Editing Reader-response criticism (section)

===Experimenters===
The type of reader-response critics who conduct psychological experiments on a defined set of readers are called experimenters.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Paul|first=Samiran Kumar|title=Literary Theory and Marxist Criticism|publisher=Notion Press|year=2020|isbn=978-1-64919-549-4|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Beville|first=Kieran|title=HOW TO INTERPRET THE BIBLE: An Introduction to Hermeneutics|publisher=Christian Publishing House|year=2016|isbn=978-1-945757-05-1|location=Cambridge, Ohio|pages=104}}</ref> The experiments often involve participants free associating during the study, with the experimenters collecting and interpreting reader-responses in an informal way.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Knapp|first=John V.|title=Learning from Scant Beginnings: English Professor Expertise|publisher=University of Delaware Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-87413-026-3|location=Newark|pages=39|language=en}}</ref> [[Reuven Tsur]] in [[Israel]] has developed in great detail models for the expressivity of [[poetic meter|poetic rhythms]], of [[metaphor]], and of word-sound in [[poetry]] (including different actors' readings of a single line of [[Shakespeare]]).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kharbe|first=A. s|title=English Language and Literary Criticism|publisher=Discovery Publishing House|year=2009|isbn=978-81-8356-483-0|pages=393}}</ref>  [[Richard Gerrig]] in the U.S. has experimented with the reader's state of mind during and after a literary experience.  He has shown how readers put aside ordinary knowledge and values while they read, treating, for example, criminals as heroes.  He has also investigated how readers accept, while reading, improbable or fantastic things ([[Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Coleridge]]'s "willing [[suspension of disbelief]]"), but discard them after they have finished.

In Canada, [[David Miall]], usually working with [[Donald Kuiken]], has produced a large body of work exploring [[emotion]]al or "affective" responses to literature, drawing on such concepts from ordinary criticism as "[[defamiliarization]]" or "[[foregrounding]]". They have used both experiments and new developments in [[neuropsychology]], and have developed a [[questionnaire]] for measuring different aspects of a reader's response.

There are many other experimental psychologists around the world exploring readers' responses, conducting many detailed experiments. One can research their work through their professional organizations, the [http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/IGEL/ International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature and Media] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220085805/http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/IGEL/ |date=2014-12-20 }}, and [https://science-of-aesthetics.org/ International Association of Empirical Aesthetics], and through such psychological indices as PSYCINFO.

Two notable researchers are Dolf Zillmann and [[Peter Vorderer]], both working in the field of [[communication studies|communications]] and [[media psychology]]. Both have theorized and tested ideas about what produces emotions such as [[suspense]], [[curiosity]], [[surprise (emotion)|surprise]] in readers, the necessary factors involved, and the role the reader plays. [[Jenefer Robinson]], a philosopher, has recently blended her studies on emotion with its role in literature, music, and art.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Deeper than Reason: Emotion and its Role in Literature, Music, and Art|last=Robinson|first=Jenefer|date=2005-04-07|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780191603211|language=en-US|doi=10.1093/0199263655.001.0001}}</ref>