30Howard Gardner, "Promising Paths Toward Artistic Knowledge: A Report from Harvard Project Zero," Journal of Aesthetic Education 10 (July-October, l976),pp.201-207. 14 results by professional leaders in the literature field and the manner in which educators have approached the experi- ence of literature. There is an imperative need to recognize the true nature of literature and to stress its essence by returning literature to the realm of art in the schools. Of this, Miller, in The Art of Teaching Literature, stated: With respect to literature, including drama, the question is not what i§ it, an art or a hu- manity. Obviously, it can be either the one or the other, since some people read literature in order to experience a concrete object and others read it in order to reflect upon the world. The question to ask, rather, is what should it be?31 This in no way means creating a structured curriculum for aesthetic response experience. It basically means that the first step toward growth in aesthetic awareness must begin within the individual as a valued experience containing no aura of right or wrong. If valued by the child, it will be pursued with vigor and zest which is peculiar to children. Through the documentation of the procedures which reveal aesthetic response in children and their use of story structure, the approach presently used in the schools should be questioned. Significance of the Study When literature is approached as an art, the result is an aesthetic response experience for the reader. It is the intention of this study to utilize literature as an art 31Miller, p. x. 15 form in order to develop a procedure for revealing the presence of children's aesthetic experience to contempor- ary picture books. To respond to literature aesthetically, the reader must respond to the aesthetic values of a selection in such a way that he/she has a gratifying involvement of his/her sensibilities with the selection which allows the work to become intensely real and present. This, coupled with past associations and the child's experiential do- main, results in an affective interior happening--the experiencing of the literary work as an event. In order to achieve this heightened experience, the child simul- taneously uses his/her gained knowledge of the artistic components of the work as an object, revealing multiple meanings and messages in the work‘r.g2 Finding procedures which document the response of a child during his/her intense involvement with literature deserves attention and holds value for educators, educa- tional practices, and children. This study: 1. directs attention to the importance of the child's participation in the experience of constituting a literary work of art; 2. directs attention to response as it occurs for the child throughout the experience of reading, thereby, possibly, clarifying how the child is feeling, thinking, and imagin- ing during the aesthetic experience; 32Patricia J. Cianciolo, "Responding to Literature as a Work of Art--an Aesthetic Literary Experience," Language Arts 59 (March, 1982), pp. 259-264. 16 directs attention to the usage of artistic components of literature by the individual reader which formulates or structures his/her response, thereby documenting gained experience of the concept of story; directs attention to the future in regard to the nature and classification of litera- ture and the subsequent teaching practices in the field of literature; and directs attention to the clarification of the use of literature as an art, as a sig- nificant experience to ponder which, in turn, if used as a humanity, will aid the child in finding answers to life's univer- sal questions. Research Questions In this study, the researcher examined the following questions and sub-questions. 1. Can the aesthetic response to specific contem- porary literary works of art be documented tangibly? Can videotape documentation, combined with extension questioning techniques, constitute a procedure for revealing children's aesthe- tic response? a. Sub-question: Can aspects of aesthetic response be documented on videotape? b. Sub-question: Can children verbalize the nature of their feelings, thoughts, and images involved in the aesthetic response experience? 17 What aspects of aesthetic response stance are identifiable in children's oral responses to literature? What specific aspects of a literary selec- tion, in picture book form, shape the aesthetic response; i.e., content, depth of coverage of the topic, concept of story (plot, theme, characterization, mood, set- ting, point of view, dialogue, style), illustration, literary genré, and format? Are there any identifiable patterns in children's ability to verbalize aspects of their aesthetic responses after four re- sponse sessions? Limitations All of the picture books used in this study were limited to selections which could be read within a 15 to 20 minute session by the subjects. All of the subjects involved in this study were fifth graders, so information gained from this study can only be generalized to a similar pOpulation of fifth graders. All the subjects selected to participate in this study were above grade level with 18 respect to their reading levels as measured by a standardized reading test. 4. All subjects in this study participated dur- ing personal free time, after school or on weekends. Definition of Terms The following terms were defined by this researcher using information and terms gleaned from a variety of literary and professional sources. Aesthetic experience: the immediate, uninterrupted perception of a literary object for its intrinsic as dis- tinct from its instrumental qualities. Aesthetic quect: an aesthetically experienced literary work of art. Aesthetic response: a gratifyingly subjective experi- ence realized through uninterrupted involvement of a sub- ject's sensibilities with a literary object approached as an art. The original meaning derived from the Greek term "aisthesis," meaning sense perception. Affect: the presence of a feeling state focusing on the use of the reader's emotions. Association: a remembered past event, idea, or per- son brought to the selection of literature by the reader from his/her personal or cultural autobiography. Concept of story: a reader's sense of how a story is organized from beginning to end so that it can be used to l9 understand, recall, and predict what can occur in the story based on prior experience with similar story struc- ture. Imggg: a picture generated in the mind of the reader which involves the five senses of seeing, hearing, smell- ing, touching, or tasting. Indeterminagy: a distinguishing feature of the literary work of art; namely, its incomplete determina- tion or gaps which must be filled in by the active imagi- nation of the reader in order to render the work complete. Introspection: the process of examining one's affec- tive and cognitive internal states involving such factors as feelings, thoughts, associations, and images. Literary work of art: an enduring composition made up of components or technical literary qualities which remain complete and unaffected by the personal responses of different readers. It is the perduring structural foundation for the aesthetic object and consists of such elements as plot, mood, setting, theme, characterization, and style. Literature as a humanity: literature used as a com- munication which stimulates reflection on the part of the reader about the self in relation to the world. Observer stance: the distanced involvement of the reader, usually translated in past tense, which indicates the looking upon and reporting of the experience. 20 Participant stance: the active response involvement of the reader indicated by a present-tense immediacy, as if the experience of the story were happening at that mo- ment. Picture book: a special form of illustrated book which conveys a message through the unity of text and illustration. Meaning depends on the presence of both picture and text. If either were missing, the message would be lost or limited. Reader involvement: the absorbed state of transac- tion between reader and literary work which combines the past of the individual with that which is intensely pre- sent in the selection. It is that facet of aesthetic response to a literary work of art which is the experi- ience, the interior event. Transactional theory: a process in literary response in which the factors, the reader, and the text are aspects of a total situation or event. Response is the result of the text conditioned by the reader and the reader condi- tioned by the text. Neither has more power than the other, more like a "shuttled sharing" depending upon the uniqueness of the reader and/or text at a particular mo- ment. Organization of the Study Chapter I began with an introduction to the impor- tance of restoring thought to literature as an art 21 resulting in the aesthetic response experience. Following were discussions on aesthetic response and the literary work of art. The purposes of the study were stated, namely to determine procedures for revealing aesthetic response and to determine whether, in actual fact, aesthe- tic response is present in children's responses to litera- ture. The need for the study and the significance of the study were presented by research and pertinent literature. Research questions were asked, limitations of the study stated, and definitions of the terms given. In Chapter II, literature and research relevant to the present investigation are examined. The review is organ- ized under four areas: research and professional sources relating to aesthetic response, research pertaining to the subject's involvement in response, research pertaining to children's responses to visual art, and research pertain- ing to story structure. Chapter III describes the sample, the design, the development of the procedures used to collect data, the development of the instrument, and resultant validation of the instrument. Chapter IV contains an analysis of the response data collected during the study. Chapter V contains an analysis of the data collected with the structured interview. Chapter VI contains a summary of the study. In it, conclusions and recommendations for future research are made. CHAPTER II REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE The review of related literature will be organized under four major headings: (a) research and professional sources relating to aesthetic response, (b) research per— taining to the subject's involvement in response, (c) research pertaining to children's response to visual art, and (d) research pertaining to the concept of story. Professional Sources and Research Pertaining to Aesthetic Response Since Plato, the nature of the response to imagina- tive literature has concerned both philosophies of aesthe- tic and literary theorists. This section of the review of the literature encompasses relevant empirical research and writings by aestheticians and literary theorists. The traditional notion of aesthetic response experi- ence has been one of passivity and contemplation. These traditional notions, according to Arnold Berleant, have been replaced by the ideas of active attention, involve- 1 ment, and response of the individual. He further stated 1Arnold Berleant, The Aesthetic Field: A Phenome- nology of the Aesthetic Experience (Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1970). 22 23 that if aesthetics are active, they are "then capable of being documented in some way."2 Experience, according to Eugene Gendlin in Experienc- ing and the Creation of Meaning, "is a concrete flow of feelings, to which one can at every moment attend inwardly."3 He refers to this as felt meaning. It is a concrete mass in the sense that it is "there" for us. It is not at all vague in its being there. It may be vague only in that we may not know what it is. We can put only a few aspects of it into words. The mass itself is always something there no matter what we say "it is." Our definitions, our knowing "what it is" are symbols that specify aspects of it, "parts" of it, as we say, whether we name it, divide it, or not, there it is. This process of experience, then, has to be pointed to through symbolization, which consequently emerges through words, things, situations, events, behaviors, and inter- personal actions and reactions. Gendlin specifically points to the following functional relationships between felt meaning and symbolization: direct reference, recognition, explication, metaphor, comprehension, relevance, and circumlocution. \IO‘U'IDUJNH O 21bid, p. 48. 3Eugene Gendlin, Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning (New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1962), p. 12. 4 5 Ibid. Ibid. 24 The comprehensive review of the literature of re- search in the area of aesthetic response uncovered one study undertaken by Anthony De Furio in 1974. He at- tempted to develop insight, understanding, and apprecia- tion of an individual's emergent aesthetic response to an art object. His study of response was eclectic in that it involved the broad sense of aesthetic, one that was at- tached to any experience that was meaningful to his sub- jects. Aesthetic response was not perceived as a hard and fast entity that could be catalogued or pigeon holed. He said of this: "In reality such responding seems to be much more fluid and somewhat infrequent, and of such a fugacious nature as to defy all analysis."6 De Furio's serial study modified Pepper's theory of contextualism. His initial case study design of five par- ticipants (reduced to three because of attrition) included 10 audiotaped interview sessions of 35-45 minutes over 10 weeks with the researcher as participant observer. Other demographic data collected were participants' personal response diaries (if completed), photos, cue sheets, and the researcher's journal. De Furio deliberately gave vague instructions to par- ticipants regarding responses, including what constituted 6Anthony G. De Furio, "A Contextualistic Interpreta- tion of Aesthetic Response: The Contribution of the Ex- periential Domain and Idiosyncratic Meaning" (Ph.D. dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, 1974), p. 7. . 25 an art object. "No direct reference was made to an art object as such, e.g., painting, sculpture, drawings and so forth."7 The only direction given to the participants was that it was a study in responding. This vagueness, ac- cording to De Furio, was to insure how an individual de- fined an art object. The idea of art object, initially chosentnrthe subject, was eventually abandoned because of participants' references to the broad area of aesthetic experience such as storms, sunsets, movies, forests, and light shows in their emergent responses. This, as per— ceived by this researcher, resulted in an unwieldy, con- voluted study, which could produce nothing more than idiosyncratic meaning or response because there was noth- ing that was common to all subjects. Comparatively, Hol- land's conclusions in his study of Five Readers Reading8 had similar idiosyncratic results but each reader re- sponded to the same object thus giving validity to the idiosyncratic premise. De Furio's initial purpose was to explore the intri- cacies and dynamics of aesthetic response, yet "aesthetic response" was not defined except off handedly as the 9 "making of art." This researcher questions how De Furio explored the intricacies and dynamics of some unspecified 7Ibid., p. 67. 8Norman Holland, Five Readers Reading (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975), pp. 41-46. 9 De Furio, p. 290. 26 entity. No closure ever resulted from this lenghth ex- ploration. Allan Davisson in 1971 utilized a modification of George Kelly's personal construct, Repertory Grid Test,10 to ascertain whether an individual's personal dimensions of aesthetic discrimination could be objectively shown. Aesthetic discrimination refers to the "individual's own subjective reviewing style or perceptual set when he en- 11 Davisson used aesthetic stim- counters an art object." uli from two different but well-defined areas of visual art: Russian religious icons of the 12th and 16th century and the work of Paul Gauguin. Ten sophomore student subjects, five male and five female, participated in four separate sessions over a time span of four weeks. They were given a set of three matted art objects and were asked: "In terms of the feelings or reactions brought out in you by these three paintings, in what important way are two alike and different from the third?"12 The subjects were asked to label the difference with a word or phrase. Eighteen triads were processed, and a matrix of personal construct or dimensions was charted 10George A. Kelly, "Personal Construct Theory," in Psychology of Personality: Readings in Theory, ed. Wil- liam S. Sahakian, 3rd. ed. (Chicago: Rand McNally Col- lege Publishing, 1977). 11Allan Davisson, "Personal Dimensions of Aesthetic Discrimination" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minne- sota, 1971), p. 5. 12Ibid., p. 25. 27 for each subject. This procedure was repeated three times with Russian art and a fourth time with paintings by Gau- gin to see if the same constructs were used which would indicate a personal viewing style. The data was treated individually for all subjects as well as across all the subjects. Four of the five hypotheses were experimentally confirmed as follows: 1. People do have standards or personal di- mensions of aesthetic discrimination that they use consistently. These standards or dimensions seem to be reliable over time. It is possible to determine in a public or objective sense what the nature of these discriminations dimensions are to an extent that allows prediction of subsequent behav- ior with respect to aesthetic stimuli. These dimensions do not seem to be limited to aesthetic objects of the same or highly similar class as the aesthetic objects used to determine the dimensions, but they seem to have utility for the subject for visual aesthetic stimuli of a markedly different nature. The results of this research do not demon- strate what the discrimination dimensions used by the individuals in the experiment were to any significant extent, but this may be explained by the homogeneity of the popula- tion from which the subjects were selected. In order to understand Davisson's study one must re- alize that Kelly's personal constructs theory is based on the postulate that a "person's processes are psycholo- gically channelized by the ways in which he anticipates 13 Ibid., p. 67. 28 events."14 This anticipation is a function of how an individual has a finite number of bipolar categories that an individual uses in making judgments and acting on any event. These categories of judgments are called con- structs. Thus, attention seemingly is on anticipation in Davisson's study rather than reaction or response. It would appear that personal construct anticipation theory must hold an important place in regard to an individual's utilization of artistic components while involved in a literary work of art, but this is ultimately beyond the scope of this study. Davisson's scant yet tight study adds impetus to the present study in that aesthetic fac- tors can, indeed, be demonstrated. Research Involving the Compo- nents of Aesthetic Response Aesthetic Response, Subjec- tive Involvement, and Patterns in Response As the critic Abrams has perceptively indicated, in the classic publication The Mirror and the Lamp, aestheti- cians have emphasized over time, different facets of the arts--either the work itself (objective theory), the uni- verse being portrayed (mimetic theory), the creating art- ists (expressive theory), or the audience member (pragma- tic theory). According to Abrams, the study involved with the audience member was considered from an instrumental l4Kelly, p. 239. 29 perspective.15 Today, according to Richard McQuire, this is slowly changing to an affective experiential perspec- tive based on the importance of the experience the reader has with the literary selection. How we are moved by literature has to do with the extent to which the words that com- prise a work possess minetic values for us, that is the capacity6to strike us as compre- hensible and true.“ Brooks and Wimsatt in Literary Criticism: A Short History propose: One of the main lessons of critical history would seem, indeed, to be that the stress of literary theory must fall on the experience (subjective and emotive) rather than on the what, the object of value so far as that is outside gpy experiencing subject.17 This apparent concession by Wimsatt is a complete re- versal in that he initially invented and labeled the "af- fective fallacy" which, according to Jayne, brought about a tendency to look upon "unique and idiosyncratic inter- pretations [as] deviations from [the] ideal usually vulgar C I I I 18 excur51ons into 1rrelevant 1ssues." 15M. H. Abrams, The Mirror and the Lamp (New York: Oxford University Press, 1953), pp. 3-29. 16Richard R. McQuire, Passionate Attention (New York: W. W. Norton, 1973), p. 38. 17William K. Wimsatt and Cleanth Brooks, Literary Criticism: A Short History (New York, 1957), pp. 737-738. 18Edward Stanley Jayne, "Affective Criticism: The- ories of Emotion and Synaethesis in the Experience of Literature" (Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1970). p. 10. 30 I. A. Richards in his classic study of the written responses of advanced college undergraduates to 13 poems, related difficulties involved with the subject's reading of poetry which have, since 1929, exerted a profound influ- ence in the literary field. One that has led many in- volved in literature to look upon the subjective factors of response as secondary to knowledge of form. The response categories which Richards deemed as dif- ficulties inhibiting the author's intended response are of a subjective nature. They are: l. Difficulties connected with the place of imagery. "They arise in part from the incurable fact that we differ immensely in our capacity to visualize." 2. Difficulties connected with the powerful and very pervasiye influence of mnemonic irrelevancies. "These are misleading effects of the reader's being reminded of some personal scene or adventure, erratic associations, the interference of emo- tional reverberations from a past which may have nothing to do with the poem." 3. Difficulty with stock responses. "These have their opportunity whenever a poem seems to, or does, involve views and emo- tions already fully prepared in the read- er's mind so that what happens appears to be more of the reader's doing than the poet's.19 Cross also found, upon analyzing the written reactions of junior college students to short selections, the diffi- culty of erratic associations caused either by the 19I. A. Richards, Practical Criticism (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1920), pp. 13, 14. 31 influence of home and family or by the influence of per- sonal experiences.20 With this emphasis on the reader's response compe- tence involving literary form and the subsequent emphasis on formalist criticism in the schools, the reader's per- sonal integration of self with the selection acquired an acknowledged yet unimportant place in literary response research. This also coincides with the push in literary circles to make a science of literary criticism. Research recognizing the importance of subjective experience was happening concurrently as early as 1929 with June Downey. She investigated the projection of self as an integrating factor in response to literature and, consequently, identified three types of responders accord- ing to their degrees of personal involvement. 1. Spectator--the reader who remains detached, that of the onlooker or observer. 2. Participant--the reader who sympathetically takes upon him/herself the emotions or con- ditions described in the selection. 3. Ecstatic--the reader whose self-conscious- ness, his/her emotions and realizations are fused with the experience of the literary selection.21 This pioneering effort to determine the degrees of read- ers' personal involvement in response, in part, 20Neal M. Cross, "The Background for Misunderstand- ing," English Journal, 29 (May, 1940), pp. 366-370. 21June Downey, Creative Imagination: Studies in the Psychology of Literature (London: Kagan, Paul, Trency, Trubneer, and Co., 1929), P- 190. 32 parallels this present study of reader involvement in response. In 1938, Rosenblatt staunchly emphasized the sub- ject's experience of and sensitivity to the selection, stating that aesthetic sensitivity will not be insured by knowledge of formal aspects of literature.22 She helped educators put into realistic perspective the complex re- sponse process involved with the "reading of a particular work at a particular moment by a particular reader."23 She stressed: Personal factors will inevitably affect the equation represented by book plus reader. His past experience and present preoccupations may actively condition his primary spontaneous response. In some cases, these things will conduce to a full and balanced reaction to the work. In other cases, they will limit or dis- tort.24 In contrast, Richards felt personal factors to be a dis- tortion of the author's intended response. Rosenblatt's idiographic studies encompass 25 years of analyzing and comparing readers' encounters with a text. Her basic procedure was to have students write their re- sponses as soon as possible after beginning to read. She thus attempted to capture the on-going process experienced by the reader. Her accumulated findings reveal that: 1. each reader was active; 22Louise Rosenblatt, Literature as Exploration (New York: Noble and Noble, 1938), p. 52. 23 24 Ibid., p. 79. Ibid. 33 2. each reader paid attention to the refer- ents of words while also paying attention to the images, feelings, attitudes, asso- ciations, and ideas that the words and their referents evoked in him/her; and 3. each reader's attention to the text activates certain elements in his/her past experience.25 In contrast to Rosenblatt's studies, Richards' reader re- sponses were a culminating effort after repeated readings and reflections on a text over a given length of time. It must be stated that both researchers' philosophical ten- dencies helped determine what each held to be important in their subsequent analysis of the responses and their ac- tions taken after analyzing them; i.e., Richards' struc- turalist theory and Rosenblatt's transactive theory. H. S. Meckel also attempted to identify personal fac- tors in students' written responses. The focus in his study was on the "most memorable" events in the novel Fortitude by Walpole for 96 seniors in high school and on their personality pre-dispositions found in their respec- tive responses. He categorized their responses into three types of which all will ultimately be important to this study: 1. personality-psychological: the reader's personal reaction to the work; 2. technical-critical: the reader's per- ception of language, literary devices, -25Louise M. Rosenblatt, The Reader, the Text and the Poem: The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work (Car- bondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978), pp. 6-11. 34 tone, relation of form to content, and evaluation; and 3. content-ideational: the reader's iden- tification and discussion of the theme or meaning of the work.26 Meckel found with his analysis of free responses that the predominant response among his students was the personal- psychological; the least popular was the content- ideational. He noted that relationship patterns existed in a group of subjects with individual responses showing considerable variation.27 Among his hypotheses are two which might have some bearing on this study: 1. fear of emotion or the desire to avoid emotion may result in repression of iden- tification with a character who gives way to his emotions; and 2. where identification is fairly complete, there are parallel experiences in the life of the central character and the reader of a satisfactory sort. Walter Loban studied the response of readers de- scribed as having varying degrees of social sensitivity to determine the extent to which their sensitivity or lack of sensitivity reflected itself in their response to litera- ture. In this study Loban chose 10 stories specifically selected to evoke sympathy from the listeners. Responses 26Horace C. Meckel, "An Exploratory Study of the Re- sponses of Adolescent Pupils to Situations in a Novel" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1946), pp. 176-179. 27 28 Ibid., p. 122. Ibid., p. 187. 35 were obtained through oral discussion and several written instruments. Loban found a significant difference in insightful noting of concepts by the highly sensitive adolescents as determined by five inter-rater judges. Of particular interest to this study was Loban's conclusion that literature is not likely to generate sympathy in someone not already sensitive and that social sensitivity cannot necessarily be increased by reading literature. These results imply that the personal construct of the reader plays on unequivocally important role in determin- ing the individual's unique response to literature. Loban found with Meckel that adolescents tend to identify with characters who are most like themselves.29 To this, James Wilson, still perceiving the indivi- dual's subjective contribution to be a misinterpretation of reading, stated in his study: Some words evoke in individuals certain kinds of responses which then interfere with their ability to analyze objectively the mean- ing of what they are reading. Affective ma- terial appears to contain more words which fall into this category than non-affective material. There is a positive relationship between the individual's association re- sponses to words and his interpretation of paragraphs which contain these words. 29Walter D. Loban, "Adolescents of Varying Sensitiv- ity and Their Response to Literature Intended to Evoke Sympathy" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1949), p. 20. 