Processing Incongruity for Mental Events in Comics: Contours of Character Inferences

Such “domain constructions” thus integrate an auxiliary domain (e.g., a dream) within the primary domain (the expected, physical storyworld), and may require readers to resolve seemingly non co-referential figures as co-referential (e.g., when a character’s dream shows that character as an animal).

In three self-paced reading experiments, we investigate the processing and understanding of single vs. multiple domains in sequences with co-reference issues (Exp. 1) and whether graphic cues facilitate such domain switches (Exp. 2 and 3). Domain switches incurred greater updating costs but were comprehensible, with greater similarity across panels predicting faster processing, and comic reading experience affecting viewing times.