Dr Christoph Scheepers, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of Glasgow

Research in the psychology of reading has traditionally centred on the cognitive processes involved in text comprehension. This includes exploring questions such as: “How do readers recognize words?”, “How do they integrate information at the word, sentence, and discourse levels to construct a coherent interpretation of the text?”, or “How do they resolve ambiguities at these various levels?”.

Ancient manuscripts introduce an additional aesthetic dimension to these inquiries—an area that so far has received relatively little attention in the psychology of reading. These manuscripts are particularly rich in paratextual features, such as marginalia, cross-referencing systems, and artworks, which supplement the main text. These elements have the potential to convey knowledge and understanding that extend beyond the content of the primary text itself.

Examining how this process occurs requires a comprehensive approach that combines methodologies from the psychology of reading—particularly eye-tracking (to identify where readers focus their attention)—with survey and qualitative data. This integrated approach aims to assess not only the reading process, but also the aesthetic and emotional responses to manuscript elements and how they affect interpretation in different readers.

In this lecture, I will discuss key findings from applying this method to ancient manuscripts as part of the Paratexts Seeking Understanding project, with a particular emphasis on the role of aesthetics, in shaping readers’ interpretations of texts.

FREE Talk:  No booking required for onsite talk, please register for online viewing via Zoom HERE.