30James Robert Wilson, "Responses of College Fresh- man to Three Novels" (Ed.D. dissertation, University of California at Berkeley, 1963), p. 17. 36 J. Wilson, using a pre- and post-discussion research design, attempted to identify a difference in the re- sponses of 54 freshman students to three novels. He discovered that the three class periods devoted to dis- cussion after each reading effected an increase in inter- pretational response from a mean of 54.5% on the first response to a mean of 78.4% on the second. Conversely, the self-involvement scores declined from 10.5% to 7.0% in the second response.31 Discussion of the findings of this study by Wilson revealed various degrees of relationships between self- involvement and interpretation. This reinforces what Downey said, that an exaggerated identification on the part of the reader can block analysis but, on the other hand, that intense self-involvement may accompany better interpretations. As Wilson pointed out, there is apparent- ly no conclusion to be drawn about this relationship ex- cept that the self-involvement of the student in the story is preliminary and stimulating to active explorations. Attempts to grasp meaning seem to grow out of this first phase of feeling.32 In 1955 Hilda Taba used informal research methods in an eighth grade classroom to record and classify the in- fluence of literature on the reader using discussions of stories with 25 adolescent readers. She found that the 31 32 Ibid., p. 217. Ibid., p. 40. 37 students, in their discussions, would use their own experi- ences as a means to understand the causes and effects of the behavior of the characters in the stories. She iden- tified four types of responders: 1. the responders who entered into a story fully, freely, and spontaneously, making it a new experience for themselves with- out connecting it with previous experi- ence; 2. the responders who are egocentric in that they found meaning to stories only through personal associations and subse- quent generalizations have more to do with their experiences than with the stories; 3. the responders who advise story charac- ters on their behavior; and 4. the responders who project and generalize or attempt to understand, evaluate, and explain behavior or evolve principles governing behavior. Taba concluded that a response developed by previous exper- ience seems to be an even stronger factor in determining the nature and quantity of participation than is social status or intellectual ability.34 James Squire's study is an elucidating study in the involvement of readers with literature. His initial pre- mise was that general tendencies are observable in the responses of adolescents to literature, but that consider- able variation exists due to the reader's abilities, 33Hilda Taba, With Perspective on Human Relations: A Study of Peer Dynamics in an Eighth Grade (Washington: American Council on Education, 1955), pp. 110-111. 34 Ibid., pp. 113-114. 38 prediSpositions, and experience.35 His methods included recording oral responses during the process of reading at predetermined divisions of four short stories. Squire utilized oral response recordings of 52 adolescent readers to short story selections. He used a categorization system consisting of seven categories to analyze the content of the responses, four of which are pertinent to the present study. They are: 1. literary jpdgments: direct or implied judgments of the story as an artistic work; 2. interpretational responses: reactions in which the reader generalizes and attempts to find the meaning of the stories; 3. associational responses: responses in which the reader associates ideas, events or places, and people with his/her own experiences; and 4. self-involvement: responses in which the reader associates him/herself with the behavior and/or emotions of the charac- ters.36 Squire's important findings/observations in regard to the above four categories, the most fruitful of which he con- siders to be involvement and interpretation,37 are: l. the greatest variation in responses occur in literary judgment and self-involvement responses which appear to vary inversely throughout the process of reading a short story; 35James R. Squire, "The Responses to Adolescents to Literature Involving Selected Experiences in Personal Development (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1956): pp. 79-80. 36 37 Ibid., pp. 79-810 Ibid., p. 200. 39 2. cumulative responses gathered after read- ing vary considerably with responses gathered during the process of reading; 3. a considerably higher percentage of liter- ary judgments is made in the final response to a story rather than at the earlier story divisions; 4. for many readers the percentage of self- involvement responses declines in the final story response; 5. readers are most involved during the cen- tral divisions of the stories when they seem primarily interested in literature as an emotional experience; 6. in the final response, readers seem pri- marily interested in a more objective eval- uation of literature as an aesthetic form; 7. the age of a character appears to influence self-involvement; a wide discrepancy in age seems to discourage understanding and em- Pathy; 8. the responses of readers occasionally re- veal a self-conscious awareness of the pro- cesses of involvement; 9. the close resemblance of a character to the reader may increase identification, but such involvement will lead to enjoyment if the experience is of a desirable kind; and 10. clearly emotional reactions ungoverned by rational analysis may lead readers to gross misinterpretations . . . . a judicious bal- ance between emotional involvement and ra- tional objectivity is desirable in reading literature.38 Squire further breaks involvement down into types whose two approaches "suggest attitudes toward characters and situations in a story which resemble those of an ob- server of action and of a participator in the action."39 38 39 Ibid., pp. 196-218. Ibid., p. 201. 40 He stated that a reader could adopt either attitude "at different times even during the reading of a single short story."40 He said the observer point of view seems to occur more frequently although both approaches are common and "the participant reactions seem to be more striking in fervor and intensity."41 Roy Wilson's observations in regard to self-involve- ment in his in-depth book discussion study were as follows: 1. he observed that what peers might think or feel effects the amount of self-involvement responses; 2. he observed that self-involvement responses were identified most frequently with first phase of initiating strategies calling for reactions to specific characters; and 3. he observed that self-involvement responses occurred in books where young characters were in deep difficulties with the world, parents, or school. It must be noted that many uncontrolled variables seem to be present in Roy Wilson's study which could have influenced the quality of the children's responses and his stated results. Btu: instance, the length of discussions and number of participants, attitudes of subjects regard- ing participation in discussions, and consequent diffi- culty in degree of rapport between researcher and subjects Individual patterns and modes of response also em- phasize the importance of the idiosyncratic subjective 40 41 Ibid. Ibid., p. 209. 42Roy Wilson, "In-Depth Discussion of Selected Sixth Graders: Response to Literature" (Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1967), p. 312. 41 aspects. As a result of an introspective study based on taped free responses to poetry, William Morris concluded that some students adopt a convergent pattern of responses with an emphasis on comprehension and interpretation. Other students prefer a divergent pattern emphasizing per- ceptions, associations, and general reaction to the work.‘43 Another way of looking at Morris' findings in regard to the divergent pattern of response could be connected with the type of personal intensity of involvement of the responder in that the responder could have started from personal relevance and diverged to the work and its compo- nents. This ties in with Luchsinger's "transfer" category which is comprised of subjects who explain how they have seen the conditions in the story in their own life. They respond divergently from self to story in their process of interpretation.44 Faye Grindstaff in 1968 used two different instruc- tional techniques to see what effect they had on students' responses. An uninstructed control group was utilized for comparison purposes. She found that (a) the treatments, a. new criticism, objective approach and (b) an experiential- reflective transactional approach relating the work to the 43William P. Morris, "Unstructured Oral Responses of Experienced Readers Reacting to a Given Poem" (Ph.D. dis- sertation, Indiana University, 1970). 44Barbara Luchsinger, "Responses of Tenth Grade Read- ers to Paired Complex and Less Complex Short Stories" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Iowa, 1969), p. 58. 42 subjects' experiences and their experiences of the liter- ary work resulted in divergent patterns which included more self-involvement associational and prescriptive judg- ments than in responses of the "uninstructed" control group. More specifically, the experiential reflective group tended to be superior to the structured analysis group for adolescents with the uninstructed group resorting to "re-tellings" as their predominant response. In regard to the superiority of the experimental-reflective groups, she stated: The lack of dependency on the teacher for answers, and the increased self-sufficiency of the students to examine literature resulted in these students learning to read more critically and with less difficulty than did the students from the other two classes.45 Three prominent others in the field, namely Simon Lesser, 46 Norman Holland,47 48 and David Bleich have util- ized the psychoanalytic model of subjective involvement in response almost to the exclusion of the contribution of 45Faye L. Grindstaff, "The Responses of Tenth Grade Students to Four Novels (Ph.D. dissertation, Colorado State University, 1968), p. 122. 46Simon 0. Lesser, Fiction and the Unconscious (Chi- cago: The University of Chicago Press, 1957). 47Norman Holland, The Dynamics of Literary Response (New York: Oxford University Press, 1957); Five Readers Reading (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975); Poems in Persons (New York: W. W. Norton Co., 1973). 48David Bleich, Readings and Feelings: An Introduc- tion to Subjective Criticism (Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English, 1975). 43 the subject and the selection of literature approached as an art form. Hickman, using ethnographic methodology and partici- pant observation, documented children's responses to liter- ature as it was expressed in the classrooms. Subjects (n=90) ages 5 to 11 years in grades K-5 were observed over a four-month period. Data were gained through descriptive notes, anecdotal records, and cassette recordings of dis- cussions and interviews. Analysis of the data involved searching for patterns and emergent categories found in the subjects' verbal and nonverbal behaviors identified as response events. Seven categories of events were discerned and used for analysis: listening behaviors, contact with books, impulse to share, oral responses, actions and drama, making things, and writing. Of the seven areas, the category of "impulse to share" has bearing on this study in that it denotes impact and involvement of the reader. Hickman stated that this response "seemed related not so much to the desire to talk about the work as to re-experience it . . . . "49 It must also be noted that the most characteristic response event of the fourth and fifth graders was intensive attention or the observed behavior of being engrossedin the story ultimately becoming oblivious to their surroundings. 49Janet G. Hickman, "Response to Literature in a School Environment, Grades K-5" (Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1981), p. 33. 44 Children's Responses to Visual Art and Illustration In reviewing the literature specifically relating to children's responses to "illustration in children's books," this researcher found a dearth of information, but re- search in children's responses to "visual art" was avail- able. Visual art in this study refers to gallery art, while illustration refers to the art in a selection of children's literature which, together with text, tells the story. The studies found herein involve studies pertain- ing to (a) children's preferences, (b) the physical as- pects and content of visual art, and (c) children's re- sponses to styles, format, and aesthetic appreciation of the visual arts and illustration. Book art in children's selections of literature, classified as text-extending illustrations, also qualifies as fine art. Lee Kingman in "The High Art of Illustra- tion" stated that book artists possess creativity and artistic integrity. The artistic vehicle, be it a gallery painting, a lithograph, or a picture book illustration, demands that the artists bring a high level of quality and imagination to their work. Book art is not be relegated to a lesser degree of aesthetics because of the vehicle.50 Manzo and Legenza offer a picture-potency formula to evaluate the content factors in a illustration which would 50Lee Kingman, "The High Art of Illustration," Horn Book 50 (October 1974): 95-103, 45 influence and stimulate language for children between the ages of five and eight. Although there is no research per se connected with this article, it offers a procedure or structure for an objective evaluation of an illustration's potential for response, especially of the content. The factors involved in this formula are as follows: 1. a count of the total number of different things in the picture; 2. a count of the total number of significant things, the chief things around which others are set; 3. a count of the total number of all things except for non-descript things; 4. a count of the represented colors; 5. a count of all actions in progress (group actions count as one); 6. a count of the children represented; 7. a count of all people, including children again; 8. a count of all things with potential for movement; if animals are present, they re- ce1ve a count of two because of their heuristic value; 9. assign points for size of picture; and 10. assign an em ath score from 1 (low) to 5 (high) coinciding with interest or experiences of audience. A table of scaled scores allows this total to be assigned on overall rating of l to 5.51 51Anthony H. Manzo and Alice Legenza, "A Method for Assessing the Language Stimulation Value of Pictures," Language Arts 52 (November/December 1975): 1085-1089. 46 In Legenza's second study with Knafle, study pictures from eight first and second grade basal readers were se- lected and rated according to the picture potency formula. The purpose of the study was to determine what factors were present in pictures which stimulated a large verbal response from children. Three factors were found to be consistently present in high response pictures, but not present in low response pictures. These were (a) number of actions, (b) number of children, and (c) number of people. If one refers to the initial scaled scores of the previous study,52 it seems that total number of things in pictures could also be a factor in the high potency pic- tures. It is reasonable to assume that if there are more things in a picture, there is more to which children could potentially respond.53 The third study by Legenza-Wescott used the picture potency formula to establish its validity with primary grade children. Forty-seven children in kindergarten and grade one were shown a set of three pictures consisting of a high, medium, and low potency picture as rated by the researcher according to the formula. Each student was shown the pictures and was told to tell the researcher everything he/she saw in the pictures and everything SZIbid. 53Alice Legenza and June D. Knafte, "The Effective Components of Children's Pictures," Reading Improvement 16 (Winter 1979): 281-283. 47 he/she saw happening in the picture. After the responses were completed, the subjects were asked if they wanted to add anything to their responses. Results validated the picture potency formula as a predictor of the extent to which primary grade children will respond to pictures in that kindergarten and first grade children in this study made significantly more responses to high potency pictures than to medium or low potency pictures.54 Children's Preferences in Visual Art and Illustration In an attempt to measure children's preferences in art style in illustrations, Gerald Smerdon conducted a study designed to avoid the weaknesses found in previous preference studies.55 To accomplish this Smerdon con- trolled for illustration size, content, color, and artist. Population (n=381) consisted of four groups of British school children: infants, juniors, secondary, and school learners. Twelve black and white castles drawn by Brian South- well in different styles of art from representational to abstract expressionistic art were given to an adult panel of professional teachers of art who were assigned the task 54Alice Legenza Wescott, "Picture Potency Formula: Validation Study," Reading Improvement 17 (Summer 1980): 115-116. 55Gerald Smerdon, "Children's Preferences in Illus- tration," Children's Literature in Education 30 (Spring 1976): 17-31. 48 of ranking the pictures from most representational to abstract in terms of style. High consistency in the rank- ings were made by the five artists. Thirty pairs of black and white slides of castle illustrations were used by Smerdon with children in a paired comparison experimental design. Each picture slide was slown to the subjects with every other as a pair for the duration of five seconds. The subjects marked a bal- lot slip for the picture they preferred. With the excep- tion of the infant groups, all subjects preferred pictures ranked most representational by the adult judges and re- jected those ranked the most abstract. The infant groups preferred the castles with few details, bold outlines, and basic figure ground clarity. The Association for Art in Childhood conducted an informal study for the purpose of delineating qualities in book illustrations which appeal to children. Teachers, librarians, and research workers interviewed children (n=1350) singly or in small groups, up to 14 years of age. Children were shown various books and their responses were noted. Results show that children's preferences were eclectic, yet content of the illustrations was mentioned more often than any other factor. Other factors mentioned in order of frequency were color, comments on drawing, size, layout, and design. Children preferred 49 representational illustrations and disliked distorted art styles and cartoons.56 Determining a preference for illustration techniques was the purpose of a study by Miller. Twenty-five pic- tures judged to be of interest to younger children but controlled for content and art style were chosen. The five content classifications were (a) children and pets, (b) children in action, (c) children and toys, (d) adults in action, and (e) animals. The art styles were line draw- ing, full color, red as a predominant color, blue as a predominant color, wash drawing, and photograph. Three hundred children from each of the first three grades were tested individually and asked to choose which technique they preferred among the seven offered. Full color repro- ductions were preferred by 55% of all the children across all grade levels; red and blue predominant and photographs were second in preference.57 Investigating third grade children's (n=100) ability to document, without aid, the content of pictures through naming the number of items seen in six individual pictures was the intent of this second study by Miller. He asked the children to look at the pictures and tell him what 56"Children's Preferences in Book Illustrations: A Study by the Association for Arts in Childhood," Publish- ers' Weekly 136 (December 30, 1939): 321. 57William Miller, "Picture Choices of Primary Grade Children," The Elementary School Journal 37 (December 1936): 50-52. 50 they saw. He also asked them what they thought of while viewing them and what was happening to them. Tabulated item results showed that third graders saw few items in the pictures and those they saw were reported in isolation rather than as a unified whole. More importantly, the significant items in the pictures deemed as important by the researcher for carrying the narrative were not re- ported. Although directions in the study included the thoughts and experience of the child, no notice and/or examination of the remarks given by the subjects was dis- cussed. As the study was primarily directed at picture content as an aid to reading comprehension, much important data on children's responses to illustration were rele- gated to mere insignificance.58 Dietrich and Hunnicutt conducted a study whereby 40 first and second graders were shown 171 pictures in 408 pairings and asked to indicate their preferences through the use of a plus (+) or a zero (0) on a tally sheet in a game-like atmosphere. The children were specifically asked which picture of a pair "they would like to take home with them" (+)(558). The consistency or reliability of the procedure was tested by reshowing picture pairs after a week had passed, resulting in 69% identical choices. These first and second grade children preferred 58William Miller, "What Children See in Pictures," The Elementary School Journal 39 (December 1938): 280- 288. 51 (a) landscapes and seascapes to pictures of interiors, still lifes, or people; (b) pictures of people to still lifes; (c) pictures of children to all other choices; and (d) pictures which identified with their own sex.59 Stewig attempted to determine if (a) the illustra- tions in the Caldecott Award books were becoming less representational and (b) there were any trends in the use of media by the illustrators. He chose the outstanding award books for study because of their influential nature on children's book illustrators. Twenty-two books were selected, both the award winners and the runner up books for units or spans of five years beginning with the incep- tion of the award in 1938. Stewig concluded that there was a slight tendency for a low-reality style in the years 1951 to 1966 which were compared to the earlier years of 1938 to 1951. He also noted that award books with impres- sionistic or abstract illustrations did not constitute a trend.60 John Stewig's second study of children's preferences in illustration (n=1,078) was initiated because of his concern that previous studies (not cited) could not be generalized beyond the specific books used. He used the following five visual components of illustrations: color, 59Grace L. Dietrich and C. W. Hunnicutt, "Art Content Preferred by Primary Grade Children," The Elementary School Journal 48 (June 1948): 557-559. 60John Warren Stewig, "Trends in Caldecott Award Win- ners," Elementary English 45 (February 1968): 218—223. 52 shape, proportion, detail, and space, from his previous study in 1968, to determine experimentally the children's preferences for these five variables in the illustrations. His procedure involved using slides of illustrations emphasizing and manipulating one variable while the other variables were held constant. A written script was also used to standardize test directions. Results included older children preferring realistic colors more than younger children, younger children preferring a lesser amount of detail, and younger children preferring shallow space.61 Children's Response Involving Physical Aspects and Content in Visual Art and Illustration Gertrude Whipple, although using illustrations from text books, came to some_conclusions about children's desire to read selections based on the "narrative interest value" of illustrations. Children (n=150) with a fourth grade reading ability were asked to look at individual booklets exclusively containing the illustrations from narrative selections. Based on their responses to the illustrations, the subjects were asked to mark the pic- tures with the most interesting story and to mark the three stories that they would personally like to read. Analysis of the characteristics of the selections chosen, 61John W. Stewig, "Children's Picture Preferences," Elementary English 51 (November/December 1974): 1012-1013. 53 although no mention was made as to analytical procedures, indicated that "narrative interest value" had something to do with the illustrations which had the following charac- teristics: l. illustrations which have a definite center of interest; 2. illustrations which depict action, especially those with a series of action; 3. illustrations which use realistic color; 4. illustrations which use a large area of space in general; 5. illustrations which dealt with eventful topics rather than still life tOpics; and 6. the number of illustrations per selection.62 What pictures children liked and the reason(s) for their selection prompted a study by Lucio and Mead in which fourth, fifth, and sixth grade subjects (n=436) se- lected their first, second, and third choices of 18 modern paintings and subsequently wrote their responses or ration- ales for their favorite paintings. Three pictures, all outdoor scenes representative of a phase of photographic realism, received the majority of votes. Through a rank difference formula of correlation, substantial agreement was indicated. The importance of this study to this re- searcher is found in the written responses of the subjects. The aspects indicate that the subjects gave more than a 62Gertrude Whipple, "An Appraisal of Interest Appeal of Illustrations," The Elementary School Journal 53 (Jan- uary 1953): 262-269. 54 cursory or superficial rationale for their choices showing personal involvement, higher levels of thought, and percep- tual analysis. Comments noted in the study indicate that the subjects imagined what the person in the painting was thinking,and quotations such as "The fruit in the painting looks so real you could eat it and almost smell it," "It makes me think of Spain where I used to live" indicate to this researcher that these subjects were involved in aes- thetic response to the paintings.63 Bou and LOpez's study of children's preferences in color, types of illustration, and format or placement of illustrations with Puerto Rican children (n=2496) in grades two, four, and six in no way constitutes art per se, but the results do shed light on children's basic prefer- ences. Materials used for color preferences were painted cards in primary colors, secondary colors, tones of colors, bichromatic and trichromatic combinations. Illustrations used were fine ink drawings, one lineal, a second with black and white areas, and a third deemed realistic with a complete gradation of light and shadow. Position of the illustration was presented on white cards containing a space taken up by the illustration. Although a limited study, it did result in conclusions which show that (a) children prefer primary over secondary colors in dark 63William Lucio and Cyrus Mead, "An Investigation of Children's Preferences for Modern Pictures," The Elemen- tary School Journal 39 (May 1939): 678-689. 55 tones, and (b) children prefer the most realistic rendi- tions of drawings with illustrations occupying a full page or the upper half of a page.64 Children's Sensitiviry to Style, Format, and Their Aesthetic Appreciation of Visual Arts and Illustration . Todd, using children (n=96) 10 through 12 years of age, attending a university laboratory school, were asked to judge which of 26 art masterpieces were modern and which were older. The subjects were asked to write free response paragraphs explaining what was considered to be the differences between a modern and an older painting; they also had to choose five favorite selections. Conclusions by Todd were as follows: 1. children in the fifth and six grade can distinguish correctly between time periods of art 19.6 out of 26 times; 2. children use gleaned criteria of degree of naturalism and color to judge between older and modern pictures; 3. children's personal favorites showed inde- pendent choices with a majority evenly divided between older and modern paintings with 28% choosing landscapes; 4. children's choices showed differences be- tween boys and girls; boys preferred more modern paintings, girls preferred land- scapes, and girls chose paintings with girls and women in them; 64Ismael R. Bou and David D. LOpez, "Preferences in Colors and Illustrations of Elementary School Children of Puerto Rico," The Journal of Educational Psychology 44 (December 1953): 490-496. 56 5. children's choices showed content differ- ences in grade levels; grade six subjects had more correct responses, and they chose landscapes 42% of the time as compared to 4% of the fifth grade subjects; and 6. children's preferences for art styles, art qualities and appreciation thereof were seemingly products of personal experience and referrents outside of the academic milieu. Albeit a different study with a different age and population, i.e., two years' younger, Miller's study66 with conclusions that children tend to skip and isolate items in a picture without a unifying process must somehow be the result of the quality of pictures presented to them. Todd's study used masterworks of art which are art because of this potential to get children involved and help them move to higher levels of processing. Weiss, realizing that the physical appearance or overall format of a book is important in children's re- sponses to the book, designed the following study to deter- mine children's preferences for format as a whole. She examined three areas of format relating to the printed page, namely, page size, type and position of illustra- tions. The study specifically sought to answer five ques- tions, but this researcher deems only one question perti- nent to this study. That is: Do children consider page 65Jessie Todd, "Preferences of Children for Modern and Older Paintings," The Elementary School Journal 44 (December 1943): 223-231. 