ABSTRACT
It has been suggested that the skills required to interpret social interaction are the same skills necessary for understanding the fictional content of narratives (e.g., movies, books, storytelling, or theater; Mar, 2004; Mar, Oatley, Hirsh, de la Paz, & Peterson, 2006; Oatley, 1994, 1999). Although film-production and book writing are only seen in some cultures, across cultures humans engage in storytelling (Scalise Sugiyama, 1996). In this chapter, we examine narrative production and comprehension in terms of cognitive mechanisms that subserve pragmatics.
