中文导读

两个人读同一本小说，脑子里出现的故事可能很不一样：有人能清楚“看见”每个房间和街道，有人几乎看不到画面，却能“听见”人物说话。英国杜伦大学与爱丁堡国际图书节合作的 ReaderBank 项目设计了一份16道题的问卷，在2023至2024年调查了867名读者（多数来自两届图书节，其余来自一项线上研究）。研究发现，阅读时的想象并不只是“脑中有画面”，而是由空间与视觉、声音与语言、人物模型和视角四个部分组成；画面感强、善于揣摩人物的读者更容易沉浸其中，但常想着人物也与更多不想要的念头有关。研究只显示相关性，样本也多来自图书节读者。文章按“发现—方法—结果—边界”展开，阅读时可留意 for example、however、still 等词如何引出例子、转折和保留。

正文

Two people can read the same novel and still come away with very different stories in their heads. One reader may see every room and street clearly. Another may hardly see anything but may hear the characters talking. A new study from Durham University in the UK and the Edinburgh International Book Festival tries to describe these differences more carefully.

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两个人读同一本小说，脑子里留下的故事仍可能大不相同。一位读者也许能清楚地看见每个房间和每条街道；另一位读者几乎什么画面也看不到，却可能听见人物在说话。英国杜伦大学与爱丁堡国际图书节合作的一项新研究，试图更仔细地描述这些差异。

The team created a short questionnaire called the ReaderBank Imagination Quiz. It has 16 questions about what happens inside a reader’s mind. Readers rated how often they had each experience on a five-point scale. For example, they were asked whether they pictured places, heard the rhythm of the words, guessed how characters would react, or moved between different points of view in a story.

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研究团队设计了一份名为“ReaderBank 想象力测验”的简短问卷，共16个问题，询问读者头脑中会发生什么。读者按五级量表评价自己出现每种体验的频率。例如，他们被问到是否会想象出地点、是否听见文字的节奏、是否会猜测人物的反应，或者是否会在故事的不同视角之间切换。

The researchers tested the quiz with 867 people. Most of them took part at two Edinburgh book festivals, and others joined an online study carried out in 2023 and 2024. The participants also filled in standard psychological questionnaires, so the team could compare reading habits with other parts of mental life. The study was published in the journal Royal Society Open Science and reported by the science news site Phys.org on October 22.

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研究人员用867人对这份测验进行了检验。其中大多数人在两届爱丁堡图书节上参与，其他人参加了2023年和2024年进行的一项线上研究。参与者还填写了标准的心理学问卷，以便研究团队把阅读习惯与心理生活的其他方面进行比较。该研究发表在《皇家学会开放科学》期刊上，科学新闻网站 Phys.org 于10月22日作了报道。

The results suggest that reading imagination is more than seeing pictures in the mind’s eye. The team found four separate parts. The first, space and vision, is about how readers picture settings and landscapes. The second, voice and language, is the inner voice readers hear. The third, people models, is about imagining how characters would act in real life and thinking about them after the book ends. The fourth, perspective, is about whether a reader feels inside the story, watches it from outside, or moves between the two.

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结果表明，阅读时的想象不只是“在心灵之眼中看见画面”。研究团队发现了四个相互独立的部分。第一是空间与视觉，关乎读者如何想象场景和风景。第二是声音与语言，即读者听到的内心声音。第三是人物模型，指想象人物在现实生活中会如何行动，并在读完书后继续想着他们。第四是视角，关乎读者是感觉身处故事之中、从外部旁观，还是在两者之间切换。

These parts were linked to other mental habits. Readers who pictured scenes clearly and built detailed models of characters tended to feel more deeply drawn into stories and to report more useful daydreaming. However, thinking a lot about characters was also linked to more unwanted thoughts in both 2023 groups. Getting lost in a book was not connected with poor control of attention. This suggests that deep reading is an active and focused process, not simply being distracted.

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这些部分与其他心理习惯有关。能清楚想象场景、为人物建立细致模型的读者，往往更容易被故事深深吸引，也报告有更多有益的白日梦。然而，在2023年的两组样本中，经常想着人物也与更多不想要的念头有关。沉浸在书中与注意力控制差并无关联。这表明，深度阅读是一个主动而专注的过程，而不只是分心。

The study only shows links, and many of the readers came from book festivals, so they may not represent everyone. Still, the researchers say the four parts often work together, and they hope future ReaderBank studies will show how they shape the experience of reading.

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这项研究只显示了相关性，而且许多读者来自图书节，因此他们未必能代表所有人。不过，研究人员表示，这四个部分常常共同起作用，他们希望未来的 ReaderBank 研究能揭示它们如何塑造阅读体验。

新闻来源

• Phys.org · The same novel can spark very different inner worlds in readers (22 Oct 2026)
• Royal Society Open Science · The forces of the imagination: exploring dimensions of mental imagery using the ReaderBank Imagination Quiz (2026)

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