66William Miller, "What Children See in Pictures," The Elementary School Journal 39 (December, 1938): 280- 288. 57 size, type and position of illustration important in their selection of a book? Subjects (n = 145) in grades three and six were divided into three groups according to read- ing ability. Each subject was asked to respond to "dummy book" materials with different page sizes, type sizes, art styles, and illustration positions. Evaluation of the results reveal that 70% of all subjects considered at least one format area to be important. Third graders tended to consider format more important than sixth graders. Of the format areas investigated, the percentages of importance were as follows: type, 51%; page size, 43%; and position of illustration was the least important with 36%. Bottom of the page position of illustration was preferred by the majority, while boys preferred the illustration at the top of the page.67 68 added the dimension of chil- Richard Bloomer's study dren's interpretations in their responses to the style and theme of nine pictures Specifically drawn for his study. The illustrations involved three themes, and each theme was illustrated in three different styles. The themes and styles of illustration were positive tension, negative tension, and positive with no tension. All themes were 67Maria J. Weiss, "Children's Preferences for Format Factors in Books," Reading Teacher 35 (January 1982): 400- 407. 68Richard H. Bloomer, "Children's Preferences and Responses as Related to Style and Theme of Illustration," The Elementary School Journal 60 (March 1960): 334-340. 58 illustrated in a line drawing, shaded line drawing, and a shaded line drawing with a colored wash. The children (n = 336) fourth, fifth, and sixth graders were exposed to three pictures, three themes with three different are styles. Children responded in writing to which pictures they liked best and were further instructed to tell what was happen- ing in any one of the pictures. Results by Bloomer show that children preferred colored pictures and those contain- ing no tension. Positive tension was second with 71.1% of the population's disliking the picture with negative ten- sion. A similar tendency was involved in the theme choices of the children. More children (40%) were stimulated to write about the negative-tension pictures than to write about either of the two themes. Ultimately, from this study comes some insight into the idea that what is nega- tive might indeed be enjoyed by the child. Waymack and Hendrickson's study of appreciation in- volved a pre- and post- designcxfresponding to paintings. POpulation consisted of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders (n = 219) from two rural areas. In the pretest, the children in classroom situations were presented with four painting reproductions. Each grade had four different choices from which they were asked to select one they would like to keep. They were then instructed to write why they liked the chosen paintings. After a few weeks, the researcher returned and instructed the subjects in art appreciation lessons (the treatment), the elements of 59 which were gleaned from the recommendations of leaders in the field of art such as professors of art, art critics, and museum directors. The lessons were comprised of four major areas: (a) technical elements of art, (b) informa- tional elements about the painting, (c) emotional elements, and (d) means to picture appreciation. Each lasted 15 minutes and was directed at four more paintings per grade level. Response was encouraged from the children, and color was a primary focus other than people. From this art, style and color techniques were discussed including center of interest, color repetition, contrast, harmony, etc. Conclusions from the second written response showed a repetition of non-agreement with the adult jury. Children preferred pictures on the basis of color, prettiness, scenery, peOple, and subjects. Technical elements such as light, perspective, and mood were ignored.69 Basing her criteria of aesthetic judgment on "that which is beautiful" or "those subjects having good taste" in pictures, Anna Berliner attempted to measure how various groups of children would rank a series of picture cards 70 according to their aesthetic values. A population (n = 360) of children grades three through eight, evenly divided 69Eunice Waymack and Gordon Hendrickson, "Children's Reactions as a Bias for Teacher Picture Appreciation," The Elementary School Journal 33 (December 1932): 267-278. 7oAnna Berliner, "Aesthetic Judgments of School Children," The Journal of Applied Psychology 2 (September 1918): 229-242. 60 by gender, were asked by Berliner to rank 16 picture post- cards representing illustrations of rhymes and songs for children. Rankings, done separately, involved having each child pick out the most beautiful card of those on the table until none remained. A Pearson product-moments analysis was performed on the data. The researcher found that the ranking order of the pictures was the same for all grades, and between the limits of eight and third graders the ranking order was to a high degree the same for both sexes. Thus, according to Berliner, there was no development in the aesthetic judgment between grades three and eight. Berliner administered the same procedure to 20 Columbia University students and to 22 Barnard stu- dents. In this study the results of the rankings show that not only is there no agreement between taste of col- lege and grammar school children, but the Barnard group judged those pictures beautiful that the children con- sidered least attractive. Howard Gardner's initial study of children's sensi- tivity to art style was Operationalized as the subjects' abilities to choose a second example of an artist's work within an array of four different artists' works (test array) after having seen two works by the same artist (standard array). First, third, sixth, and ninth grade children (n = 80) were given standardized instructions and had two practice sessions during which they were told 61 to point to the painting in the test array that had been painted by the artist shown in the standard array. Results indicated that younger children performed less ably, were quick in their responses, and many mis- understood the task involved. To these younger subjects, sorting by style came to mean sorting by similarity of subject matter. Older students were more introspective, offered explanations for choices, and relied on prior knowledge and exposure to art, although Gardner did noth- ing with these data. In general the older subjects realized that artists paint in characteristic ways and were thus able to look beyond what was represented to the manner in which it was represented. This study has suggested a cluster of skills which may be involved in superior performance of this task and may be involved in sensitivity to painting styles. They are: l. ability to form an overall impression of the painting, 2. ability to note details of a particular artist, 3. prior knowledge of art, 4. ability to get beyond the subject matter in order to focus on the techniques by which the objects were represented, and 5. ability to note one's own affective reac- tion to the sensitivity of the expressive- ness of pictures.71 71Howard Gardner, "Children's Sensitivity to Painting Styles," Child Development 41 (September 1970): 813-821. 62 In both studies of sensivitity to study thus far, the Gardners have defined style as: . . . those qualities of line, texture, and composition which characterize a range of works by the same artist and which remain discernible regardless of subject, dominant colors, size, or medium.72 In the second study, the Gardners sought to find answers to questions involving developmental stages and instructions, the use of criteria for judgment, and the sorting tenden- cies of children of various ages. A pOpulation (n = 120) consisting of 40 first graders, 40 sixth graders, and 40 college sophomores, ages 6, 11, and 19, respectively, was chosen. Twenty subjects from each age level participated in Study I (n = 60), and the second group (n = 60) parti- cipated in Study II. Study I involved research question number one. The subjects were asked to group four paint- ings into groups of two which the subjects found most simi- lar or most alike. Study II was directed toward research question number two. The subjects were given the same directions as study one except they were told that two paintings were done by one artist and two were done by the second artist. They were then asked to sort into two piles according to the artist. Results indicated that of the two choices grouped by subject matter or style without specific direction (much like free response), all aged subjects tended to group by subject matter. When explicit instruc- tions were given to group by study, most sixth graders or 721bid., p. 814. 63 older were able to go beyond subject matter and attend to style. First graders gave almost an equal number of re- sponses regardless of instructions. Contrary to assump- tions made, older students did not, as a matter of course, go to higher level evaluative processes in sorting unless directed.73 In his quest to illuminate the place of or develop- mental trends in stylistic and figural sensitivity, Gardner chose second and fifth grade students (n = 48) as subjects in this third study.74 His research questioned whether (a) pre-adolescents could learn to consistently sort paint- ings by style or figure and (b) whether stylistic sensi- tivity is dependent upon Operational level of the subject. These children individually viewed postcard sized repro- ductions of 160 sets of paintings over a period of 13 weeks. Each painting set contained two pictures by Artist A and two by Artist B, all of which had strong figural properties in common. A pretest situation involved the children sorting 20 sets of pictures into groups that looked alike. This initial group was then divided into those subjects who sorted by style features (SG n = 12) and those who sorted by figural aspects (FG n = 12). 73Howard Gardner and Judith Gardner, "Developmental Trends in Sensitivity to Form and Subject Matter in Paint- ings," Studies in Art Education 15 (Winter 1973): 52-56. 74Howard Gardner, "The DevelOpment of Sensitivity to Figural and Stylistic Aspects of Paintings," The British Journal of Psychology 63 (November 1972): 605-615. 64 From the second week through the ninth week, the chil- dren were told to sort the pictures in a special way with- out being told what the special way was. Reinforcement or correction was given. Three weeks later, the SG children were shown how to sort by figural aspects while the FG group was instructed to sort by stylistic features. In many cases the younger children seemed shocked when they were told there was an alternative way to sort pictures. They eventually began to sort by color, position, size, subject, and realism. Older subjects in the 86 group, upon realizing that groups were not rewarded, sought to find an alternative and, consequently, found that manner of representation was rewarded, such as brush strokes, texture, and overall similarities. Results show that pre- adolescents can sort paintings in a consistent manner and, more importantly, according to these researchers, there was no evidence that operational level was a principle determinant of style sensitivity. Gardner stated: Most of the younger subjects had not reached concrete operations; yet, when reinforced for sorting by style, a majority of the younger sub- jects performed at a higher level.75 Primary to the present study was Gardners' discussion of steps toward style sensitivity which included the (a) sub- ject's ability to make an overall judgment of similarity or a global impression and (b) subject's ability to 751bid., p. 613. 65 determine how the painting would feel if it could be touched, or the texture. Both approaches signify the use of a mechanism termed "Gestalt perception" by Lorenz,76 or the capacity to focus on essential attributes of a class of stimuli enabling children to make fine discriminations. Gardners' study supports the hypothesis that pre-adolescents can form Ges- talten for artists' styles and textures that pre- adolescents can realize the Gestalt of the components which make up a work of art. In attempting to measure developmental trends in children's sensitivity to form and subject matter, the Gardners used volunteers, ages five, seven, 11, and 19 (n = 100). The subjects, in a sorting procedure, were asked to sort 20 sets of stimuli cards into two piles based on similarity. Sets were comprised of four pic- tures; two had salient subject matter, and two had a domi- nant figure such as a robin, birds in flight, a rose, or a floral arrangement. The results of such an experiment would help deter- mine what children notice in works of art. Gardners' find- ings were similar to previous studies. Younger children sort by subject matter, the robin and the rose, and pre- adolescents began to notice factors other than subject 76K. Lorenz, "The Role of Gestalt Percpetion in Ani- mal and Human Behavior." In L. L. Whyte (Ed.), Aspects of Form (New York: Midland, 1966): 8. 66 matter. Adolescents, on the other hand, sorted the paint- ings according to aspects of form going beyond the obvious. Subjects cited aspects of color, quality of line, realism, excellence of art work, use of detail, and general textural properties. The Gardners concluded that with the older subjects, because they changed orientation at will, sub- ject matter and form are equally valid bases for sorting works of art.77 According to DePorter and Kavanaugh, one important aspect of aesthetic appreciation is the ability to iden- tify the painting style of an artist. In this study, which is an extension of Gardner's original work, children (n = 40) ages 10 and 14, enrolled in a private school, used a match-to-sample technique whereby the subjects were asked to examine a sample array containing the work of one artist and then identify the work of the same artist in a four choice item array. The children were also directed to respond giving justifications for their choices which were subjsequently analyzed according to three categories: (a) subject matter or content only, (b) subject matter plus global impression, and (c) all of the characteristics above plus stylistic details. Thus, children who cited many reasons for their choices were credited with the highest explanation offered. In addition, DePorter and Kavanaugh controlled for prior knowledge of arts and 77Gardner, "Developmental Trends," pp. 11-16. 67 concomitant experiences by administering a questionnaire devised to measure children's levels of artistic and cul- tural awareness. The researchers found that eighth graders signifi- cantly detected similarity in painting styles. Younger children made substantially more subject matter the only justification (a ratio of 3 to 1), and older students made twice as many stylistic judgments as the young group (a ratio of 2 to 1). Using the data from the questionnaire, the researcher also found that children's sensitivity to painting styles was related to their prior artistic and cultural experience. Thus, the findings were consistent with Gardner's 197078 study that the ability to recognize two paintings done by the same artist is obviously a com- plicated skill develOping late in childhood. In their conclusions, DePorter and Kavanaugh stated their belief that two major processes influence the deve10pment of style sensitivity: 1. the developing perceptual abilities of the child and 2. the contribution of priorgrelevant cultural and artistic experience. They explain the first process as the younger child's ten- dency to focus or concentrate on only one aspect of a 781bid. 79Deborah A. DePorter and Robert D. Kavanaugh, "Para- meters of Children's Sensitivity to Painting Styles," Studies in Art Education 20 (1978): 43, 48. 68 stimulus. However, the older child is able to decentrate or focus on many aspects of a painting. This results in the ability of the older child to notice global aspects of a painting as well as stylistic and technical features. In this sense the researchers say the response justifica- tions used in this study support the Piagetian description of perceptual development.80 Moore attempted, in individual interviews, to find out how children respond to selected art works prior to any formal instruction in art appreciation. In control- ling for weaknesses of previous preference and verbal response studies, Moore included the following eight re- quirements in his study: (a) use of neutral questions, (b) response to three works of art rather than one favo- rite, (c) subjects required to state a preference and a rationale, (d) use of specific categories for classify- ing responses, (e) use of a second classification of aspects of the art work, (f) use of a grade one through 12 age span, (9) use of subjects with no art training, and (h) use of large color reproductions. Subjects (n = 100) of first, fourth, seventh, tenth, and twelfth grade students responded verbally to a set of paintings. Each set was comprised of three styles of art; namely, representational, semi-abstract, and non- representational works. 80Jean Piaget, The Mechanisms of Perception (New York: Basic Books, 1969). 69 The categories for analysis were: 1. objective; statements of facts; 2. associative; statements referring to specific personal reminiscences; 3. subjective; statements which suggested the subjects' mood arousal; and 4. character expression; statements which attribugpd human feelings to the art object. Using a chi-square analysis, he found that younger children made prOportionally more objective statements than did the older children, and proportionally the older children made more character-expression statements. As with previous studies, the most frequent type of state- ment at all grade levels was the objective recall, factual response. Findings in regard to style indicated that representational works received the most varied types of statements yet fewer associative comments and more character-expression remarks than were expected. Semi- abstract art received more associative remarks and fewer character-expression and subjective statements than were expected. Again, the representational work was the pre- dominant favorite, and younger children responded to the objects and the art elements more frequently than did the older children. Upon close perusal of the quantities of each type of categorical comment made other than objective 81Barry Edward Moore, "A Description of Children's Verbal Responses to Works of Art in Selected Grades One Through Twelve" (Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Urbana, Champaign, IL, 1970). 70 remarks resulted in a ratio of 26.9, objective remarks made for each remark found in the other three categories. An overwhelmingly skewed response pattern indicated to this researcher the presence of a trained incapacity to go beyond a basic-literal level of response. Cianciolo, in an action research study using 32 sixth grade subjects, hypothesized that the more children were exposed to a wide variety of art styles, the more varied would be their preferences for styles of book art. Over a 10 week period, the following procedure was followed. The researcher (a) read aloud picture books, (b) discussed the artists and authors, (c) discussed the medium used, (d) compared the original works of art with the illustrations in the books, (e) guided the subjects to look for charac- teristic aspects of art styles of specific artists, and (f) guided the subjects to think about the appropriateness of the illustrations for the kinds of stories depicted. Prior to this study, the researcher noted that the sub- jects did not look at picture books. They were compulsive in their attempts to draw in the representational style. After the 10 week study, results indicated that the chil- dren (a) attempted drawing in various styles and topics, (b) were using stylistic terms in their discussions, (c) requested specific books artists in the library, and (d) 71 began to think evaluatively about the authors and artists who created their books.82 In a previously discussed study, Moore's conclusion in regard to the preponderances of objective factual responses found was that the docu- mented responses were "the only kinds of responses the children knew how to make."83 Cianciolo's study seems to give credence to this conclusion, yet goes further and shows how to take children beyond this low level of re- sponse to a higher level of art appreciation and under- standing. Storey, using a pre-posttest experimental design with 60 fifth graders over a period of five weeks, interviewed the children to determine whether (a) a three-week study of art styles would influence children's use of pertinent, stylistic, emotional and evaluative art terms when discus- sing representational, expressionistic, and cartoon styles of art; (b) a measure of the student's preference or re- jection of the target styles of art could be found, (c) measure of gained usage of stylistic and evaluative terms in discussing style preferences could be found; and (d) the subjects became more aware of the book art in 82Patricia J. Cianciolo, "Children's Responses to Il- lustrations in Picture Books," in Geoff Fox, Graham Hammond with Stuart Amor (Eds.), Responses to Children's Litera- ture: Proceedings of the Fourth Symposium of the Interna- tional Research Soceity for Children's Literature, held at the University of Exeter, England, September 9-12, 1978 (New York: K. G. Saur, 1980): 102-107. 33Moore, p. 31. 72 children's selections. An instrument, designed by the re- searcher consisted of questions encompassing the subsec- tions of style, object/subject descriptions, comparisons, media and technique, emotion, opinion of artists' work, characterization, and other reasons. In a classroom pre- session, the subjects listened to a fairy tale. From six classroom groups, a random sample of treatment and control subjects were chosen. The subjects were shown three picture-paired stylistic versions of one fairy tale and ultimately interviewed using the designed instrument. For a following three-week period, the examiner met with the treatment group, read and discussed the characteristics of 30 picture books in the three target art styles. After the three weeks, the treatment and control students were again read to and interviewed using an identical instrument except for an additional question directed toward the classroom display of picture books. Major findings indicate that group style instruction did influence children's responses to art at an .01 level of significance and again at an .01 level of significance subjects responded to art styles using stylistic terms. Also, a significant number of subjects chose the represen- tational style over the cartoon and expressionistic styles of art.84 84Denise Carol Storey, "A Study of Fifth Graders' Ver- bal Responses to Selected Illustrations in Children's Books Before and After a Guided Study of Three Styles of Art Used to Illustrate Fairy Tales" (Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 1977). 73 Although the length of the children's responses in- creased, it was noted that the level of sophistication did not. The limited three-week exposure could account for this lack of sophistication. More importantly, the length of the responses show the degree of comfort with which the children discussed the illustrations in books. This study gives credibility to the previous stance of Cianciolo that exposure to art styles does, in fact, Effect children's preferences in book art. Research Involving Concept of Story Much of the research today in the sense or structure of story is rooted in psychology and language and is asso- ciated with psycholinguistic research on comprehension, story grammars, and recall (e.g., Bower, Bruce, DeBeau- 85). This research, how- grande and Miller, and Van Dijk ever, is beyond the scope of the present review. Bartlett, in his pioneering study on memory in 1932, Remembering,86 suggested that people develop schemata of 85Gordon H. Bower, "Experiments of Story Understand- ing and Recall," Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psycho- logy 28 (1976): 511-534; Bertram Bruce, "What Makes a Good Story?" Language Arts 55 (1978): 460-466; Robert DeBeau- garde and Genevieve W. Miller, "Processing Models for Chil- dren's Story Comprehension," Poetics 9 (1980): 181-201; Teun A. Van Dijk, "Story Comprehension: An Introduction," Poetics 9 (1980): 1-21. 86Frederic Bartlett, Remembering: A Study in Experi- mental and Social Psychology (Cambridge: University Press, 1964. 74 what stories are like. As it is generally interpreted today, a memory schemata is a structured cluster of gained knowledge that represents a particular concept and asso- ciations. Several researchers have begun to study memory schemata in the context of human text processing. This research involves the hypothesis that readers use pre- viously learned schemata to aid understanding and produc- tion of simple narrative stories in memory.87 Applebee reported an analysis of 120 stories told by preschool children using an approach derived from Vygot- sky's 88 stages of concept development. Applebee identi- fied six patterns of production of story. He found (using Vygotsky's terms) heaps, sequences, primitive narratives, O I I 89 unfocused cha1ns, focused cha1ns, and narratives. Impor- tant to this study are focused chains or the structure in which a chain of incidents is related to a concrete cen- ter, usually a main character who has a series of adven- tures. Applebee found that focused chains were the most popular structure for older children. In addition, he found that specific story structures which represent in- creasingly difficult cognitive tasks helped manipulate new 87Perry W. Thorndyke and Frank Yekovich, "A Critique of Schema-Based Theories of Human Story Memory," Poetics 9 (1980): 23-24. 88Lev S. Vygotsky, Thought and Language (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1962). 89Arthur Applebee, The Child's Concept of Story: Ages Two to Seventeen (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978. 75 and diverse reading materials. In fully developed exam- ples of literature, both of the basic structuring prin- ciples, chaining, and centering are prevalent. Applebee further found that as children mature their shared stories included more patterns of behavior removed from their frame of immediate experience.90 This distancing accord- ing to Applebee was indicated by the child's attempt to deal with a threatening situation by a change of the nar- rator or a change in setting or time.91 Much of Apple- bee's finding in regard to distancing seem to be age- dependent. Applebee's informal exploration of the concept of story of five through seven year olds utilized an inter- view technique which attempted to get at children's per- ceptions of (a) what happens in a story, (b) what makes a good story, and (c) where these stories came from. Major findings include: 1. explaining why a story was good or bad was a difficult task for these children. If urged, they turned to a narration of the character's actions for evidence; 2. younger children retold stories rather than talking about stories; and 3. younger children seemed to move through stages, from characters as being real toward the realization that characters are made up.92 90Arthur N. Applebee, ”Children's Narratives: New Directions," Reading Teacher 34 (November 1980): 140. 91 Applebee, Concept of Story, p. 79. 92Arthur Applebee, "Where Does Cinderella Live?" In Margaret Meek, et al., The Cool Web: The Pattern of Chil- dren's Reading (New York: Atheneum, 1978): 51-57. 76 Applebee's major design with 88 six-through-l7 year olds called for two sets of interviews with six and nine year olds and a similar reading questionnaire for the nine, 13, and 17 year olds. The questions were designed to gain information about children's reasons for story preference, their manner of discussing a story, expectations about character roles, understanding of the origin of a story, sense of the fictional element, retelling ability, and interpretation of a metaphorical statement or proverb. His findings gave him the basis for a systematic model of the development of verbal response. His stages cor- respond to Piaget's cognitive stages. 1. Preoperational stage (up to seven years): the typical response is retelling with little evidence of reorganization or sum- mation of the story. 2. Concrete pperational stage (from seven to about 12): the child's response re- flects reorganization, the ability to summarize and/or categorize. Subjective response included labeling words such as "exciting," or'an adventure;'although the child perceived this part of the work itself rather than his/her personal response. 3. Formal operational stage (from 12 to 16): objective response is formulated as analy- sis. Readers are aware of the distinction between their own objective and subjective reactions; they perceived and talked about their own involvement in the work. 4. Formal operational stage II (from about 16 years into adulthood): readers made gen- eralizations and formulated abstract state- ments about theme and meaning, moving beyond the information. They recognized a literary work as a statement of the possibility of human experience rather than as a literal 77 representation of life. Subjective response focused on self awareness of personal reac- tion and the felt effect of the work.93 Applebee notes that this is a cumulative model; at any one stage, the children could draw on the typical formulation of earlier stages.94 Mandler and Johnson reported on a study which under- took to analyze the underlying structure of simple stories and the examination of the implications of such structure for recall. It was noted that children construct story schemata from two sources. One source comes from listen- ing to stories and consists of knowledge about the sequenc- ing of the events in stories, including how they typically begin and end. The other source comes from experience and gained knowledge about causal relations and various kinds of action sequences. These researchers used a grammar to parse four stories. The grammar, a tree-like structure, represented the structure of simple stories. Twenty-one first and fourth graders and university students listened to tape recordings of four stories. Each subject was asked to individually recall two stories; one was told and recall was tested after a 10 minute unrelated task, and the second was told and recall tested 24 hours later. The transcribed protocols were scored for presence or absence of each proposition in the story grammar. The 93Applebee, Concept of Story, Chapters 6 and 7. 94Ibid., p. 125. 78 recall findings from the immediate and delayed conditions were highly similar for all three groups. The recall of first and fourth graders formed two clusters; settings, beginnings, and outcomes were well recalled; and attempts, endings, and reactions were poorly recalled. The adults recalled attempts as well as settings, beginnings, and outcomes while endings and external reactions of charac- ters lagged significantly behind. Thus, children and adults used similar retrieval activities which demonstrate that young children are capable of organized retrieval, but their emphasis is on the outcomes of action sequences rather than the actions themselves or the internal events motivating them. Their data suggest that story schemata differ at various points of development and that, conse- quently, there are qualitative differences in recall.95 95Jean Mandler and Nancy S. Johnson, "Rememberance of Things Parsed: Story Structure and Recall," Cognitive Psychology (1977): 111-151. CHAPTER III DESIGN AND PROCEDURES The purpose of this study was to determine a proce- dure for revealing aspects of the aesthetic responses of fifth grade children to contemporary picture books wherein a fusion of text and illustration presents the story and the message. Utilizing an extension questioning technique to facilitate the reexperiencing of the processing behav- iors of reading, this researcher sought to determine if, in actual fact, there is present an aesthetic response in children's response to literature approached as an art form. This chapter will describe: 1. the 2. the a. b. 3. the 4. the design of the study; procedures for collecting the data: the development of the procedures for collection of the data and the procedures for analyzing the data; selection of population; and selection of picture books. Design The basic design for this exploratory study involved five separate videotaping sessions for each subject. Each 79 80 subject read a selection of literature silently on video- tape (sessions I-A, II-A, III-A, and IV-A) and responded verbally to the selection (sessions I-B, II-B, III-B, and IV-B) immediately following each silent reading. A struc- tured interview (session I-C) followed sessions I-A and I-B. The design is summarized in Table 3.1. The Procedure Procedures involved videotaping each subject while he/she read four separate selections of literature, verbal responses to the four selections by the subject, and a structured interview with the researcher of the first selection of literature. Each subject followed an identi- cal procedure through the duration of the five videotaped sessions. These sessions involved a commitment of approxi- mately seven and one-half hours per subject. Although the procedures were identical, the sequence of literary selec- tions offered to the subjects, after the first selection, was varied so that with the exception of the first liter- ary selection each of the four subjects was exposed to the literary selections in different orders. This variance was intended to avoid any rank ordering of the literary selections on the part of the researcher and to provide an opportunity for any change of response to reveal itself (see Table 3.1). Four sessions were comprised of two phases labeled Phase A, a silent involvement of the reader with the 81 Table 3.1 Summary of Basic Design of Study Male A Female B Female C Male D IA, videotape silent reading session 1 l l 1 IB, videotape oral response session 1 l l 1 IC, videotape struc- tured interview 1 1 l l IIA, videotape silent reading session 2 3 4 4 IIB, videotape oral response session 2 3 4 4 IIIA, videotape silent reading session 3 4 2 3 IIIB, videotape oral response session 3 4 2 3 IVA, videotape silent reading session 4 2 3 2 IVB, videotape oral response session 4 2 3 2 KEY: Selections of Literature l. The Accident by Carol Carrick, Donald Carrick illustrated by 2. Rabbit Island by Jdrg Steiner, illustrated by J6rg Muller 3. Time To Get Out of the Bath, Shirley by John Burningham 4. The Climb by Carol Carrick, illustrated by Donald Carrick A. Phase A B. Phase B C. Phase C 82 selection, and Phase B, a verbal response session. The fifth session included Phase C, a structured interview session with selection one. Each session lasted approxi- mately one and one-half hours. Each subject's parent or guardian was asked to dis- cuss the prOposed study with his/her child. If the child agreed to participate in the study, the parent(s) signed a letter of permission (see Appendix A). Also each child was asked to sign a separate personal letter of permission which indicated (a) what was required of him/her, (b) that the tapes were confidential, and (c) that the child could withdraw from the study at any time (see Appendix B). The subject's permission form was a requirement of the Univer- sity Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects of Michigan State University (UCRIHS). In advance of each session, a response sheet was filled out by the researcher with information about the child, the selection, the tape number, and the order of the selections for each session according to the design (see Appendix C). Taping Session (Phases A & B) At the initial meeting of the subject and the re- searcher, the researcher enlisted the aid of the subject in setting up the videotape equipment. During these pre- liminary steps, the child received a thorough first-hand explanation of the mechanical process involved. The 83 children had the opportunity to use the equipment and to watch themselves on the monitor before beginning each ses- sion, specifically working with the camera, tape deck, monitor, and microphone. A detailed listing of equipment can be found in Appendix D. See Table 3.2 for setting and equipment for the taping sessions. Phase A (Sessions I-A, II-A, III-A, IV-A). Phase A of the first four videotaping sessions was a silent reading response session of uninterrupted involvement of the reader with a selection of literature. Phase B (Sessions I-B, II-B, III-B, IV-B). Phase B was an unstructured, introspective, verbal response session with the researcher. Phase B of Session I immedi- ately followed Phase A of Session I. An extension ques- tioning technique was used throughout Phase B by the researcher with the reader in order to facilitate the pro- cess of reexperiencing the selection of literature or the examination of one's mental state or processing behaviors during reading. Each session took place in the school library when the child had unscheduled free time. Thus no lessons were in- terruptedcnrpreempted. As each session began, the child was seated at a rectangular table to the right of the re- searcher, facing the monitor and the micrOphone. Each subject was given the choice of facing the monitor or hav- ing it turned so that only the researcher was able to View 84 Table 3.2. Setting and Equipment for Taping Sessions. Setting: Library Facing Subject and Researcher Key: S = Subject C = Camera B = Book M2 = Monitor and cart R = Researcher TD = Tapedeck M1 = Microphone P = Procedural directions 85 it. All subjects indicated that they preferred to face the monitor (see Table 3.2). At this time the researcher told the subject that standard Operating procedures were necessary in a research study and that directions for the sessions had to be iden- tical for every subject in every session. The subjects were encouraged to ask miscellaneous questions prior to the beginning of each session in case they needed further clarification about procedures. All subjects were told that their participation in the research would involve four separate sessions. They were told that they would read silently and respond verbally to four selections of literature on videotape, one selections per session, and a separate structured interview in which they would be asked specific questions about one selection. It was also explained that what was said in the response sessions would be transcribed on paper and eventually analyzed by the researcher. Phase A (silent reading). The camera was turned on, and the researcher specifically said: , I want you to know that this is not a test Situation; there is no right or wrong answer involved here; everything you say is confidential; only myself and my committee at the university will ever see these responses without your permission, and they will only know your first name. Do you have any ques- tions? The subject answered yes or pg. If the answer were pg, the following was specifically said by the researcher: 86 Thank you for participating in this study with me. I appreciate your help. , this is a picture book called by , illustrated by . I would like you to read the text of this book carefully and look at the illustrations closely. You will read the book silently. There is no time limit on your reading, so take as much time as you need to understand the book. Do you have any ques- tions? If pg, the child started to read. When the child finished reading the selection, the camera was stopped momentarily in order to check the coun— ter which gave a reading of remaining tape. This pause ensured that the child's response would not be interrupted. Phase B (reader response). The researcher specifi- cally said: We know that the mind works a lot faster than we can read. And so, during the reading you just did, there were many things going through your mind. There may have been feelings which you were having that are hard to put into words. There may have been some things which you saw in your mind. There may have been some things that you thought about which you experienced in the past or hope to experience in the future. All of these things make up a response to a book. As we turn to each page of the book, I would like you to tell me: --what you were feeling, --what you were seeing in your mind, and --what you were thinking about while you read. The thoughts which came to your mind could either be about yourself or they could be about the thoughts of the characters, the feelings of the characters, or the images the characters might be having. You may begin with the title and cover of the book. 87 After the child finished responding verbally to the book, the camera was turned off. Phase C (structured interview). After the first ses- sion, Phase A and Phase B of selection one, the tape was checked and the camera was turned on for Phase C which occurred only once during the study. This structured interview session was formulated in order to specifically discern if the subject recognized and used the artistic literary conventions such as plot structure, theme, char- acterization, mood, setting, style, point of view, and dialogue of the selection. Further, it was formulated in order to see how the subject recognized and used the same artistic literary conventions in regard to the illustra- tions in the selection. Once the camera was turned on, the researcher speci- fically said: , this is a structured interview. I am going to ask you questions about the selec- tion you just finished. I am going to leave the book you read here in front of you on the table so you may look at it whenever you want to. Structured interview. 1. Is there any special meaning in the title of the book or the picture on the cover? 2. How would you describe this story? . . . or what is this story about? 3. In your opinion, explain why you think the author wrote this story as she/he did. 10. 11. 12. 88 At what point in the book did the story begin for you? Why? Do you know who is telling this story? How do you know this? How does this book get you to know what the characters are experiencing? . . . or what are the characters feeling, seeing, touching, or smelling? Describe the most important parts of this story for you. Put them in some order if possible. Did the characters change in this story? How? If you were to think of this story as a mes- sage to you, what would that message be? Say more. Suppose the main character had kept a jour- nal or a diary. What do you think she/he would have written in this diary at the beginning, middle, and end of this story? Was there a point in this story, for you, where you knew how the story would end? Explain. Why do you think the author chose the canoe in the story rather than another kind of boat? Illustration. l. 2. In what ways do you think the illustrator helped tell this story? When you think about the book, what colors do you think of? Why do you think the artist chose these par- ticular colors to illustrate this story? In your opinion, how did the illustrator help you know what the characters were feeling, seeing, or thinking? 89 Extension Ques- tioning Technique The extension questioning technique is a procedure which attempts to facilitate the reexperiencing or the introspective behaviors of the subject after his/her per- sonal involvement with the literary selection. IntrOSpec- tive response is the ability to examine one's mental state or processing behaviors which occurred while reading and to subsequently verbalize this experience of reading, in this study, according to what was felt, thought, or imagined. All subjects were videotaped, but videotape served merely as a recording device and not the primary stimulus. Because of the absence of any definitive overt or verbal interaction on the tape when the child was involved with the selection of literature, a concentration on the ques- tioning technique became an apparent necessity. Further evidence with a preliminary trial procedure using a child responding to the videotape of her involvement with a selection of literature indicated that the subject's pri- mary stimulus was not the videotape of herself reading, but the selection of literature which was placed in front of her. The unstructured extension questioning technique at- tempts to, through neutral or non-judgmental yet probing questioning, facilitate the subject's introspective behav- iors in three ways. First, it attempts to create an ac- cepting atmosphere so the subject feels no pressure to 90 seek answers outside of him/herself. The researcher, upon a given response by the child, would say, "I see." When there appeared to be some blatant confusion or contradic- tion heard by the researcher, the researcher would repeat verbatim what the child said, such as, "This is how you feel (how you think, what you imagine) about it . . . " This allowed the child to hear what he/she said and accept or change it accordingly. If a child seemed to be having difficulty responding, the researcher would say, "What were you feeling, thinking, or imagining here?" Second, it attempts to gain clarification of feelings, thoughts, or imagps expressed by the subject. For instance, if the child's response was, "He looks sad," the researcher would say, "Say more," or , "What do you mean by that?" or "How does 'sad' look?" Third, it attempts to go beyond super- ficial levels of response, as in the above example, in order to expand or extend the response through helping the subject realize how he/she came to offer the response. This realization, if it occurred, was solely the word of the subject. It seems as if upon saying more about some- thing, an understanding was created on the part of the student as to how the response came to be initially. Development of Procedures The development of exploratory taping response proce- dures which could be used with fifth grade students and which ultimately might reveal the presence of aspects of 91 aesthetic response was crucial to this present study. Such procedures were designed by this researcher with the aid of seven students and 12 pilot taping sessions. The development of taping procedures was accomplished during these sessions. The students were taped, responded to the selections of literature (ultimately Phases A andfn and later discussed with the researcher how the procedure was done and what could improve it. Or what the researcher could have asked or said to make the procedure more under- standable for the next subject. The first five taping sessions involved the partici- pation of a sixth grader Emily and an eighth grader James, both former students of the researcher. The rationale for using older students than those involved in the proposed study was the probability that these students had reached the Piagian develOpmental stage of formal operations which marks the start of abstract thought and deductive reason- ing.1 For this reason and because these students were within one year, specifically Emily, of the developmental age of the prOposed subjects the results on her pilot study would indicate or give this researcher some insight into the ability of the fifth grade students to verbalize his/her thoughts, feelings, and images. And insight into the ability of the students to convey verbally their re- experience of the selection or their introspective 1Jean Piaget. The Origins of Intelligence in Chil- dren (New York: International Universities Press), 1952. 92 response of their involvement with the book. As hypothe- sized, Emily and James' pilot sessions helped this re- searcher to gain confidence in the taping procedures. Together, through brainstorming, problem solving, and trial and error, the rudimentary mechanical Operations of the procedures were developed for such details as the li- brary as a setting for the taping sessions, equipment placement, especially camera angle, position of researcher, microphone, monitor, lighting, and book placement. The questioning techniques were discussed and rewritten after each taping session until a clear, concise, non-committal technique was formulated for this age child. Other training by the researcher included viewing the film "The Inquirer Role" which is one part of a series Of films used to train potential counseling therapists in Norman Kagan's Inter-Personal Process Recall (IPR) tech- niques. After viewing, studying, and practicing the inquirer role, questioning techniques, this researcher was instructed further by a formally IPR-trained counseling therapist, who viewed the pilot studies and made correc- tions and valuable suggestions as to questioning procedures. The final seven pilot taping sessions involved the participation of fifth grade students. From these ses- sions, the directions and questioning techniques were 2Norman Kagan et al., "Interpersonal Process Recall," Journal Of Nervous and Mental Diseases 148 (1969), PP. 365-374. 93 improved so that a concise direction could be given, under- stood, and followed by other fifth grade students. This same thorough procedure was followed for the structured interview questions in the following manner. The taped student was questioned regarding the procedure while on tape, the tape was reviewed, and the questions were re-written until the present structured interview existed. Once the directions were followed adequately by the following pilot subject, without confusion or puzzle- ment, and the structured interview questions were under- stood and answered without apparent difficulty, the re- searcher began the final taping sessions for the proposed study. The remaining five children on the master list, four of whom completed the tapings, thus became the sub- jects of this study. The fifth student was unable to com- plete all four sessions because of family commitments. Development of Instrument The construction of the instrument which would syste- matically answer the research questions found in this exploratory study was essential and of major significance. The instrument was based on the theories and findings gleaned from literary response writings and research studies in three areas: (a) aesthetic response, (b) the the literary work of art, and (c) the subjects' involve- ment in response to the text and illustration of a 94 a selection Of literature. The instrument designed for this study, therefore, is limited to these three areas. Since it was the intention Of this researcher to ascertain whether the actual presence of aesthetic response to specific literary works of art could be documented, the associated characteristics of aesthetic response were gleaned from the professional literature pertaining to aesthetic response as it relates to a literary work of art. Four major characteristics of response were delineated. These were (a) the active personal involvement of the reader's sensibilities or imaging; (b) the use Of per- sonal associations by the reader such as ideas, events, places, and people from his/her past experience; (c) the use of the reader's affective feeling or emotional state; and (d) the integral use, by the child, of story structure. Consequently, both the affective and cognitive modes Of thinking are recognized and are represented in the re- sponse instrument. The initial step in divising the following instrument was to listen to a sample of response tapes and to list mutually inclusive variables which were present in the responses. These variables were grouped into those deal- ing with reader involvement, those referring to the selec- tion of literature, and those pertaining to cognitive processes. A final instrument of fifteen major variables and eighteen subvariables was devised. 95 The design Of Instrument I is a categorical model of variables, each having a binary value of (a) present and (b) not present, except for variables one (V1), person reference, and three (V3), bOOk reference, which have three values, and the fifth (V5) and sixth (V6) variables, which have five each. These variables, (V5), potency of affect, and (V6), affective activity level Of reader, are continuum scales modeled on Osgood's3 Affective Cog- nition Studies using differential semantic scales which demand of the coder that the source material be conceptu- alized as a continuum. Each scale is anchored by polar Opposite terms, (1) and (5), and no meaning is assigned to the intermediate scale points of (2), (3), and (4), thus the coder describes the response unit as how far away it is from the two polar extremes (see appendix E). The variables of the instrument represent three broad areas of aesthetic response: (a) the active personal experience of the reader, the interior happening; (b) the integral use of story structure, the Object, which in- cludes both text and illustration; and (c) the levels of cognition which can be thought of as the organizing pro- cess the subject experiences as he/she responds to the literary selection of art. It is this facet of aesthetic response which, with the two preceeding facets of event 3C. E. Osgood, G. J. Suci, and P. H. Tanenbaum, The Measurement of Meaning (Urbana: University Of Illinois Press, 1957). 96 and Object combine to form the message and, ultimately, the meaning for the reader Of the selection. This researcher has chosen to use Bloom's taxonomy,4 adapted for literary response by Charlotte Huck.5 Her definitions and hierarchical levels Of cognitive thought 5 to V210n Instrument I. These variables derived from her divergent questioning procedures which are variables V1 allow for more than one acceptable response, thus support- ing the premise of idiosyncratic response. The levels Of thought, beginning with recall at the literal level, pro- ceed through translation, interpretation, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation or judgment (see defi- nitions for instrument in Appendix F). Reliability In order to utilize the instrument designed for this study, a degree of reliability or the extent to which this researcher using the same techniques on the same materials will get substantially the same results had to be estab- lished. The following procedures, consisting of two sep- arate rating situations, were used to assess the reliabil- ity of the instrument. 4Benjamin S. Bloom (Ed.), Taxonomy of Educational Ob- jectives (New York: David McKay Co., 1956). 5Charlotte S. Huck, Children's Literature in the Ele- mentary School (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976): PP. 22-27. 97 Step I: dividing transcripts into response units. Since the major instrument was to be used for analyzing response units using the 32 variables previously described, the first step toward reliability in this study entailed assessing the degree of reliability Of the ability of the principal investigator to divide the response transcripts of the aesthetic reSponses Of the subjects into response units. The response unit re-defined by this researcher after the limited pilot discussion Of terms with the literary raters was: A combination of words, phrases, or sen- tenses which conveys the sense Of an indepen- dent response event in the form of an image, a thought, or a feeling. It is a discrete core concept or idea bounded by modifiers and/or causative factors. The researcher divided the response transcript Of Fe- male Subject B with Book 1, The Accident, into response units according to the definition. In order to establish a degree of reliability for the principal investigator's division of transcripts into response units for content analysis, six raters--five educators and a counseling psychologist--divided the response transcript into re- sponse units according to the definition. The raters were Dr. Marcia Boznanzo, elementary school principal; Ms. Jean McGarvey, parent library coordinator; Ms. J. Leigh Fairey, elementary school librarian; Ms. Barbara Stevens and Ms. Barbara Meloche, elementary school teachers; and Ms. Linda A. Covey, counseling psychologist. All raters were 98 involved in children's response to selections of litera- ture although from different perspectives. Using the in- strument designed for this step, the raters independently divided the complete transcript into response units. The instrument consisted of a cover sheet that con- tained the definition Of a response unit and a set of directions as to the exact procedure they were to follow in dividing the transcripts into response units. Three examples Of response units were given. (See Appendix G for the complete instrument.) A chart was used to show agreement or no agreement with the principal researcher's division Of response units. This chart showed the agreement or no agreement of the division Of the transcripts into units according to the number of divided units per page (see Table 3.3). The data from this chart were placed in a formula offered by Holsti6 to determine the reliability of two raters. This same formula could be extended for n raters: 2(U1,2) U1+U2 U1,2 represents the number Of response units both (all) raters agree on and U1+U2 is the total unit assignments made by both (all) raters. Extending the formula to n raters enabled the researcher to determine the reliability 6Ole R. Holsti, Content Analysis for the Social Sciences and Humanities (Massachusetts: Addison and Wes- ley Publishing, 1969), p. 68. 99 for the first procedure (i.e., dividing the transcript into response units). Of the 52 response units in the principal investigator's list, all seven raters agreed on 85% of the units in the transcript. (See Table 3.4 for inter-rater reliability Of response units.) Step II: reliabiliry Of the major instrument. Six raters, the principal investigator, two instructors of children's literature at the university level, an elemen- tary school librarian, and two educators with masters' degrees in literature and language arts were used as raters in this segment. All raters were involved with children and interested in their response to selections of literature. The names Of the raters were Ms. Beth LaForce, Dr. Bette Bosma, Ms. Joan Fairey, Ms. Carolyn Dudley, and Ms. Barbara Amsberg. Using the instrument designed for this study, the raters independently carried out the content analysis of the response units. This instrument consisted of a cover sheet with instructions, the numbered response units (Sec- tion A), definitions of instrument terms (Section B), a code book Of variable values (Section C) and coding sheets, the instrument (Section D), which consisted of one coding sheet per response unit or fifty-two sheets (see Appendix H). A sample sheet of response units taken from the tran- script of a pilot subject was used as a learning example. The raters were told they could ask clarifying questions 100 Chart of Rater Agreement for Division of Tran- scripts into Response Units Table 3.3. usmfiomumfi was: Hmuoe o nouom_ m nopom_ a umumm_ m “mumm— m umuom_ a noaaa_ Hononmommm Hmmflocflum comm Hon mafia: mo * mHonEdz wood 15 18 X 5-6 20 28 9-10 11-12 13-14 15-16 28 4 25 5 4 24 18 6 17-18 19-20 21 21 18 3 3 3 2 4 21-22 23-24 12 25-26 24 27-28 14 29 52 53 46 54 53 46 49 353 52 TOTAL RATER UNITS KEY agreement per page no agreement X: 0: 101 Table 3.4. Rater Reliability for Step I, Dividing Tran- script into Response Units 7(”1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) R: Rater l, Rater 2, Rater 3, Rater 4, Rater 5, Rater 6, Rater 7 7(42.9) R = 52 + 53 + 46 + 54 + 53 + 46 + 49 300 R = = .85% agreement 353 where: 7 = number Of raters 42.8 = number of items all raters agreed upon (353) 50.4 = average number of units all raters 7 divided about the instrument as they proceeded through the analy- sis. As was explained previously, the raters were asked to rate whether the variable was present or not in the re- sponse, except for variables one (V1), two (V2), five (V5), and six (V6) which had three and five values respectively. (See coding book Of variable values, Section C, of instru- ment.) It was evident after the example analysis that the continuum scales, variables potency of affect (V5) and affective activity of the reader (V6) were not functioning 102 as designed by the researcher. Because there were contin- uum scales and had no meaning for the intermediate scale points Of (2), (3), and (4), the raters were unable to agree on how far the response units were from the two polar extremes. The decision was made to eliminate vari- ables 5 and 6 Of Instrument I from the final study, thus producing Instrument II for inter-rater agreement of Step II (see Appendix A). Once the reliability for response units was accom- plished the second step for attaining a degree of relia- bility for the major instrument in this study could pro- ceed. Using the instrument designed for this step, the raters independently analyzed the response units using Instrument II. Inter-rater agreement of Instrument II. Fifty-two response units were scored by the five raters and the principal researcher according to thirty-one response variables on Instrument II, totaling 1,612 response cells. This researcher found, across five raters, 85.6% total agreement over 1,612 cells between the researcher's scor- ings of the subject's responses and the scorings of the five literary raters (see Table 3.5). There were only 137 cells or 8.5% scored responses below the 60% agreement level. If the percentage of agreement on a variable re- sulted in less than 60 percent, the variable would have been deleted from Instrument II used in the final study. 103 Table 3.5. Percent Agreement of All Raters Across All Cells. Cell value: .062034739 1,612 cells = 52 response units x 31 variables 100% agreement on 930 cells = 57.94% 80% agreement on 340 cells = 21.09% 60% agreement on 201 cells = 12.47% 40% agreement on 94 cells = 5.83% 20% agreement on 37 cells - 2.30% 0% agreement on 6 cells = .37% TOTAL: 1612 cells, 100.00% The lowest percentage Of agreement was 66 percent, so none of the instrument variables was dropped. However, dis- agreement below the 70 percent level existed on three of the thirty-one response variables. The variables were recall with 69 percent agreement, synthesis with 66 per- cent agreement, and mood with 69 percent agreement. Rea- son for these lower agreements could exist in the raters' understanding of definitions and their application. In the actual study, only the principal researcher's ratings were used (see Table 3.6). Procedure for Analyzing the Data for the Content Analysis of Children's Aesthetic Responses In conducting the content analysis, the researcher followed these steps. First, each videotape was made into 1134 Table 3.6. Frequency, Percentage of Agreement for All Raters with All Variables on Instrument II 4.) d m L) I: m a. 94 g u u u u u u (’3 m 3‘ s 3 3 :1 3 :6 “6:: Variable g g 2 g g 62 £8 dog 1. TIME 1. Present 13 17 18 4 18 6 12.7 95 2. Past 38 34 33 48 33 46 38.7. -- 3. Future 1 l 1 0 l 0 .67 -- 2. PERSON 88 1. Reader 10 ll 11 8 l4 8 10.3 -- 2. Character 22 21 21 20 29 22 22.5 -- 3. Both 20 20 20 24 9 22 19.2 -- . ASSOCIATION 10 6 ll 9 23 8 11.2 87 . BOOK 82 l. Illustrations 23 24 25 12 35 22 23.5 -— 2. Text 3 3 3 0 5 4 3 -— 3. Both 26 25 24 40 12 26 25.5 -- 5. AFFECT 47 48 33 27 47 48 41.67 84 6, IDENTIFICATION 18 14 9 13 15 5 12.3 80 7. IMAGE 49 48 20 52 52 52 45.5 84 8. 1. Seeing 49 44 20 51 52 52 44.67 81 9. 2. Hearing 15 17 4 9 2 7 9 84 10. 3. Smelling 0 0 1 0 0 0 .17 100 ll. 4. Touching 2 2 2 2 0 2 1.67 98 12. S. Tasting 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 100 13. PHYSICAL EFFECT 4 3 3 l 4 l 2.67 96 14. RECALL 35 32 21 38 14 38 29.67 69 15. TRANSLATION 0 0 2 0 l 0 .5 99 16. INTERPRETATION 48 49 48 52 50 49 49.33 91 1?. APPLICATION 9 0 9 2 30 5 9.17 81 18. SYNTHESIS 37 26 15 5032 24 30.67 66 19. JUDGMENT 33 46 38 19 33 27 32.67 75 20. ANALYSIS 49 46 33 47 46 47 44.67 91 21. 1. Plot 12 12 8 28 15 16 15.17 74 22. 2. Theme 1 2 2 18 2 4 5.17 39 23. 3. Character 41 30 15 42 14 24 27.67 74 24. 4. Hood 24 25 16 43 14 32 25.67 69 25. 5. Setting 9 4 8 l3 7 8 8.17 86 26. 6. Style (text) 1 0 0 1 l 0 .5 97 27. 7. Point of View 0 0 0 .33 99 28. 8. Dialogue 15 ll 0 16 17 6 10.83 33 29. 9. Content 29 19 18 51 41 4o 33. 74 3o. 10. Physical Aspects 4 3 4 3 8 3 4.17 97 31. 11. Style (illus- tration) 7 l 11 l 3 3 4.33 33 105 an audio track and subsequently transcribed. There were twenty transcripts used in the present study: sixteen aesthetic responses to selections of literature and four structured interview transcripts. Second, the researcher divided all response transcripts into response units. This resulted in 976 response units for all subjects with all selections of literature. Tgird, the researcher used the instrument to analyze each response unit according to the presence (1) or no presence (2) Of the thirty-one vari- ables. This enabled the researcher tO compile summary sheets of frequencies Of the aspects of aesthetic response, thus providing a systematic method for answering the re- search questions found in Chapter I (see Appendix I). Selection Of Population The four fifth grade subjects who participated in this study were selected from a small elementary school in suburban Michigan which had a population Of approximately 300 pupils. A letter requesting permission to use stu- dents from this school district was sent to the Superin- tendent of the school system, and permission was granted. The study was subsequently approved by the University Com- mittee on Research Involving Human Subjects of Michigan State University (UCRIHS). The researcher's arbitrary decision to use fifth grade students who achieved a mastery in reading at the eightieth or above percentile nationally on the Gates- 106 MacGinitie ReadingAchievement test resulted in a master list Of twenty-six pupils from which to choose. This decision regarding the subjects' reading competency'assured that the students had acquired the necessary reading skills for a successful reading of the literary selection. Actual participation in the study depended upon (a) the child's agreeing to give of his/her free time, (b) scheduling availability when the researcher had the neces- sary video equipment, and (c) the position of the child's name on the master list because the first five names on the list participated in pilot studies directed toward the development of procedures for the final study. Attention to these factors and the strong possibility of attrition allowed ten students to be chosen intially, five boys and five girls. As predicted, children's free time and video equipment scheduling difficulties eliminated six of the ten children chosen. Four subjects completed the final study, two girls and two boys. Selection Of Books The literary selections used in this study were chosen according to the following guidelines. 1. Since it was the intention of this study to explore aesthetic response to contem- porary works of fiction, all books selected were published in the last six years. The recent publication dates and the absence Of 107 these selections in the subjects' school library ensured against the subject's previous exposure to the selected samples of litera- ture. The decision to select an illustrated book wherein there exists a fusion of text and illustration so that the meaning presented in the literary selection is dependent upon both text and artwork was arbitrary. a. The researcher thought the illustrated book could be read in a short period of time, approximately fifteen to twenty minutes. The researcher chose two books by the same author/illustrator so that the subject had the Opportunity to recog- nize style in text and art. All of the books were chosen with the intention of appealing to the reader's sensibilities. Books through which the written word and/or the illustra- tions might evoke a heightened use of the human senses and might also result in an intense personal involvement with the selection were chosen. All of the books chosen were thought by this researcher to contain literary 108 qualities inherent in fiction and thus possessed the potential to be viewed by the readers as literary works of art. The following categories of illustrated books were chosen. 1. Predominant illustration/brief text format: a book which conveys story mainly through illustrations. Selection: Time to Get Out Of the Bath, Shirley by John Burningham (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1978). 2. Balanced text and illustration format: a book which conveys story form with an ap- parently fairly balanced fusion of text and illustration. Selection: The Climb by Carol Carrick, illustrated by Donald Carrick (New York: Clarion Books, 1976). 3. Predominant textlprofusely illustrated for- £333 a book which conveys story form mainly Through the text, but also has a significant number of illustrations. Selection: Rabbit Island by JOrg Steiner, illustrated by JOrg Muller (New York: Clarion Books, 1980). Literary Selections The selections of literature included in the response sessions were chosen through perusal of professional references, discussions with literary experts who work 109 with children, and personal use Of these selections with children. The list of books follows. Burningham, John. Time to Get Out Of the Bath, Shirley. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1978. Carrick, Carol. The Accident. Illustrated by Donald Carrick. New York: Clarion Books, 1976. Carrick, Carol. The Climb. Illustrated by Donald Carrick. New York: Clarion Books, 1980. Steiner, JOrg. Rabbit Island. Illustrated by Jorg Muller. New York: Harcourt Brace Javano- vich, 1978. Summary This chapter has presented the design and procedures for collecting and analyzing aesthetic response data. A description of how the procedures were developed and the methods used to gauge the reliability of the instrument through a two-step procedure were explained. Chapter IV and Chapter V will present the findings of this study. CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS OF RESULTS In Chapter IV response data are analyzed. The data were collected by recording on videotape the oral re- sponses of fourth fifth-grade students to four contempor- ary picture books approached as an art. The procedures develOped for the collection of the oral aesthetic re- sponse data of four fifth-grade students to contemporary picture books as an art form are detailed in Chapter III. Instrumentation The instrument used to analyze the oral aesthetic re- sponses Of the subjects was created by this researcher in three phases. A detailed account Of the procedures in- volved in all three phases is found in Chapter III. Phase I, the construction Of the instrument, was based on infor- mation gleaned from professional literature and related research about the components of aesthetic response. Phase II consisted Of the limited pilot study conducted with the raters to establish the feasibility Of the instru- ment developed during Phase I, which led to the redefini- tion of response units and the re-design Of the instrument, resulting in Instrument II. Phase III consisted of deter- mining the degree Of inter-rater agreement of the 110 111 Instrument II to be used in this exploratory study of the analysis Of children's oral aesthetic responses to litera- ture as an art form. Five individuals with literary expertise volunteered to participate in determining inter-rater agreement. Inter-rater agreement was established so that the re- searcher's subsequent scoring could be deemed reliable. In order to determine this reliability the five raters scored the response units Of Subject B responding to Selection 1 (B-l). The response transcript, B-l, divided into 52 response units, was scored by the five raters and the principal researcher according to 31 response vari- ables on Instrument II, a total of 1,612 response cells (see Table 3.5). This researcher found an agreement of 85.58% with the five literary raters across the 1,612 re- sponse cells. Disagreement below the 60% level occurred on 137 response cells or 8.5% over all cells. Refer to Chapter III for a detailed account Of inter-rater agree- ment. The accumulated data Of this exploratory study from the population of four subjects with four selections Of literature will be discussed and analyzed according to the frequency or total number Of tabulated responses in each variable. The tabulated, scored responses Of the vari- ables on Instrument II were grouped according to the fol- lowing three profiles: 112 l. SUBJECT PROFILE: Each subject with all books: Subject Subject Subject Subject /BOOk /BOOk /BOOk /BOOk A/1,2.3.4 B/l,2,3,4 C/1,2,3,4 D/l,2,3,4 2. BOOK PROFILE: All subjects for each book: Subjects / Books A,B,C,D / l, The Accident A,B,C,D / 2, Rabbit Island A,B,C,D / 3, Time to Get Out Of the Bath, Shirley A,B,C,D / 4, The Climb 3. POPULATION PROFILE: All subjects with all books: Spbjects / Books A,B,C,D / 1.2.3.4 Five major research questions and two sub-questions were constructed to guide the treatment Of the accumulated data. Documentation The design and procedure of this exploratory study included four subjects responding orally to four contem- porary picture books documented on videotape. After an uninterrupted reading of the subject with the selection, the subject was asked to respond verbally to what he/she was feeling, seeing, or imaging and thinking while reading with the selection of literature. This researcher used an extension questioning technique to facilitate reexperienc- ing of the selection and the process of introspection or 113 or the subject's examination of his/her processing behav- iors during reading. Research Questions In this study the researcher examined the following questions and sub-questions. 1. Can the oral aesthetic response to specific contemporary literary works of art be docu- mented tangibly? Can videotape documentation combined with extension questioning techniques constitute a procedure for revealing children's oral aesthetic response? Sub-question A: Can aspects Of oral aesthe- tic response be documented On videotape? Sub-question B: Can children verbalize the nature of their feelings, thoughts, and images involved in the aesthetic response experience? What aspects of aesthetic response stance are identifiable in children's oral responses to literature? What specific aspects of a literary selection, in picture book form, shape the aesthetic response; i.e., content, depth of coverage of the topic, concept Of story (plot, theme, 114 characterization, mood, setting, point Of view, dialogue, style), illustration, liter- ary genré, and format? 5. Are there any identifiable patterns in children's ability to verbalize aspects of their aesthetic responses after four re- sponse sessions? Research Question One Can the oral aesthetic response to specific contemporary literary works of art be docu- mented tangibly? This research question was developed to explore whether or not oral aesthetic response can, in fact, be shown to exist in substantive form. Ultimately, aesthetic response evoked through the reader's absorbing subjective or participant involvement with a literary selection is responded to as an event, an Object, and as a message. In order to tangibly determine aesthetic response as an experienced event for the reader, the following vari- ables were develOped and included on Instrument II to doc- ument participant involvement. 115 EVENT VARIABLES Vl Tlme 1. Present 2. Past 3. Future V2 Person Reference 1. Reader 2. Character 3. Both V5 Affect V6 Identification V7 Images V8 1. Seeing V9 2. Hearing V10 3. Smelling V11 4. Touching V12 5. Tasing Vl3 Physical Effect (see Appendix I, Instrument II) The oral response transcripts of the four subjects with four selections of literature were divided into re- sponse units, a total of 976 units (see Table 4.1), and each unit was analyzed according to the presence Of the 31 variables on Instrument II resulting in 30,256 response cells. The event variables are reported in mean frequency percentages of total responses for all subjects across all books as shown in Table 4.2. 116 Table 4.1. Total Response Units Of All Subjects with All Books Total Number Subjects 02::5 Books A g g 2 Book 1. The Accident 35 52 45 44 = 176 2. Rabbit Island 129 95 87 83 = 394 3. Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley 42 59 37 29 = 167 4. The Climb 63 86 61 29 = 239 Total Number Of Units 269 292 230 185 = 976 Per Subject A B C D All Sub- jects/All Books Aesthetic Response as Event Time and person variables. Certain Observations emerge from the mean scores Of the above 11 event vari- ables for all four selections. More than 47% of all sub- ject's oral responses were made in present tense with the reader specifically including him/herself within the con- text of 27.9% Of all response units indicating personal involvement on the part of the reader with the selection Of literature. Of equal importance, both the reader and the main character were combined in the context of the response unit in 26.2% of all responses which together totals 54.1% Of reader involvement in 528 of 976 response units Of all subjects to all four selections Of literature. 117 m.oa a.HH o.m m.oH as aommmm Adonema .o.ma> a. o c.H o o defiance .m.~fi> a.~ ~.c m.m m.a a.~ ocecoooe .c.aa> a. ~.H a.a o e. oceHHoSn .m.oa> «.ma o.a~ a.m~ a.m m.oa ocencom .~ .a> m.~o m.am H.ao m.om o.~e oceoom .H .m> m.~o m.am H.Ho m.om o.~e nmoazH .e> m.a~ a.m~ a.aa m.ma H.mc oneaoHeHezmoH .o> c.o~ m.am m.a n.ea o.ec summed .m> ~.o~ m.am H.ma e.m~ o.m~ cuom .m a.ma n.em c.~o H.oa m.em nonconoco .~ o.e~ H.m~ m.aa ~.m~ a.nm noccom .H "zommmd .~> m.~ n.~ m.~ n.~ o.H decode .m m.om m.om e.~a m.om «.mm once .N H.ea a.oa o.mm m.oa H.oa uconond .H .mzHe .H> "mmddem<> ezm>m $002 w GMT: m Emmz w cwwz w Gmwz , . nmqumm .meam nxoom Had was no eoo ozaame muomnnsm mSHQU may. 9mm 08 5:9 BHmmg BzmoHUU¢ mma Had nuooflnom Had noodenom Had nuooebom Had nuoonnom Had mxoom HE an?» muomwhnnm HH<\ZOHB«ADmOm "daemond ~.a dance 118 Response units containing direct reference to a character accounted for 45.9% Of 976 responses or 448 response units by all subjects across all books. Reader involvement was highest for The Accident by Carol Carrick with 38.9% direct reader reference and 23.6% combined character and reader totaling 62.5% for all subjects. Involvement was lowest for Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley by John Burning- ham with 19.3% specific reader reference and 18.1% charac- ter and reader combined, totaling 37.4%. Character responses totaled 62.6% indicating less reader involvement (see Table 4.2). Example statements which document scored responses Of reader involvement. The following statements Offer sample responses from the subjects' response transcripts indicating the presence Of participant involvement with a selection of literature. It must be noted that extraneous words or unfinished sentences have been deleted from the responses by the researcher for reasons of brevity, if these words were not esSential tO the response. The Accident by Carol Carrick, illustrated by Donald Carrick. . . . and I'm mad that the dog got hit . . . felt pretty mad about it and also sad about it and angry about it (Male Subject!” response unit #15). Then here where the dog got hit . . . felt pretty sad because the dog gets hit, and he doesn't look hit and it's pretty sad when I think he's killed (Male Subject D, response unit #11). 119 Rabbit Island by JOrg Steiner, illustrated by JOrg Muller. And then all the big rabbits . . . sittin' here, I'm thinking, "Oh, they're gonna boss around the little rabbits" (Female Subject B, response unit #16). It means having the two separate. I had my mom and my dad separate, and I felt the same way, sort Of. Only I didn't show myself then (I didn't reveal this tO anyone) (Male Subject D, response unit #80). Time to Get Out Of the Bath, Shirley by John Burningham. And this one--this girl reminds me Of myself because my mom says things like . . . "Are you listening to me?" (Female Subject C, response unit #6). Oh (laughs) m-m-m like . . . standing up and saying, "Well, why don't you take a bath more Often, too! I mean, I take a bath enough! Ok? Why don't you just leave me alone!" (Female Subject B, response unit #8). The Climb by Carol Carrick, illustrated by Donald Carrick. All of a sudden she gets this big smile on her face, and I can tell that she's gonna do something to get him back for being so boring (Female Subject C, response unit #34). I'd be very frightened, and I thought--I think she whined a little bit tOO much because I think I coulda gotten out . . . easily. 'Cause she saw my feet sticking out (Male Subject A, response unit #51). Affect variable. The presence of affect, vari- able 5 on Instrument II, or an emotional feeling state Of involvement on the part of the reader was present in 26.2% Of all response units or 256 of 976 response units, indi- cating emotional involvement over one-quarter of the rea- ders' responsesix>the selection of literature. Highest emotional involvement occurred with The Accident by Carol 120 Carrick, in which the main character learns tO cope with the death Of his pet, with 47.0% Of all response units or 83 of 176 response units containing affect across all subjects (see Table 4.1). Example statements which document scored re- sponses Of reader affect. The Accident by Carol Carrick, illustrated by Donald Carrick. And here, this picture makes me feel sad; I want to cry; I just want to be alone. I don‘t want anybody to come in or bother me. I just want to be alone and think about it (Male Subject A, response unit #21). Rabbit Island by JOrg Steiner, illustrated by JOrg Muller. And then when I heard "hunter," I started thinking, "Oh, no, don't go down there--stOp--stop. That's it-- stop!" (Female Subject B, response unit #74). Time to Get Out Of the Bath, Shirley by John Burningham. Then she keeps talking through the whole thing, I mean . . . you'd think that you'd wait for a reply, but no-o-O, she keeps talking. Reminds me of my mom. She keeps talking, talking, talking (Male Subject D, response unit #13). The Climb by Carol Carrick, illustrated by Donald Carrick. And this one really scared me! It seems like-- something was gonna jump out at her (Female Subject C, response unit #14). Identification variable. Identification, vari- able 7 on Instrument II, was scored when the reader assumed the role of the character in the literary 121 selection through the character's thoughts, action, or dialogue. A total Of 24.3% Of all response units, 237 of 976 units, contained some tangible evidence of identi- fication (see Table 4.2). Reader identification was strongest in The Accident by Carol Carrick with 47% Of all responses or 83 of 176 total response units and lowest for Time to Get Out Of the Bath, Shirley by John Burningham with 14.9% or 25 or 167 response units (see Table 4.1). Example statements which document scored re- sponses of reader identification. The Accident: Book 1 This one seems like the man--1ike when someone tells on you and goes to the teacher and says, "She did this to me" and you turn around and say, "I didn't do that." Looks like the man's going to say, "I didn't do that!" (Female Subject C, response unit #16). Rabbit Island: Book 2 With them making friends and everything, I sort Of felt I have been like the small rabbit before (Male Subject D, response unit #20). Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 This is kind of like me. Like one of my friends doesn't have to take a bath all the time. And so right here, it'd make me feel like I'm retorting back and trying to make a point that I don't always have to take a bath! (Male Subject A, response unit #12). The Climb: Book 4 It makes me think, "I can't jump. I'm just a nervous wreck!" (Female Subject B, response unit #77). 122 Image variables. Images, variables 7 through 12 on Instrument II, defined as pictures in the mind involv- ing one or more of the five senses was found to be present in 62.5% of all response units or 610 of 976 units across all subjects with all books (see Table 4.2). All books had 56.5% or higher observed images with The Accident generating the highest number of images, 72.6% of response units or 709 of 976 units contained a stated image. In rank order, a clear majority of subjects experienced See- ing Images, variable 8, with 62.5% or 709 of 976 response units; Hearing Images, variable 9, scored well below See- ing Images with 18.2% or 178 of 976 units; Touching Images, variable 11, appeared 2.9% or 28 of 976 units; Smelling Images, variable 10, had .8% or eight units; Tasting Images, variable 12, had the lowest amount, .4% or four units of 976 response units (see Table 4.2% Example statements which document scored re- sponses of readers' images. The Accident: Book 1 (seeing/smelling) . . . I like it when, after a rain, it smells good. Everything's all refreshed and all green again; so, I would think that it would be a fun time or a nice time--peaceful time (Male Subject A, response unit #3). Rabbit Island: Book 2 (seeing/hearing) I guess it is a hawk because he is watching them to down the street, like he is going to yell. It seems like he's an alarm or something because if he saw someone leaving, he'd start screeching and tell them that they were leaving (Female Subject C, re- sponse unit #38). 123 Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 (seeing) You know, like she's gone--going to another world. And she's an angel (Male Subject D, response unit #11). The Climb: Book 4 (seeing/touch) And here, it shows a mountain, and it looks like it was really slippery; and if you touched it, you would just slide down (Female Subject B, response unit #11). Physical effect variable. The last variable included in aesthetic response as an experienced event is physical effect, variable 13 of Instrument II. Physical effect was scored when the reader reported some strong feeling in the form of a body reaction. A total of 10.5% or 102 response units of 976 units contained a strong physical reaction. The Accident had the highest percen- tage, 14.0%, of 176 response units or 25 instances of strong body reaction; and Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley had the lowest percentage with 5.6% or nine re- sponses of 167 units (see Table 4.1). Example statements which document scored re- sponses of physical effect. The Accident: Book 1 This one made me feel like he was feeling lonely because his dog was running away. And it sort of gave me the shivers when I looked at the page (Female Subject B, response unit #17). l25 Rabbit Island: Book 2 I would rest, too--I would be very excited; my heart would be beating fast, and I'd close my eyes and rest for a few minutes (Male Subject A, response unit #118). Time to Get Out of the Bath Shirley: Book 3 On this page I felt like I was going to start laughing really loud because a king and queen blowing up little plastic ducks (laughs)! Now that's something I could never believe (Female Subject B, response unit #33). The Climb: Book 4 . . . then it said "moldy odor," and I felt like my stomach just went up two inches (Female Subject B, re- sponse unit #56). Object variable. When a selection of literature is responded to aesthetically, the reader responds to specific qualities of the object which causes it to be the work that it is. In effect,it is response by the reader to the inherent artistic qualities of the work, the object. The picture book is a unique form of literary art in that both the text and illustrations in tandem result in the interior event, the experience for the reader. Be- cause of this fusion, aesthetic response to a picture book selection has to be considered from two vantage points, i.e., both illustration and text. For that reason, analy- sis of aesthetic experience of the object includes vari- ables dealing with the text and the illustrations. The variables on Instrument II to document subjective involve- ment with the object of literary art are as follows: 126 OBJECT VARIABLES V3 Association V4 Book Reference 1. Illustration 2. Text 3. Both V20 Analys1s V21 1. Plot V22 2. Theme V23 3. Characterization V24 4. Mood V25 5. Setting V26 6. Style (text) V27 7. Point of view V28 8. Dialogue V29 9. Content (illustration) V30 10. Physical aspects (illustration) V31 11. Style (illustration) Association variable. Associations from the readers' personal and cultural autobiography offer a con- crete relevancy to the content of the work." From the analyzed oral response transcripts of the four subjects with all selections of literature, 31.2% of 976 total response units or 305 response statements contained an association of ideas, places, events, or pe0ple from the experienced past of the subjects. Three books, The Acci- dent, Rabbit Island, and The Climb, averaged 33.7% or 273 associations of 809 response units or 91 statements each, 127 Bath, Shirley had 23.7% or 40 instances of 167 response units (see Table 4.1). Example statements which document scored re- sponses of association. The Accident: Book 1 This one reminded me of when my dog got hit by a car. It got hit by a pick-up truck, too, when I was two (Female Subject C, response unit #9). Rabbit Island: Book 2 (movie comparison) E. T. . . . I shouldn't say this because you haven't seen the movie yet, but at the end where E.T.'s going to leave from the Earth--he and the boy had been through all of the adventures exactly like this (Male Subject D, response unit #76). Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 It makes me feel like my mom's always bugging me, and so I think her mom's always bugging her (Male Sub- ject A, response unit #6). The Climb: Book 4 This page reminds me of the Grand Canyon when we were--wait, not the Grand Canyon--Wyoming, the Tetons. We went there, and we climbed a mountain, and it was sort of like this because we could see a lot (Female Subject B, response unit #2). Book reference variable. The variables involved in Book Reference were used to clarify how the subjects utilized the picture book format by detailing how often the subjects referred to illustration specifically, text specifically, or a combination of the two. Over all selections, all subjects directly referred to the 128 «.4H m.mH m.HH a.oH v.MH fimsHHstamum.HH.Hm> e.oH m.HH m.m m.HH m.oa muomdmm Hmoflmsnm.OH.om> e.~m m.om m.mm m.mm m.em ucmucoo .m.mm> H.mfi e.m m.m~ m.v «.NH msmonfln .m.m~> m.H m. ~.H v.H m.H 3mfl> mo paged .e.s~> H.e m.> N.m 4.5 e.m luxmacmasum .m.m~> o.mm m.em m.mm o.~v ~.N~ magnumm .m.m~> «.vm m.mm ~.m m.mH m.q¢ coo: .¢.vm> ~.o¢ m.v¢ H.64 H.Hm m.~o cowumNfl uumuomumso .m.mm> m.HH m.m H.m~ H.v e.m mamas .~.mm> «.mm m.mm v.4m ¢.m~ m.am uon .H.H~> m.qm G.Hm ..em m.mm H.mm mHmsn m.mv m.v¢ o.mm H.mv m.om nuom .m m.m m.HH v.~H o.m m.m uxwa .m 0.44 «.44 o.ev o.ev m.om 20g» nmuumsHHH .H wOCmHmm mm xoom .¢> ~.Hm 6.4m e.mm ~.mm «.mm :oflumgoomma .m> mmom pouamo m m com: m Com: m cmoz m :mwz mmfiugnm .numm man mo use ocmHmH asgflo was uwo ou megs pannmm unmogooa was com: muowmnsm Ham muomnnsm Had muownnsm HH< pomnnsm Had mxoom Had cues muowmnsm HH«\:ofiumHsmom "magmoum .m.qunme 129 illustrations 44% of the time or 429 response units of 976 units, while text was directly referred to in 8.8% of the response units or 86 times of 976 units. The combination of both text and illustration occurred 46.5% or 454 state- ments of 976 (see Table 4.3). Example statements which document scored re- sponses of book reference. The Accident: Book 1 (illustration) 0k, well, this picture made me think that the charac- ter was a happy person, and . . . (Female Subject B, response unit #1). Rabbit Island: Book 2 (text) And after I read this! It tells about the conveyor belts feeding things (Male Subject A, response unit #23). Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 (both) Her mom's still talking to Shirley (text) and she's swinging on a tree; and her bathtub toy is going down the waterfall, and she's far away now (Female Subject C, response unit #5). The Climb: Book 4 (both) And this picture 13--she said there might be bears in there. So I thought, "It's going to jump out on them." When he's bending over looking in the cave . . . (Male Subject D, response unit #14). Analysis variables. Variables 20 through 31 were developed by this researcher for Instrument II in order to document the subjects' use of analysis which is the fifth level of cognitive thought according to Charlotte Huck 1Charlotte 8. Huck, Children's Literature in the Ele- mentary School, 3rd ed. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976), pp. 22-27. 130 As a level of cognition, analysis can be thought of as an organizing process the subject experiences as he/she responds to the object of art. It follows then that the use of analysis of the structure and illustra- tions of the story results in the message and ultimately the meaning of the selection for the reader. Analysis, as scored, emerged as the variable with the highest percentage of all variables on Instrument II with 94.9% of the response units for all subjects across all books or 924 of 976 response units (see Table 4.3). It must be noted that analysis encompasses 11 variables on Instrument II. Example statements of analysis will be included within the context of the 11 variables of story structure and illustration. Plot variable. The first variable of story structure, that of plot, refers to the series of actions, the high point, the problem, or the resolve of the story. As scored, the subjects analyzed plot in their responses 33.4% of the time or in 326 of 976 response units. The Accident received the highest percentage total with 39.9% or 70 of 176 response units by all subjects with Rabbit Island receiving the lowest percentage of 23.4% of 92 responses of 394 units (see Table 4.1). Example statements which document scored analy- sis of plot. 131 The Accident: Book 1 And I sorta thought that the truck was going to keep going and just leave him with his dog laying there (Male Subject D, response unit #12). Rabbit Island: Book 2 This gives me the feeling of adventure! They don't know what's goingtx>happen. I was thinking when I saw this picture, maybe they're going to have the event when Big Grey or Little Brown starts to fall off, and he falls into the river and Big Grey or Little . . . whoever has to chase. (Male Subject A, response unit #63). Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 On this page, where it says, "You really ought to have a bath more often, Shirley." I thought she was going to keep saying that through the whole book, and then at the end Shirley won't want to get out of the bathtub (Female Subject C, response unit #10). The Climb: Book 4 (resolve) And then here, they are going down the mountain, and it is sort of like they are home free. If a bear comes chasing them, they have finally made it to where the bear can't cross. It is like a barrier (Female Subject B, response unit #79). Theme variable. Theme variable 22 documents the main idea or the author's meaning in the story. This variable was scored in 11.8% of 976 response units total- ing 115 instances (see Table 4.3). Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley had the highest percentage of reference to theme with 25.1% of 167 responses or 41 specific responses, and Rabbit Island had the lowest percentage of 4.1% or 16 references in 394 response units (see Table 4.1). 132 Example statements which document scored analysis of theme. The Accident: Book 1 And then here--I'd feel glad that I did something to please my dog after he's dead, and I wouldn't feel sad anymore because I did something for him (Male Subject A, response unit #33). This page makes me think that he's remembering different things that his dog did. And then his father's trying to think of something to say to help him get through it. But he's not really listening. Christopher is not listening. He's sort of by him- self, and his father's alone . . . (Female Subject B, response unit #37). Rabbit Island: Book 2 It seems to be like his (Big Grey) eyes are water- ing, and so he seems to be like he's sorry that he (Little Brown) has to go. He (Big Grey) wants to go back. He just couldn't survive in the wilderness (Male Subject A, response unit #126). Well, I thought it was about friendship and freedom becauseymn1have the right to live where you want to live. And he wanted to go and live where he had lived for a lot of years (Female Subject C, response unit #86). Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 And more bugging! This whole book is like bug- ging. She doesn't listen--kind of tuned out (Male Subject A, response unit #13). The Climb: Book 4 And on this page, I thought she was really embarrassed that she was a couple of feet away from the cave and she thought that was the end of the world. And he is just sitting there watching it. I thought the joke was on her (Male Subject D, response unit #26). r 133 Characterization variable. Characterization variable 23 referred to the qualities or features of the character in the story revealed through his/her thoughts, actions, or dialogue. This variable emerged with 46.2% of 976 response units or 451 response units (see Table 4.3). The Accident received the highest number of characteriza- tion responses with 110 responses of 176 units while The Climb with 44.8% and Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley with 46.1% were with 1.3% points of each other. Rabbit Island had the lowest percentage with 31.1% or 123 units of 494 total response units by all subjects (see Table 4.1). Example statements which document scored re— sponses of characterization. The Accident: Book 1 It says here, "Christopher knew his father never went fishing this late in the morning." He sort of knew that he was trying to help him and that he would, he could, really do what he wanted him to do (Male Subject D, response unit #26). Rabbit Island: Book 2 (thoughts) And the grey rabbit looks like he's saying, "I should be in charge because I'm bigger and I'm stronger, and I have been around a lot longer than him." But he knows, deep down, that he can't find his‘way around, and he knows that he's been away so long that he doesn't really know much about the world anymore (Female Subject C, response unit #5). Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 And the king seems to be blowing up the biggest duck. She's blowing up the little one as if she's meek and little and he's big and strong (Female Subject B, re- sponse unit #34). 134 The Climb: Book 4 (actions) He's walking away. He doesn't feel like going up. He is just hiding his feelings. He is scared, and he doesn't want to really express them out (Male Subject A, response unit #10). Mood variable. Mood, variable 24, defined as an impression on the feelings or spirit of the reader, usu- ally described as the atmosphere of the selection of literature, had a tabulation of 24.4% or 238 of 976 re- sponse units (see Table 4.3). The highest percentage was held by The Accident with 44.3% of 176 response units or 78 references to mood by all subjects and Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley had the lowest percentage with 9.2% or 15 statements involving mood of 167 total response units by all subjects. Example statements which document scored re- sponse of mood. The Accident: Book 1 Now this makes me feel peaceful again because of the things I still would be remembering. I'd probably for- get because I loved him so. I'd probably forget, but then I'd be reminded suddenly about what happened in short bursts (Male Subject A, response unit #29). This page gave me a creepy feeling. The page was dark, as if mourning (Female Subject B, response unit #13). Rabbit Island: Book 2 It says that they do it everyday, so it seems they'd be kind of bored because that is all they do everyday. Just come in and take out a whoel bunch of rabbit feed and feed it to the rabbits (Female Subject C, response unit #14). 135 I like it because they (Big Grey and Little Brown) kind of blend in the stream. And this gives me the feeling of adventure! (Male Subject A, response unit #60) The Climb: Book 4 (mood, illustration) And on this page the picture changed. It made her feel sadder. All the colors are blacker and darker (Male Subject D, response unit #22). Setting variable. Where and when the story takes place, the setting of the story, variable 25 on Instrument II, was scored to be present in 35.6% of all response units or 348 of 976 response units across all books (see Table 4.3). Rabbit Island was highest with 42.6% of 394 response units or 168 over all. Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley (39.8%) and The Climb (37.9%) were within two percent of each other with 67 of 167 response units and 91 of 239 response units respectively. The Accident was lowest with 22.2% or 39 of 176 total response units (see Table 4.3). Example statements which document scored re- sponses of setting. The Accident: Book 1 (place) This one reminds me of when we went to my aunt's cot- tage. We saw a dog running over the beach and it looked‘ like this--the landscape did (Female Subject C, response unit #4). This gives me a feeling of peacefulness except for the highway which makes it ugly because of the highway with all the cars. The lake doesn't look like it would be polluted (Male Subject A, response unit #6). 136 Rabbit Island: Book 2 And then here it looked like when houses aren't built yet. There's all that grass and you can just lay down in it and nobody will find you (Female Subject B, response unit #52). Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 It reminded me of' what it was like a long time ago because of the houses. The house looks more like a church. It's really big and it looks like England (Female Subject C, response unit #4). The Climb: Book 4 And this is when it really made me think that it was in Arizona or someplace like that because of the cracks (Male Subject A, response unit #5). Style (text) variable. Variable 26, style of writing, was developed for Instrument II so that the sub- ject's awareness of the way or manner in which something is said, done, or expressed by the author could be docu- mented. Textual style accounted for 7.1% of all response units across all books, a total of 69 responses of 976 units (see Table 4.3). Style responses were highest Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley with 9.2% or 15 sponses of 167 and lowest for The Accident with 3.7% seven responses of 176 units. Rabbit Island and The in re- or Climb had similar percentages of 7.4 and 7.9%, representing 29 responses of 394 and 19 of 239 units respectively (see Table 4.1). 137 Example statements which document scored re- sponses of style/text. The Accident: Book 1 It was dramatic for a book. It seemed more like a movie to me than a book because it was so exciting (Female Subject C, response unit #1). Rabbit Island: Book 2 You don't know what is going to happen next, you know because it doesn't say. Nowhere in words! But I would think it would say, "Finally they come to a log, and they get on it and walk across"--and stuff, but it doesn't say that (Male Subject D, response unit #34). But then, I thought this was an open-ended book, too! (Female Subject C, response unit #82). Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 0n the title Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley, I mean . . . time, you know--it goes back in time and back up in time. So that it is kind of like dreaming about that (Male Subject D, response unit #3). The Climb: Book 4 And I notice they use more description in this than in The Accident. They put some description in, in the words--the text (Male Subject A, response unit #13). And see, here's one of the things I was talking about when they described "they cut from cardboard. Those farthest away grew fainter and fainter until at last one dissolved into the sky! Because I never thought of "dissolved into the sky." I don't know what I would say (Male Subject A, response unit #31). Point of view variable. Variable 27, point of view, was inCluded under analysis so that the subjectSH awareness of who was telling the story could be documented. Mention specifically of point of view occurred rarely by 138 the subjects as only 1.3% or 12 instances of response of 976 response units were recorded (see Table 4.3). The Accident had the highest percentage with 1.6% or three statements of 176 referring to point of view while TEe 91132 had the lowest, .8% or two instances of point of View response (see Table 4.1). The documentation of point-of-view statements will be found in Chapter V where the discussion on direct statements in regard to point-of- view will be found. Dialogue variable. Dialogue, variable 28, refers to the words spoken by the characters in the story. Spe- cific use of the actual text dialogue was mentioned 13.1% of 976 response units or 12.8 times. Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley was highest with 25.9% or 43 units of 167 total response units while Rabbit Island had the least number of scored dialogue responses with 19 of 394 total units. Example statements which document scored re- sponses of dialogue. The Accident: Book 1 When he said that "Bodger's dead. That man hit him with his truck" to his parents, that made me feel like he was full of hate toward the man (Female Subject B, response unit #18). Rabbit Island: Book 2 And this one I thought was funny. The first part, it says: "Little Brown, are you still alive?" And he says, "I think so." So I thought that it was funny (Female Subject C, response unit #72). 139 Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 And here she says, "You haven't left the soap in the bathtub again?" And the soap is in the bathtub, and she is here in the pipe. It is sort of funny. She is talk- ing to herself and not talking to her. She has gone down the drain (laughs). She doesn't even know it (Male Sub- ject D, response unit #7). The Climb: Book 4 Her cousin would think he is a scardy cat and make fun and tease him. And the way she coaxes him. She doesn't do anything--just goes, "We'll have lots of food or something." She coaxes him (Male Subject A, response unit #11). Content (illustration) variable. Response to the content of the illustration, variable 29, one of three illustration variables, was developed for Instrument II to document what, in fact, the child responded to in an i1- lustration. It emerged that 52.7% of the time the sub- jects responded to the content of the illustration or 514 of 976 response units over all subjects (see Table 4.3). Rabbit Island scored highest with 65.8% of 394 units or 260 instances of response to the content of the illustra— tion while Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley (56.9%) and The Climb (50.3%) both had more than 50% of their re- spective responses scored. The Accident had the least number of responses to the content of illustrations with 37.8% or 67 of 176 total responses (see Table 4.1). Example statements which document scored re- sponses of content. 140 The Accident: Book 1 . . . he looks at all the rocks and got his favorite rock because it looks like all the trees and stuff (Male Subject D, response unit #34). Rabbit Island: Book 2 There always seems to be a trail carved through the grass. Right there . . . (Male Subject A, response unit #78) o The way they had this darkened, it made me think they had made a path. But they hadn't even gotten there yet (Female Subject B, response unit #54). And also, the way there is a kind of a path that leads to where the rabbits are walking (Female Subject C, response unit #64). So I thought, "Oh, weird." And then having the rabbits go straight down the trail. I would think if they were trying to hide that they would try to go down through the reeds and stuff and hide (Male Subject D, response unit #60). Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 I just realized this now, the chair doesn't have any back legs, so he should be falling over right now. He's not, so he is probably sitting on the chair like that (shows researcher)--on the end (Female Subject B, response unit #35). The Climb: Book 4 They put the characters in detail. But I noticed one thing. It says, "'I'm thirsty." He eyed the thermos sticking out of Nora's pack." And that's Nora, and there's no thermos! (Male Subject A, response unit #16). They're both looking up at this hawk here. I like this. He's bigger in the picture; he's bigger than the kids are. So it's like he is king of this mountain, and he owns the mountain. So maybe that is why they made him bigger. That's what I thought when I saw it (Female Sub- ject C, response unit #15). 141 Physical aspects variable. Physical aspects, variable 30, refers to the color, shading, intensity, or some other factor in the illustration which is the treat- ment of the medium by the artist in the picture. The subjects, as scored, were aware of and responded to physi- cal aspects in the illustrations 10.7% of 976 responses or 104 instances over all subjects with all books (see Table 4.3). The Climb had the highest number of references to aspects with 11.9% or 28 of 239 responses closely followed by Rabbit Island with 11.8% or 47 of 394 responses. Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley had the lowest number of scored responses with 8.8% of 167 total responses or 15 comments made about the physical aspects of the illustra- tion. Example statements which document scored re- sponses of physical aspects. The Accident: Book 1 This page looks eerie. Before you read this, it looks very eerie because of the red--means blood--redish and the white, Godly (Female Subject B, response unit #47). Rabbit Island: Book 2 It's neat the way they (the illustrator) did that. On some pictures for heads in a stadium, they just draw circles and paint little eyes. And it makes me think of that because they just drew heads, just went like that (shows researcher) (Female Subject B, response unit #40). 142 Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 The art must have been made with pencil, because it looks like pencil or tempera paints. It is not the best art you could ever have (Male Subject A, response unit #4) 0 Then I noticed the purple. It turns from pencil, and this is tempera paint. I noticed in one of these pictures that it is cracking. They painted it, and then they took a picture of it. They let it dry, and so it cracked (Male Subject A, response unit #16). The water looks like it is cracking. It's sort of strange (Female Subject B, response unit #47). The Climb: Book 4 And the trees and everything that are real close to them are darker; the things that are far away you can see in detail. The house--you can see the windows, but the things right next to them are-~real general. They don't have any detail (Female Subject C, response unit #25). Style (illustration) variable. Style in illustra- tion, variable 32, was included in Instrument II to indi- cate whether or not the children were aware of the way or manner in which something is executed or expressed in the illustration by the artist. Scored responses of style appeared 14.4% over all books or 141 statements of 976 response units included some recognition of the artist's style. Example statements which document scored re— sponses of style/illustration. 143 The Accident: Book 1 And then it just kind of scares you--the use of light, It doesn't look like it is dark. But then when you turn the page, it looks like it is dark. That just makes your heart jump because of the picture of the dog and then of the pick-up truck, and he just glancing around--Christo- pher (Male Subject A, response unit #11). Rabbit Island: Book 2 And the other thing that I wanted to say about the illustrations is that the look kind of real (representa) tional style of art). It's out in these certain places so that it looks like it's totally real (Female Subject C, response unit #42). Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 Well, the way he illustrated things, they are.round.. It looks like he started with circles, and then he just elaborated on them then. Black makes me think it's night, but just a second ago it was light in the sky. When the witch turns up, it turns black (Female Subject B, response unit #21). The Climb: Book 4 I know the illustrations look by the same person (Donald Carrick--The Accident) (Male Subject A, response unit #2). Message. Aesthetic response to literature as an art form entails the readers' experiencing it as an event and as an object (see Tables 4.2 and 4.3) which gives rise to a third aspect, that of message and, ultimately, the meaning for the reader. Bruce Miller2 details three ap- proaches to the message of the selection which have lent guidance to the following analysis. 2Bruce Miller, Teaching the Art of Literature (Illi- NCTE, 1981). 144 The treatment of the data in regard to message will be approached in the following manner: (a) through the theme or core message of the author; (b) through the sub- jective involvement of the reader with the structure of the plot, two levels of cognitive thought, synthesis and judg- ment, and literary associations made by the reader; and (c) through the associations, interpretations, and appli- cation to self generated by the subject. These three areas, the author's contribution, the object's contribu- tion, and the subject's contribution, will guide the treatment of the data for this section. MESSAGE VARIABLES V22 Theme V21 Plot V18 Synthesis V19 Judgment V3 Association Vl6 Interpretation V 17 Application Table 4.4. Profile Population/All Subjects with All Books Time... The Rabbit ...Bath 222. A11 Message AEEident Island Shirley Climb Books Variable Mean % Mean % Mean % Mean % Mean % V22 Theme 8.7 4.1 25.1 9.1 11.8 V21 Plot 39.9 23.4 34.4 35.9 33.4 V18 Synthesis 59.6 55.4 63.3 45.2 55.9 V19 Judgment 40.3 41.2 38.9 34.2 38.7 V3 Associat. 33.4 33.2 23.7 34.6 31.2 V16 Interpret. 76.2 58.9 57.5 65.9 64.6 v17 Applicat. 21.4 11.2 13.8 7.5 13.5 145 Theme variable. Theme, variable 22, refers to the author's main idea or meaning of the story. Within the picture book format, the theme is carried by the text and the illustrator's graphics. Together, they help the reader gain message from the selection of art. Subjects were aware of the theme in 11.8% or 115 scored responses of 976 response units of all subjects with all books (see Table 4.3). Responses scored as theme which seem to indi- cate an understanding of the author's meaning in the story by the reader are documented below. Example statements which documented scored re- sponses of author meaning or theme. The Accident: Book 1 The last one is the same because they're both looking at it; he was just a great dog. He shouldn't have died so soon; something like that that you would say if your daughter or son was killed or something. Then you would say, "They shouldn't have died so soon because they had a whole life ahead of them. They really should not have died" (Female Subject C. re- sponse unit #45). Rabbit Island: Book 2 The big grey rabbit has been in there. How bored he could be. How uncivilized, not keeping up with what they used to do. He seems so used to everything in the factory. He doesn't know what anything is. He thinks the factory is the whole world (Male Subject A, response unit #38). Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 And more bugging! This whole book is like bugging. She doesn't listen; kind of tuned out. That's what happens to me when I am reading. Whenever I read, I get tuned out of the world (Male Subject A, response unit #31). 146 Plot variable. The second variable involved in meaning gained by the reader is plot, variable 21. Throughout the 16 response transcripts the process of the reader attempting to predict the forthcoming events in the story emerged. Logic would suggest that this emergent element of prediction indicates a desire to gain meaning through involvement with the major structure of the story. The structured interview section in Chapter V will examine the subjects' gained meaning from the story. Response units involving the plot of the story occurred in 33.4% of 976 total response units or 326 times. Example statements which document scored re- sponses of plot prediction. The Accident: Book 1 And this one, I guess, I sort of already saw the last sentence, when it said, "Then Christopher heard the pick-up truck coming down the road." And you see the dog looking towards the road, so you can pretty much tell that he was going to go out into the street. I could tell that something was going to happen because of this page, the way it described it and the way the picture described it. He's looking toward the road (Female Subject C, response unit #7). Rabbit Island: Book 2 And over here on the last two pages, it made me feel kind of sad because now I know that Big Grey is going to get killed. But then. I'm thinking he may jump out and fol- low him. "I feel rotten!" Because I can't predict, and I want to know if he's going to jumpcn:not!(Female Subject B, response unit #93). 147 Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 Well, when I looked at this I was thinking maybe it's about a girl in a kingdom that had all these pipes going around. I didn't really look at this closely be- cause I saw that tower and stuff. So I thought maybe it's a story about a girl who lives in a kingdom with a lot of pipes with water (Male Subject D, response unit #3). The Climb: Book 4 On this page I thought that was the end. I thought it was going to be like The Accident. (Literary associa- tion) But the moment before, I thought he was going to fall, and she was going to get the blame, and she was going to feel bad, and that it would be the person who would feel twice as responsible (Male Subject D, re- sponse unit #9). Synthesis variable. Synthesis, variable 18, sixth level of the seven levels of cognitive thought,3 was included on Instrument II to document the process in reading or thought which brings together elements or parts of a story, creating a unity or a gestalt for the reader. It seems to coincide with the predictive process with plot reported earlier in that when snythesis occurs, the subject brings together segments of the story from which he/she begins to create his/her own form of the story, seeking further meaning or understanding. Snythe- sis, as scored, was present in 55.9% of 976 response units or a total of 546 instances (see Table 3.4). Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley received the highest percentage with 63.3% or 106 responses of 167 units. The Climb 3Huck. 148 received the lowest percentage with 45.2% or 108 responses of 239 (see Table 4.1). Example statements which document scored re- sponses of synthesis. The Accident: Book 1 This morning I would realize that it was a mis- take, and it makes me feel sad for the boy (Male Subject A, response unit #23). Rabbit Island: Book 2 But because Little Brown is more accustomed to the thing. And he (Big Grey) doesn't really know how to run very fast because he has been in the factory so long. Again, it turns to the factory (Male Subject A, response unit #106). Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 And then it was sort of like the different stages. Like here it may be back in time, and here it's right in the middle. Then, here is her own time because of the house, now that I really think of it. It seemed like she was making a dream come true, and she had gone to "Fantasy Island" and said, "Mr. Roarke, I want to go down my tub drain." And she really had. She went back in time (Female Subject B, response unit #57). The Climb: Book 4 And when something cold touched her foot, I went back to that thought about the snake, then I went back to another thought about the bear. Then started putting them together (Female Subject B, response unit #60). Judgment variable. Judgment, variable 19, the 4 highest level ofcognitive thought according to Huck contains an evaluation of knowledge or criteria acquired by the reader. Judgment was found in 38.7% of 4 . Ibid. 149 all response units of all subjects across all books or 378 units. All books were within six percentage points of each other, with Rabbit Island's having the highest number of scored responses with 41.2% or 162 responses of 394 units, and The Climb's having the lowest number with 34.2% of 167 response units or 57 judgments made as scored (see Table 4.1). Example statements which document scored re- sponses ofyjudgment. The Accident: Book 1 And he still hasn't really accepted the fact. It is like he is pretending that the dog has never been hit by the car. So he is trying not to accept that the dog is dead (Female Subject C, response unit #24). This makes me feel that Christopher is all out of control. Kind of frightened, afraid, he's also very mad at the man because he did not understand (Male Sub- ject A, response unit #14). Rabbit Island: Book 2 And the thing about these six pictures--I didn't think the colors were the best. I wanted them to be brighter (Female Subject B, response unit #25). Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 And then the hero, she knocks over the queen. It looks like the queen's 1aughing--she should be scream- ing--"I don't want to fall in the water and get wet!" That's what I think queens and kings should do (Female Subject B, response unit #44). 150 The Climb: Book 4 When I saw this, I looked up here (at illustration), and there was no thermos. As I was kind of saying, maybe the illustrator didn't notice that. He should have read the book before he painted the pictures! (Male Subject A, response unit #17). Associations variable. Associations, variable 3, specifically literary associations, emerged as a variable which seemed to help the reader gain meaning from the selection of literature. Literary associations were used in a comparative sense by all subjects. Logic would indi- cate that the subjects somehow utilized the structure or sense of one story to illuminate or clarify the meaning in the second selection. Associations, as scored, had 31.2% of all response units or 309 units of 976 response units. There were 38 specific literary associations across all books by all subjects. Example statements which document scored re- sponses of literary association. Rabbit Island: Book 2 This part made me think of a book I read by Madeline L'Engle. I forgot what it was called; the one with "IT." A Wrinkle in Time!. Because it just made me think of "the brain--it." Well, it was all mazey when they went into another time. It was like going through a maze from one place to another. Like here is their time--here is a wrinkle in time (laughs) (Female Subject B, response units #6, 7, 8). 151 Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 Now she's on a horse going through the woods. It looks like Robin Hood (Female Subject C, response unit #16). There are two flags from two different places. They're going to joust or something. There is the fair maiden, and there is the king. There is her . . . (Male Subject A, response unit #24). (Literary motif) This page looks like a knight in armor or maybe a prince found her. On this page it showed these knights in armor and a king (Female Subject B, response unit #19). It's not showing the side of a bathtub, and then again it might not be a bathtub. It's like dawn is coming. And it makes me think of The Nutcracker (by Rachel Isadora) when the girl had to go back and leave the kingdom (Female Subject B, response unit #51). The Climb: Book 4 And I know places like this. Because in The Bridge to Terabithia (by Katherine Paterson), they had a pine grove where the spirits are (Male Subject A, response unit #14). And here when she got stuck, the moldy odor sort of like a zombie, reminded me of another book I read, but I can't remember the name of it. It was my brother's, and I read it. It had zombies in there, and they were all moldy (Female Subject B, response unit #55). On this page I thought that was the end. I thought it was going to be like The Accident (Male Subject D, response unit #9). Interpretation variable. Interpretation, vari- able 16, the fourth of seven cognitive levels,5 refers to the reader's going beyond the content of the story, con- sequently revealing his/her frame of reference. For instance, it involves relationships, 51bid. 152 reasons, or cause and effect, the forming of generaliza- tions and comparisons and contrasts by the reader. It seems that through interpretation the reader makes the story his/her own, thus gaining meaning. Interpretation occurred in 64.6% or 631 responses of 976 units of all subjects across all books (see Table 4.4). The Accident had the highest percentage of interpretation with 76.2% or 134 of 176 total response units, and Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley emerged with the lowest percentage of 57.5 or 96 of 167 response statements. Example statements which document scored re- sponses of interpretation. The Accident: Book 1 It's like you can tell when someone says, "Boy you did just great! And you really didn't do good at all. It seems that they are just saying that to make you feel better (Female Subject C, response unit #28). Rabbit Island: Book 2 (relationship) It is a nice picture with the father-son routine. They are just sitting there (Male Subject D, response unit #37). Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 And she's going through the woods, and she sees a witch behind a tree. When I saw that--it seems like she's mad at her mother. She thinks this ’ witch is her mother, and that's why she's doing that (Female Subject C, response unit #18). The Climb: Book 4 (comparison) In the other book we read, when he was walking on the stairs, it gave me the feeling 153 that they are going creak. This_gave me the feeling that water was dripping because it said, "Icy--icy water." So I was thinking, probably water dripping, and it is going "drip-drip" and she's getting really frightened (Fe- male Subject B, response unit #70). Application variable. Application, variable 17, was scored when the reader made direct application of seg- ments of the story to him/herself or to a new situation. The application of something gained from the story indi- cates the internalizing and understanding of the particu— lar segment of the story. Application, as scored, was present in 13.5% of 976 response units or 132 times (see Table 4.4). The Accident had the highest percentage with 21.4% of 176 units or 38 instances of application. The Climb had the least amount with 7.5% of 239 units or 18 scored responses. Example statements which document scored re- sponses of application. The Accident: Book 1 If that happened to me, I would not want to go to the burialhecauseit.would only make me sad (Female Subject B, response unit #40). It looks like when someone looks at you, like "Boy, are you growing bigger all of a sudden." And then you are trying to ignore that person. It's just like you're ignoring someone, and they really did not do anything, but they kept asking you, like, "Do you want something to eat? Do you want something--a game? Do you want this? Do you want that?" (Female Subject C, response unit #33). 154 Rabbit Island: Book 2 But they don't mention the people fixing a bike, polishing up a bike. They don't talk about that. If I saw people I would just get out because of what the other man tried to do to you (Male Subject A, response unit #123). Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 Here she is winning against the queen. I would not wear all those clothes if I was the queen; I'd be hot. Well, anyway, it looks like a fun game. I am going to try it some day (Male Subject A, response unit #40). The Climb: Book 4 I would be awed because it is so neat. If I lived, if I stayed in Michigan for a long time and then went up to the top of a mountain. There are barely any hills here! I'd be so surprised. How neat it is! And I could be going up there, up and down every day (Male Subject A, response unit #41). Summation (see Table 4.5). Thirty-six aspects of 29 variables relating to the tangible documentation of aesthetic response to a selection of literature have been considered under Research Question One. As documented in the previous discussion, aspects of aesthetic response emerged clearly and could, in fact, be documented for these fifth grade subjects with these four selections of literature approached as an art form. As documented, it appears that aesthetic response as an experienced event, an object, and as a message did occur for these readers. This was indicated in the fol- lowing'ways: POPULATION PROFILE: unit 976) All Subjects/A11 Books (response Variable: Subjects (A,B,C,D)/Books (l,2.3.4) Vl TIME 1. Present 2. Past 3. Future V PERSON 2 1. Reader 2. Character 3. Both V3 ASSOCIATION V4 BOOK REFERENCE 1. Illustration 2. Test 3. Both V5 AFFECT V6 IDENTIFICATION V7 IMAGES V8 1. Seeing V9 2. Hearing V10 3. Smelling V11 4. Touching V12 5. Tasting Vl3 PHYSICAL EFFECT Vl4 RECALL V15 TRANSLATION Vl6 INTERPRETATION Vl7 APPLICATION V18 SYNTHESIS V19 JUDGMENT V ANALYSIS N O _ 47.1% — 50.5% I 2.5% _ 27.9% _ 45.9% IIIIII 2&2%7 - 31.2% IIIIIIIII 440%: II 118% IIIIIIIIII 465%: IIIIII 284%; IIIII' 2&3 IIIIIIIIIIIII 625%: IIIIIIIIIIIII (Equ IIII JHLZ% II 80%) I 189% I 140%; - ' I 10.5% IIIIIIIIIIIII (fldflb I 118% IIIIIIIIIIIII 646%: III L&5%9 IIIIIIIIIII .fl19% IIIIIIII 1&1T% IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 9t9%2 '< ‘< ‘< '< .< 1< ‘< '< ‘< k) a: h) N: n: h) n: h) a: \J as U1 c- u: ha ha N \0 <2 0) c: ‘< w l-" \OQQO‘U'IobWNI-d p.) O I [.1 1...: 155a PLOT — 33.4% THEME - 11.8% CHARACTER — 46.2 MOOD — 24.4% SETTING _ 35.6% STYLE (text) I 7.1% POINT OF VIEW I 1.3% DIALOGUE - 13.1% CONTENT (illustrated) — 52.7% PHYSICAL ASPECTS (illustration) - 10.7% STYLE (illustration) - 14.4% 155b l. The readers responded in present tense indicat- ing participant involvement rather than an observer stance in 47.1% of all response units. Conversely, response in past tense, or observer stance, occurred 50.5% of the time. This documentation shows that the readers were experiencing through involvement with a selection, a happening throughout approximately half of the entire re- sponse transcripts. 2. The readers' involvement of self or together with a character occurred in more than 54% of all response units, again indicating active participant involvement. 3. The use of personal associations from the read- ers' pasts occurred more than 31% of the time indicating, at times, at least a recall of events evidencing partici- pant involvement with the selection of literature. 4. The presence of emotional involvement by the reader in more than 26% of all response units across all books and as high as 47% for The Accident indicates a high degree of personal involvement. 5. The readers identified and assumed the roles of the Characters throughout all selections manifesting in— tense involvement at times. This intensity was shown through stated body reactions and vivid images which oc- curred 10.5% and 62.5% respectively. 6. The use of the picture book format which strongly indicates the fusion of text and illustration was evi- denced in the responses of the readers. Reference to 156 illustration occurred 44% of the time while the combina- tion of both text and illustration occurred more than 46% of the time, reinforcing the concept of both art and text telling the story. 7. The documentation of what, in fact, the subjects were responding to in the illustration shows that these particular children responded first to the content, second to the style, and third to the physical aspects of the illustrations. Percentages are 52.7, 14.4, and 10.7 re- spectively with response to content reinforcing past re- search studies in response to illustration (see Chapter II). 8. The use of analysis by the reader of story struc- ture indicates gained knowledge and utilization of the concept of story in response. In rank order the readers analyzed (a) characterization with 46.2%, (b) setting with 35.6%, (C) plot with 33.4%, (d) mood with 24.4%, (e) dia- logue with 13.1%, (f) theme with 11.8%, and (9) point of view with 1.3% respectively in all response units. 9. The use of synthesis and judgment, 55.9% and 38.7% over all response units, shows an integration with self or an integration with the readers' frames of refer- ence, thereby resulting in an evaluation or opinion on the readers' part again documenting critical involvement with the selection. 10. The use of readers' interpretation of the story or the process by which the reader shows his/her 157 understanding of the meaning of the selection occurred 64.6% over all responses. Through interpretation, the reader creates his/her own conception of the book, thereby indicating the presence of an experienced event. 11. The use of reader application of knowledge gained from the story to him/herself affirms the presence of relevant involvement or a close association of the reader with the selection of literature. Research Question Two Can videotape documentation, combined with exten- sion questioning techniques constitute a proce- dure for revealing Children's aesthetic response? In order to explore and analyze the possibilities of videotape documentation and extension questioning techni- ques constituting a procedure for revealing children's aesthetic response, the researcher developed two broad sub-questions which focus upon separate aspects of Re- search Question Two. Sub-question A: Can aspects of aesthetic response be documented on videotape? This research question was develOped to determine whether or not the overt aspects of aesthetic response gleaned from professional readings and research can be shown to be present in children's response to literature as an art form on videotape. .11. 1’ I'..l 1'1 1 I11 1111.)) l‘li‘ll‘l I'll-[lull sII‘lilll III‘ I‘ 1") I‘ll) I’ l‘l’llll‘lllll ((I‘\ 158 Example statements used to document the feasibil- i§y of videotaping as a procedure for revealing aspects of aesthetic reeponse. The Accident: Book 1 When I saw Christopher go like this, it gave me the feeling that he was dead (Female Subject B, response unit #15). The man who was driving the truck, when he put out his hand as if to say, "Stop!" it made me feel like he was doing that because he didn't want Christopher to see the body (Female Subject B, response unit #16). At these points the subject repeated the motions of the characters, putting her hands to her face as did Chris- tOpher, and extending her hand in a "stop gesture" as did the man in the story, indicating a close involvement with the characters and plot of the story. When he got the rock that had white lines running down, it made me think of the palm of your hand. The lines tell when you shall die (Female Subject B, re- sponse unit #49). During this response, the subject extended her hand and, in effect, applied the illustration to herself, showing the researcher the life lines in her hand. I thought that he was going to run away or something like that. It's just him, the boy, and the woods and stuff--enlarged more than you know. So that leaves in the background more than the rest of the stuff (Male Subject D, response units #28—30). As stated, this subject's verbalization is confusing. Upon viewing this section of response on videotape, the researcher was able to distinguish through the subject's 159 pointing and through watching what, in fact, the subject was viewing, the referents in this combination of re- sponse. Without the possibility of repeating the response visually, much of this response would have been lost. Rabbit Island: Book 2 And here I thought he looked kind of funny because he had two teeth sticking out (Female Subject B, re- sponse units #29-30). In two places during this response, not documented orally, the subject laughed aloud and proceeded to make faces like the character. Her involvement with the char- acters led her to be documented in a spontaneous manner with no apparent self-Consciousness about being taped. It must be noted that when the subjects were asked if they were aware of being taped, all subjects responded in the negative. This attracts your attention more because it is the only odd thing. This is not very odd except for the factory which I would not think very much about (Male Subject A, response unit #52). This response, unlike a previous example, makes sense, yet the referent is unknown. Through repeating videotape and watching the subject's body movements, the researcher was able to locate the referent at the top left of page 11 of Rabbit Island. Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley: Book 3 Now there's water everywhere! And she fell out. And now there's water every place. That! The king fell out. They say, "There's water every place" (Male Subject D, response unit #26). 160 This subject repeated the same phrase three times, and it could have been construed as having the same refer- ent while, in fact, the subject was responding to (a) the realistic plot in illustration, (b) the fantasy plot in illustration, and (c) the author's text resulting in a complex response which, at first, appears to be a literal, level response. The Climb: Book 4 Well, it's a little bit, but I still think that cave is a little larger. If she can fit in like this, and there's about that much room in it (Male Subject A, response unit #58). One could interpret this response as exclusively deal- ing with the illustration, yet, when re-viewed, it shows the subject measuring with his hands and body the amount of space needed in the cave for the main character's pre- dicament to be plausible. This implies physical as well as cognitive involvement documented through the videotape procedure. Summation: Sub-question A. This researcher believes that documentaton of aesthetic response through videotape is a viable procedure for the following rea- sons: 1. The use Of videotape adds an extending visual dimension to the clarification of what overtly occurs during the process of responding to a selection of literature. 161 It must be noted that through videotape pro- cedures, the ability to document the lack of body movement of true involvement of a reader with a selection of literature is possible. 2. The use Of videotape helps to eliminate the possibility of missing certain aspects of the response for it allows the researcher to view the responses as needed for docu— mentation. 3. The use of videotape is an immediate and comprehensive documentation of response at this time, for it is both a visual and an auditory method of documentation which doesn't rely exclusively on one type of pro- duction such as the subject's ability to write as with numerous previous studies. 4. The use of videotape ultimately makes it available to others interested in the pro- cess of response or to the same researcher for comparative purposes in a longitudinal study. Sub-question B: Can children verbalize the nature of their feelings, thoughts, and images involved in the aesthetic response experience? This research question was developed to determine whether or not fifth grade students were able to utilize 162 introspective processes, express verbally the feelings, thoughts, and images they experienced while responding to the selection of literature or express verbally the re- experience of the selection. This question also examines the feasibility of using the extension questioning tech- nique to facilitate the process of introspection. In order to determine the subjects' ability to ex- press themselves verbally, the subject profile of all sub- jects with one book, The Accident, will be utilized for analysis. The following variables will be used to guide the treatment of the data. ABILITY TO VERBALIZE VARIABLES Feelings V5 Affect V7 Identification Thoughts V2 Associations Vl7 Interpretations Images V8 Images V9 ' 1. Seeing V10 2. Hearing V11 3. Smelling V12 4. Touching V 5. Tasting 13 163 Table 4.6. Book Profile: All Subjects with The Accident Male Female Female Male Subject Subject Subject Subject Mean A B C D % V5 Affect 77.1 63.5 26.7 20.5 47.0 V7 Iden- tifica- tion 68.6 36.5 42.2 25.0 43.1 V2 Associ—r ation 31.4 19.2 42.2 40.9 33.4 Vl7 Inter- preta- tions 68.6 92.3 68.9 75.0 76.2 V8 Images 65.7 80.8 75.6 68.2 72.6 V9 1. Seeing 65.7 80.8 75.6 68.2 72.6 V10 2. Hearing 8.6 28.8 17.8 22.7 19.5 V11 3. Smell- ing 2.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.7 V12 4. Touch- ing 5.7 3.9 0.0 0.0 2.4 V13 5. Tasting 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Response Units 35 52 45 44 TOTAL: 176 Feelings. The ability of the subjects to verbally express their feelings was documented through the use of variable 5, affect, and the use of variable 7, identifi- cation, on Instrument II. The ability to express emotion emerged clearly in the responses to The Accident with 47% of 176 response units or 87 instances of scored affect. Male Subject A 164 had the highest percentage of affect scores with 77.1% of all response units to The Accident or 27 units of 35 total units. Male Subject D had the lowest percentage of re- sponse units with 20.5% or nine responses of 44 units. Identification, variable 7, lends itself to the docu- mentation of the subjects' ability to verbalize feelings in that these variables frequently appear simultaneously. The role of the character was assumed by the subjects, as scored in 43.1% of all responses to The Accident or 76 instances of identification. Again, Male Subject A had the highest percentage with 68.6% of 35 responses or 24 total instances of seemingly intense involvement with a character. Male Subject D had the lowest percentage of 25% or 11 instances of identification of 44 response units (see Table 4.6). Thoughts. Associations and interpretations, vari- ables 2 and 17 respectively, were used to document the ability of the subjects to verbalize their thoughts. The thoughts of the characters are usually documented through 7, identification. Associations from the subjects' experienced past ap- peared in 33.4% of all subjects' response units. Female Subject C had the highest percentage of associations with 42.2% of 44 total response units or 19 units scored as associations. Female Subject B had the lowest percentage 165 of associations with 19.2% or 10 units of 52 possible re- sponse units. Interpretations or the ability of the subjects to show understanding of the meaning of the story through translation into their frame of reference accounted for 76.2% of 176 response units or 134 instances of interpre- tation. Female B had the highest percentage of interpre- tations with 92.3% of 52 response units or 48 units of scored interpretations. Male Subject A had the lowest percentage with 68.6% or 24 interpretative responses of 35 total units (see Table 4.6). Images. The documentation of the subjects' abil- ity to verbalize images was shown through variables eight through 13 combined with the previous variables. Images, as scored, appeared in 72.5% of all response units to The Accident or 128 units of 176 response units. Female Sub— ject B, again, had the highest percentage of images with 80.8% of 52 response units or 42 total responses contain- ing an image. Male Subject A, again, had the lowest per- centage with 65.7% of 35 response units or 23 instances of imagery (see Table 4.6). Example statements which document scored re- sponses of the subjects' ability to verbalize feelinge, thoughts, and images. 166 The Accident: Book 1 (thoughts, images, and feelings) Here it seemed like ChristOpher was going through the stage of "This couldn't happen; this didn't happen . . . . It's a dream . . . . Wake up! Wake up! . . . and then it wasn't . . . . He wasn't waking up. And it made me feel like when my grandmother died. (Female Subject B, response unit #26). Female Subject B in this response unit combined her frame of reference (the stages of accepting death taught in this subject's fourth grade) and association of affect (how she felt when her grandmother died), signaling the ability to verbalize her thoughts, images, and feelings within one short response. And you'd get bored, but you'd still remember about him and be sad and be angry, a mixture of emo- tions (Male Subject A, response unit #32). It seems like he's mad at the man, and he's mad at the dog for running in front of the car. It also seems like he's happy with the man for helping with the dog. And so, itjjsa whole lot of mixed feel- ings because of what happened (Female Subject C, re- sponse unti #19). In these response units, Male Subject A and Female Subject C were able to verbalize the conflicting thoughts and feelings of the character in such a way that a feeling of confusion is conveyed. These examples give reason to believe that these subjects are capable of verbalizing their thoughts, feelings, and images. I sort of felt sorry for the man and the boy at the same time. (E.Q. "Say more.") Well, I thought of it as the dog might have if he was still alive, through its soul or something like that. You could feel sorry for the man. The dog would not have gotten mad at him if he hit him. And then he (the dog) loved the boy, and he knew how he felt. He knew how the man felt (Male Subject D, response units #14-18). 167 This response unit is an example which reveals the function of the extension questioning technique procedure in eliciting a clarification and an extension of a short response. The researcher used the procedure at this point because she saw the subject move to turn the page indicat- ing the termination of his response. Through use of the extension questioning procedure the subject revealed more interpretations, images, associations, and feeling states. It must be noted that a pause in a response could signal subject processing behaviors rather than the end of a re- sponse. Thus care was taken by this researcher so as not to interrupt the train of thought of the subject. His mom was sympathetic for him, and he is real sad. So he is trying not to accept it that the dog is dead. (E.Q. Repeat verbatim; "say more.") Well, it seems like if you just had a fight with someone or with your friend and then you were real sad about it and your mom was trying to sympathesize with you for it. That is what it reminded me of (Female Subject C, response units #24-26). The use of the extension question technique in this example revealed the presence of an association which seemed to be the basis in thought and image for Female Subject C's response and subsequently indicated an under- standing of the theme of the story by the subject. It must also be noted that the subject applied the actions Of the text and illustration to herself. Here, I thought he was going to be "The Mister! No, I won't want to do this!" And all this other stuff like he's big, how he can take control 168 of everybody because everybody feels sorry for him (Male Subject D, response unit #25). This example of the ability of Male Subject D to reveal his images and thoughts is apparent. Through character identification and interpretation (i.e., attrib- uting motives to the character for his actions in the story), Subject D ultimately reveals some of his personal frame of reference. Summary. The statements presented in this sec- tion of the analysis and other previous quotes give evi- dence that these fifth grade subjects responding to The Accident are, indeed, capable of verbalizing the nature of their feelings, thoughts, and images. Extension questioning does, in fact, create an accept- ing attitude, allowing the subject to clarify and extend his/her response beyond,at times, a superficial level, revealing further thoughts, feelings, and images. This researcher believes that extension questioning with docu- mentation through the medium of videotape constitutes a procedure for revealing children's aesthetic responses to selections of literature approached as an art form. Research Question Three What aspects of aesthetic response stance are identi— fiable in children's oral responses to literature? This research question was conStructed in order to document the aspects of aesthetic response, identified 169 through oral responses, indicating a participant stance of involvement or an observer stance of distance by the sub- jects. In order to explore and document the identifiable aspects of aesthetic response, subject profiles of each subject with all books will be used (see Tables 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10). The variables included in Instrument II which reflect active participant involvement with a selection of litera- ture, according to this researcher, are: PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT VARIABLES Vl Time 1. Present 2. Past V2 Person 1. Reader 2. Character 3. Both V3 Association V5 Affect V6 Identification V7 Image V 16 Interpretation Active participant involvement documented in the oral responses in present tense indicate the immediacy of the response as if, for the reader, the experience of the 170 Table 4.7 Subject Profile: Subject A/All Books Variable/Books (l,2,3,4) Total Response Units = 269 V1 TIME 1. Present 1 IIInummmumummnmumnumm 87.6 2\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ 3 5 , 3 3 — 64 , 0% 4 57.1% 2. Past 1 2 3 4 3. Future 1 2.9% 2 5.4% 3 3.7% 4 6.4% V2 PERSON 1. Reader 2. Character 3. Both V ASSOCIATION v4 BOOK REFERENCE 1. Illustration 1|ll|l|l||lllll|l||31.4% 2\ 42.6% 3— 37.0% 4 10 ll 2. Text 3. Both AFFECT IDENTIFICATION IMAGES 1. Seeing 2. Hearing 3. Smelling 4. Touching 5. Tasting 171 1 2 8.5% 3 18.5% 4 15.9% 1 IIlllllllllllllllllllllllllllIIIllllll 2 3 4: l 2 3 4: 1 2 3 4 l 2\ 3 4 1 2\ 3 4 l 2: 3 4 . 1 2.9% 2 7% 3 3.7% 4 l 5.7% 2 3.9% 3 7.4% 4 1.6% but)!“ 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 PHYSICAL EFFECT RECALL TRANSLATION INTERPRETATION APPLICATION SYNTHESIS JUDGEMENT ANALYSIS 1. PLOT 2 . THEME 172 1 2 3 4 2 Illlllllllllllllllllllll 3 4 : 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 l lllllllllmllll 2 8 - 8 % 2 %\\\\\\\\\V 27 . 1% 3 16 . 7% 4 12 . 7% l llIIlllllllllllllllllllllllIllI.p 57 . 1% 2 R\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\‘ 60 . 5% 3 _ 66 . 7% 4 = 58 . 7% l Illllllllllllllllll 34 - 3% 2 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ 61 . 2% 3 — so . 0% 4 55 . 6% l IlllllllllllIIlllllllllIlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll 9 7 . l % g \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ 9 0 9 g g 8 % H...— . 4 96 . 8% 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 10. 11. CHARACTER- IZATION MOOD SETTING STYLE TEXT POINT OF VIEW DIALOGUE CONTENT (illustration) PHYSICAL ASPECTS (illustration) STYLE (illustration) 173 AcukiH .ouwrd hwak’H blukiw acumiw at» I I m+u 69w 1.6% 1 2.9% 2 4.7% 3 11.9% 4 20.9% 1 IIIIIIIIIIIIII 25.7% 2% 57.4% 3 57.1% 4 57.1% hwthF' ...a b) I [—l 00 ~4:.me 174 Table 4.8. Subject Profile: Subject B/All Books Variable/Books Total Response Units: 292 V1 TIME 1. Present 1 2\ 3 2. 4 2. Past 1:Immmmmmmmmmmu 65.4% 2 NNN§§§§§§§§§§§§ 73.7% 3!!!!III 32 2% 4 °°°°° 55.8% 3. Future 1 22? 3.2% 3 1.7% 4 V2 PERSON 1. Reader 1 2\ 3 4 2. Characters 1 2 3 4 3. Both 1, 2 3 4 v3 ASSOCIATION lemMI 19.2% 2 %\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ 42 1% 3 _ 28.8% 4 52.3% V4 BOOK REFERENCE 1. Illustration 2. Text 1.ummmmmmmu 46.2% 2 §§§§§§§§% 3% 3 67.8% 4 41 8% 1 9.6% 2 3.2% 3 6.8% 4 16.3% 10 11 12 3. Both AFFECT IDENTIFICATION IMAGES 1. SEEING 2. HEARING 3. SMELLING 4. TOUCHING 5. TASTING PHYSICAL EFFECT 1% wa awmw ||lIIllllIllllllllllllllIllllllllllllIlllllll %\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\‘ — .---- waH hump “DONE-J Illlllllllllllll W 24 . 2% - waH fiwNH hwmu—a l1.7% waH 7.7% 21.1% 3.6% 19.8% waH 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 RECALL TRANSLATION INTERPRETATION APPLICATION SYNTHESIS JUDGMENT ANALYSIS 1. PLOT 2. THEME 3. CHARACTERI- ZATION 176 1| IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIZIIIIIIIIIII 92 . 3% 2 %\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\‘ 4 3 3 %.66 1% 4 65 . 1% 1 19 . 2% 2 2 . 1% 3 17 . 1% 4 2 . 3% l IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 71 . 2 % 2 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ . 1% 3 64 . 4 % 4 1 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 92 . 3% 2\ \. 87 . 4% 3 _ 98 . 3% 4? 93.0% 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 3O 10. ll. MOOD SETTING STYLE TEXT POINT OF VIEW DIALOGUE CONTENT (illustration) PHYSICAL ASPECTS (illustration) STYLE (illustration) 177 1| 2 3 4 1 2% 3 4 illl.9% 2 3 4% 10.5% illi.9% 2 3 4 1 28.8% 2 6.3% 3 10.2% 4 2.3% l 2 10.5% 3 4 waH 178 Table 4.9. Subject Profile, Subject C/All Books Variable/Books Total Response Units = 230 V1 TIME 1. Present 2. Past 1 77.8% 2 60.9% 3 33.3% 4 26.2% 3. Future 1 4.4% 2 1.2% 3 3.7% 4 4.9% PERSON 1. Reader 2. Character 3. Both ASSOCIATION BOOK REFERENCE 1. Illustration Illlllllllllllllllllllll %\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \ 10 ll 12 2. Text 3. Both AFFECT IDENTIFICATION IMAGES 1. SEEING 2. HEARING 3. SMELLING 4. TOUCHING 5. TASTING 179 1 8 . 9% 2 13 . 8 % 3 18 . 5% 4 13 . 1% 1 . 2 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 l IIIIllIllllllllllllllllllllllIllllllllllllI 7 5 . 6% 2 W 6 3 . 2 % 3 6 6 . 7% 4 I 6 5 . 5% l |lllllllllllllllllllIlllllllllllllllllll||| 75 . 6% 2 %\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\‘ 6 3 . 2% 3 _ 6 6 . 7% 4 65 . 6% 1 2 3 . 4 : 1 2 3 I] 3 . 7% 4 1 2 3 E 7 . 4 % 4 8 . 2% 1 2 3 [I 3 . 7 % 4 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 PHYSICAL EFFECT RECALL TRANSLATION INTERPRETATION APPLICATION SYNTHESIS JUDGMENT ANALYSIS 1. PLOT 2. THEME 180 waH DWNH waH waH IbLaJNH IdeNH bWNH |llllllllllllllllllllllllllllIllllllllllllllllllllllllll %\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\%\\\\ _ 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% bout/OF" wal-J IbLONl-J 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 10. 11. CHARACTERI- ZATION MOOD SETTING STYLE (text) POINT OF VIEW DIALOGUE CONTENT PHYSICAL EFFECT (illustration) STYLE (illustration) 181 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4: 1 2% 3 o 4: 1 2 3 4 1 2| 2.3% 3 41 1.6% 1 4.4% 2 3 29.6% 4 14.8% 1| IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 35. 6% 2 %\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \\78.2% 3_ 55.6% 4 60.7% 2- 11.1% 3 4% 14.8% 11.1% 23.0% 7.4% 23.0% abouts)!“ 182 Table 4.10. Subject Profile, Subject D/All Books Variable/Books Total Response Units = 185 V1 TIME 1. Present 2. Past 3. Future PERSON 1. Reader 2. Character 3. Both ASSOCIATION BOOK REFERENCE 1. Illustration 1 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlllllll\ 52 . 3% §\ 56 6% 86 2% 4 . 1 2 3 4 l IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII‘ 40 . 9% 2 %\\\\\\\\\\\\\\V 42 . 2% 3 — 27 . 7% 4 34 . 5% blunaH 10 11 12 2. Text 3. Both AFFECT IDENTIFICATION IMAGES 1. SEEING 2. HEARING 3. SMELLING 4. TOUCHING 5. TASTING waH bcumaH IIIIIIIIIII 20 . 5% N 13 . 3% - waI—I waI—a bWNI-J 1 IlIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 68 . 2% 2 %\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\‘ 50 6% 3 — .6% 4 ‘ 79.3% 1 22.7% 2 6.0% 3 24.1% 4 17.2% 1 2 3 4 1 2| 1.2% 3 4 kwNH 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 PHYSICAL EFFECT RECALL TRANSLATION INTERPRETATION APPLICATION SYNTHESIS JUDGEMENT ANALYSIS 1. PLOT 2. THEME 1 2 9.6% 3 4 86.2% 1 4.5% 2 10.8% 3 10.4% 4 3.5% l IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 43 . 2% 2 %\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\‘ 4 3 . 2 % 3 - 7 . 6 % 4 44 . 8% lIllllllllllllIllllllllllllllllllllIlllllllll|||||| %\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\‘ — 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 10. 11. CHARACTERI- ZATOON MOOD SETTING STYLE (text) POINT OF VIEW DIALOGUE CONTENT (illustration) PHYSICAL ASPECTS STYLE (illustration) 185 l IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 52 . 3 % 2 %\\\\\\\\\\\‘ 31.3% 3 44.8% 4 48.3% 1 22.7% 2 20.5% 3 17.2% 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1IIIIIII 13.6% 2 - 3! 7 51.7% 4 1 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 4 5 5% 2%\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\R 9.0% 3 ‘ 75.9% 4 13.6% 14.5% IIIIIII %\\\‘ I 1 0 . 4 % IwaH 186 story were happening at that moment. The distanced ob- server stance of looking upon the experience rather than being within the experience is usually translated as being in the past tense. For instance, Male Subject A respond- ing to all books had 73.8% of all responses or 199 re- sponses of 269 in present tense, showing high involvement. Male Subject D, on the other hand, had only 22.5% of 185 total responses or 42 responses in present tense, indicat- ing less involvement or a predominant observer stance throughout all selections. Person reference with reader involvement shows Male Subject A having 31.6% of all re- sponses, 85 of 269 units, compared to Male Subject D who had 19.1% of reader involvement or 35 of 185 total units (see Tables 4.7 and 4.10). The following examples are taken from the transcripts of Male Subject A and Male Subject D responding to the same pages of the selection of Rabbit Island. Through these oral responses, one can see, in effect, the active participant stance and the observer distanced stance. (Participant involvement) When I first saw this (pp. 5-6), I thought--look how cruelly they're treating those rabbits by putting them in boxes! You'd think they would suffocate, "Oh no!" (Male Subject A, response unit #26). (Observer stance) And here where I saw that they were little bunnies, I sorta felt sadtxrause--having you take all those rabbits away from their homes and put them up in pens (Male Subject D, response unit #13). The high degree of affect in Male Subject A's re- sponse compared to the moderate amount of feeling state 187 in Male Subject D's response seems to indicate a higher degree of involvement for Male Subject D. (Participant involvement) Right here (pp. 7-8), this gives you a feeling of scare, like you are being scared and frightful that your dog is going to get hit. It kind of makes your heart jump because you don't know what is going to happen (Male Subject A, response units #9, 10). (Observer stance) This one reminded me of why my dog got hit by a car. It made me feel like that when it said that, "He closed his eyes and he turned away." It seems he knew that he didn't even have to ask. He already knew that the dog was going to be dead if he got hit (Female Subject C, response unit #10). These responses taken from the same page of text indicate Male Subject A's response was in the participant stance for he has made the dog, his dog, and has a physical ef- fect of "heart jump" as he relates his experience with this section of the book. Female Subject C, on the other hand, seems to be distanced and relating the actions of Christo- pher to the researcher as an observer rather than being emersed in the action as does Male Subject A. The tone and pitch of the voices of these subjects during this seg- ment also reveal Male Subject A's high involvement while Female Subject C calmly relates her response. Affect scores for these subjects with The Accident also document the difference in degree of involvement. For instance, Male Subject A had 77.1% of documented af- fect or 27 of 35 responses, and Female Subject C had 26.7% scored affect of 45 responses or 12 instances of affect. 188 (Participant involvement) (The Climb, pp. 23-24) When she thinks she runs into a spider web, a big spider web! I started thinking "big spider!" Then she says, "It might be in my hair--it's probably in my hair! I gotta get it out!" And it reminded me of when was in my class last year, and he got a daddy long legs and he threw it on me. I was sitting here going like this--running around (images her motioning with hands, try- ing to get spider off her). But here sheijscramped and she can't run around, and is there and he's throwing spiders on her (laughs) (Female Subject B, response units #62-65). It looks like she came to a deep place except you can't really tell what that picture is in. It looks like she is in the night. Wow! Well, you really can't tell. We had a story in our reading book about oneone who found a new cave, and he lowered himself in and he got lost. And it turned out he was lying down right beneath the thing, except it was dark out. When day- light came, he couldn't find the hole. Like, you kno -- those staglamites (sic) (whatever you call them) hanging from the roof. He was looking, and he couldn't find the hole. He was just too much panic. And she seemed to panic too much, and I would be panicked, too! (Male Subject A, response units #52-56). In these two lengthy examples, Female Subject B maintained a participant stance in the experience of the action. She combined her feelings of the spider web in the cave to the association of having a spider thrown on her and then transferring the spider and person throwing it to the main character. Male Subject A, conversely, for reasons un- known to this researcher, had his participant involvement broken with this selection early in the book and continued to be distanced and critical. His response, for instance, fluctuated between critical statements of "it looks like she came to a deep place except you can't really tell .. . (underlining added), "she seemed to panic too much," to 189 "I'd be panicked too!" indicating a combination of observer and future participant stance. Both brought in an associa- tion from the past which seemed to help relay an under- standing of the situation to each of them. Association from the past was scored 52.3% of 61 re- sponse units for The Climb or 31 times for Female Subject B, showing high involvement with self. Male Subject A had 27% of 63 responses with this selection or 17 responses of association, showing a distanced stance in regard to inte- gration of self. Documented instances of identification show similar results with Male Subject A's assuming the role of the character 14 times of 63 response units, while Female Subject B identified with the character in 18 in- stances of 61 total response units (see Tables 4.7 and 4.8). The use of images or pictures in the mind and the subjects' interpretations connote degrees of idiosyncratic involvement with the selection. (Participant stance) (Rabbit Island, pp. 25-26) Here's the road again. This is the part I was talking about. You can tell that the car was putting on its brakes. The book doesn't even say that it was putting on its brakes. But you can tell by the black marks and the dog seems to almost be hit! (Male Subject A, response unit #110). And then over here I thought the dog was going to get hit. He was over here and then his tail goes be- tween his legs, and it looks like he's going to go, "NO!" And then I started thinking, "Well, the brown's going to get hit." And then I start going, "Oh no." And then meanwhile I was thinking this reminded me of Sparrow Hospital . . . (Female Subject B, response units #79 and 80). (Observer stance) In this one, I thought the little brown rabbit was going to die. You can see the telephone thing again (Female Subject C, response unit #68). 190 (Observer stance) And then where it shows the dogs. It looks like the little rabbit is going to be hit. Back here they have one of those rabbit trucks (Male Subject D, response unit #64). The attention of the subject strays from the one aspect of the illustration and story, indicating a break in involve- ment to the observer stance. It emerges from the scored documentation of images and interpretations that all subjects utilize images above the 57% level, while interpretations appear at or above the 59.5% level across all books by all subjects (see Tables 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10). Consequently, it seems the presence of images or interpretations alone do not account for the distinguishable difference in the degree of involvement in the previous examples. This difference between the exam- ples deemed as participant examples and those deemed observer examples seem to lie in the presence (participant stance) or the moderate presence or absence (observer stance) of the affect variable, the apparent intense im- mediacy of the use of present tense by the subjects, and/or the presence of lack of identification of the reader with the character in the story. The affect, present tense, and identification variables in rank order from highest to lowest as scored for all subjects across all books and specifically for Rabbit Island, from which all the above examples came, are as follows: 191 Table 4.11. Affect, Present Tense, and Identification ' Variables in Rank Order TOTAL, ALL BOOKS // RABBIT ISLAND Ident- Ident- Present ifica- Present ifica- Affect Tense tion Affect Tense tion Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Subject % % % % % % Male A 77.1 73.8 30.5 24.0 85.3 16.3 Female B 63.5 42.0 26.6 19.0 23.2 21.1 Female C 25.6 47.2 23.7 15.0 37.9 8.1 Male D 20.5 22.5 15.4 13.3 15.9 15.7 As documented, Male Subject A had the highest degree of affect, present tense, and identification responses across all books and ranked second within the book Rabbit Island, indicating a high participant stance for Male Sub- ject A with all selections of literature approached as an art form (see Table 4.11). Female Subject B ranked second in affect and identification across all books, third in the use of present tense, and first in identification within the Rabbit Island selection, indicating high parti- cipant involvement. It must be noted that intense identi- fication seems to occur in present tense. Female Subject C ranks third in affect, 37.9% below Female Subject B in rank order, although she ranks second in use of present tense and third in identification across all selections. Within Rabbit Island, Female Subject C ranks third in af- fect, second in present tense, and fourth in identification showing a moderate degree of involvement or a more distant 192 stance than Male Subject A or Female Subject B. Male Sub- ject D ranked fourth in all variables across all books; especially noteworthy was his affect score which was 56.6% lower than the highest ranking Male Subject A. Within Rabbit Island, Male Subject D ranks fourth except for the identification variable where he placed third above Female Subject C, evidencing that of all four subjects, Male Sub- ject D assumed the observer stance of distance throughout all selections of literature, more than any other subject (see Table 4.11). Summation. In accordance with the documentation, this researcher has reason to believe that: l. The participant stance of involvement on the part of the reader and the observer stance of distance can be identified and documented in the oral, aesthetic responses to literature approached as an art form. 2. The documented presence of a high percentage of affect in a response unit indicates a par— ticipative stance and, conversely, a low amount or the absence of affect seemingly signals an Observer stance of distance as scored in the oral responses of these fifth grade subjects to these four selections of literature. 3. The participant and observer stances are flexible and interchangeable, seemingly 193 dependent on what, in fact, the subject was attending to at the time and his/her idiosyn- cratic associations brought up from the past. These associations seem to pull the subjects into an involvement with the selection. Research Question Four What specific aspects of a literary selection, in picture book form, shape the aesthetic response; i.e., content, depth of coverage of the topic, concept of story (plot, theme, characterization, mood, setting, point of view, dialogue, shyle), illustration, literary genre, and format? This research question was develOped to document the shaping effect the literary selection has on the aesthetic response of the subjects. The shaping effect or the selec- tion contribution is the unique pattern of words and/or illustrations in the selection, regarded by this researcher as the stimulus for the readers' responses. The selection stimulates in that it activates the reader's past experi- ences and guides the reader so that he/she selects, re- jects, or orders what is called forth by the text or illustration. According to Rosenblatt,6 the selec— tion, in essence, guides what is held in the forefront of the reader's attention. Shaping will be dealt with in two parts. Part I will document the salient aspects of the literary selections 6Louise Rosenblatt, The Reader, the Text, the Poem (Carbondale: Southern Illinois Press, 1978). 194 which shape the subject's response including the effect of the picture book format, and Part II will document the shaping effect of the artistic, literary conventions or concept of story. These two major areas will guide the treatment of the data. Book profiles for all subjects with each book will be used for the analysis (Tables 4.12, 4.13, 4.14, and 4.15). This section was formulated to document the salient features of a literary selection and their shaping effect on the responses of the subjects. The following salient features will be addressed: (a) the literary genre or the type of book, (b) the content or substance of the book, (c) the depth or how thoroughly the information was pre- sented, and (d) the usage by children of the illustrations in picture book format while responding aesthetically to literature approached as an art form. The genré of the books used in this study are as follows. The Accident and The Climb, both by Carol Car- rick and illustrated by Donald Carrick, are examples of realistic fiction in that the theme or main ideas and the plot or actions in the story could actually happen. They are examples of balanced text, and illustration format in which the story is conveyed equally through a fusion of text and illustration. Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley by John Burningham is a humorous piece of realism with a simultaneous daydream fantasy theme; the character's 195 Table 4.12. Affect: All Subjects The Accident A II I ............I 774% B %\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\‘ . 63.5% c _ 26.7% D 2 0.5 % Rabbit.Island A 24.0% B 19 0% C 15.0% D Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley A B C D The Climb A ....IJ 30°” B 24.4% C 36.1% D 34.5% RANK ORDER: TOTAL MEAN PERCENT 5.; The Accident N The Climb 3. Rabbit Island 4. Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley 47.0% 31.3% 17.8% 196 Table 4.13. Association: All Subjects UCWIP' UCUJIP' CCU-'3’ DOE)?” The Accident l §§§§§§§uumm. 42.2% 3 40.9% Rabbit Island . 42.1% . 42.1% The Climb ll||||||||||||||||||||||||||||l 2 7. 0 % W 5 2 . 3 % .6% RANK ORDER: TOTAL MEAN PERCENT 1. N o w The Climb The Accident Rabbit Island Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley 34.6% 33.4% 33.2% 23.7% 197 Table 4.14. Identification: All Subjects The Accident lll|lll|llll|llll||ll||lllllllllIll|llllllI||||lllllll||l|||||||||||||||||l||1 6 8 ~ 6 % \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ - _ 42.2% UCUJ> , 0‘. 0‘ I...: :::Io: oIoIoIoIoI: pmoo o ”0:".M . O. O O . O . . . .. MI. Imlllu H. O n. 0. Rabbit Island 00003, A B C D The Climb A B 30.2% C 29.5% D RANK ORDER: TOTAL MEAN PERCENT 1. The Accident 2. The Climb 3. Rabbit Island 4. Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley 43.1% 23.9% 15.3% 14.9% 198 Table 4.15. Physical Effect: All Subjects The Accident A [I 37.1% B 7.7% C 6.7% D 4.5% Rabbit Island 21.1% cow» Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley .8% .6% .7% f’ 10.4% The Climb Down, RANK ORDER: TOTAL MEAN PERCENT l. The Accident 14.0% 2. Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley 11.9% 3. Rabbit Island 10.5% 4. The Climb 5.6% 199 real world, and her fantasy world are each portrayed in full page illustrations Opposite each other. Two aspects of the story are conveyed through the illustrations; the text adds a third aspect. Rabbit Island by Jorg Steiner and illustrated by Jorg Muller is a fantasy which reflects the themes of friendship and the character's polar concep- tions of freedom. It is a predominant text, sparce illus- tration format in which the story is conveyed mainly through the text. 1 In order to document the shaping effect of specific literary genre, rank orders of the selections which gener- ated the highest percentages of involvement are charted. Involvement is indicated by the variables of affect, asso- ciation, and identification (see Tables 4.12, 4.13, 4.14). Realistic fiction, as scored, had the highest percen— tage of subject involvement or intensity in all three vari- ables. The Accident was ranked first in affect with 47% of all response units or 83 units of 176, first in identi- fication with 43.1% or 76 of 176 units, and second in asso- ciation with 33.4% or 59 of 176 units. The Climb, also realistic fiction, was ranked first in associations with 34.6% of 239 units or 83 associations, second in affect with 31.3% or 75 of 239 units, and second in identification with 23.9% or 42 of 239 responses, leading this researcher to believe that realistic fiction genre, as documented, lends itself to a high amount of participant involvement 200 or intensity in that the reader seems to live the experi- ence of the book. The fantasy selection Rabbit Island placed third in rank order across all variables with asso- ciation, scoring highest with 33.1% or 131 of 394 response units, affect with 17.8% or 70 responses, and identifica- tion with 15.3% or 60 responses of 394. The humorous realism/fantasy Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley ranked lowest across all three variables with 9.3% or 16 responses of 167 containing affect, 23.7% associa— tion or 40 instances of 167, and 14.9% identification as scored or 25 responses of 167 total response units. The lowest ranking could be attributed, in part, to the fact that the child could never stay with one main idea, realistic or fantasy, and the shifting, though humorous, seemed to keep the subjects in a descriptive observer stance of distance. Example statements: The Accident (literary genre) That [am like the boy because we have dogs and that it could happen to me, too. It's reality; it's not any make-up. It is fiction, but it could happen (Male Sub- ject A, response unit #24). This response unit shows that Male Subject A realizes the criteria for realistic fiction, knowing that this story could happen to him. The Accident (association) This page . . . makes me feel that his--Christopher's-- father is caught right in between. He doesn't know if he should say, "Well, it's not the man's fault. I mean, he 201 couldn't help it if he hit the dog. He couldn't stop on time." Or if he should say, "Christopher, I'll sue the man; I'll take this to court!" (Female Subject B, response units #31 and 32). Emergent associations pertaining to the legal aspect within this response indicate that the aesthetic response was shaped for this subject by her knowledge of due pro- cess within the law. The Climb (identification) Their heads are kind of thrown back, and the wind's blowing at them, and it looks like they're saying, "Boy, this is beautiful--how come every place can't be like this?" (Female Subject C, response unit #28). Identification is present when the reader, during a moment of involvement with a character, takes over the role of the character, diminishing or eliminating the boundry be- tween the Character and the self. It seems to contribute to the shaping of the response through the creation of realistic dialogue, combining reader images with the selection of literature. The Accident has a common theme in realistic fiction with the death of a pet and the sub- sequent coping by the main Character. One can see from the high percentage of identification on the readers' parts: Male Subject A with 68.6% of 35 units or 24 in- stances to 25% of 44 response units or 11 instances for Male Subject D that this story, possibly through content, shaped the aesthetic responses of the subjects. It was the one selection of all four selections, as documented on videotape, which ended in sighs and deep silence. 202 Another indication of the shaping effect of the con- tent of a selection of literature is the scores of physi- cal effect or body reaction of the subjects which indicate an intensity of involvement (see Table 4.15). Male Sub- ject A's response to The Accident had 37.1% of 35 units or 13 instances with physical effect as scored. Female Sub- ject B's responses to Rabbit Island with 21.1% or 20 in- stances of 95 units and The Climb with 19.8% of 86 re- sponse units or 17 responses of physical effect indicate involvement and subsequent shaping by these two selections of literature (see Table 4.15). In rank order, The Acci- dent was first with 14.0% effect; the humorous Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley was second with 11.9% physical effect which was a predominance of verbal outbursts of laughter due to this type of realistic fiction in which the story is greatly exaggerated, thereby evoking humor; Rabbit Island was third with 10.5% or 41 instances of 394 responses; and The Climb was last with 5.6% or 13 of 239 total responses. The relevancy of the past experience of the subjects to the content in the selection has some bearing on the subjects' involvement. Male Subject A and Female Subject B both had previous experience with moun- tain climbing. This previous experience seemed to shape their responses as follows: 203 The Climb: Male Subject A Doesn't that look a little steeper than it really is? And I did a little mountain climbing in Puerto Rico, and it's really fun. But, anyway, it doesn't look like it would be smooth like that unless it was clay. But because everything is all crumbly, I don't really think that it's true (response unit #26). (later) And so I was wondering how they exaggerate a little bit how steep it is! (response unit #30) Because there was not lake over on this side, so they still exaggerate a bit in this book (response unit #39). Now this--this would be scared. It looks like she's gone in much farther, and they're exaggerating it! They are, for some reason, exaggerating it to make it more exciting (response unit #50). As shown, Male Subject A, seemingly through his awareness that the illustration failed to reflect some statements in the text, assumed a critical observer stance throughout this selection. Based on his associations from the past with the content, a shaping resulted which reflected less involvement shown through less affect, less identification, and less physical effect yet contained high associations (see Tables 4.12, 4.13, 4.14, 4.15). Conversely, Female Subject B who also had previous experience with mountain climbing maintained a participant involvement stance with the selection. The Climb: Female Subject B This page reminds me of the Grand Canyon when we were--wait, not the Grand Canyon--Wyoming--the Tetons. We went there, and we climbed a mountain, and it was sort of like this because you could see a lot (response unit #2). 204 And then here he's hanging on to this. The way it was drawn, probably he was closer to the cliff than he really was shown, and he's hanging on to there. And it looks like she's going to save them, and he might let go by accident and fall! (response units #39, 40). It must be noted that Male Subject A's response to the illustration can be interpreted in a negative manner while Female Subject B's interpretation has a positive tone, almost as if she contributed to the suspension of disbe-' lief into involvement by saying "probably he was closer to the cliff than he really was shown." 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