Story World Absorption
MG is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research lies at the intersection of education, literacy, psychology, and children’s literature.
She uses a mixed-methods approach to examine children’s story world absorption: the feeling of being immersed, or “hooked,” in a book.
Currently, MG is investigating the cognitive and social-emotional benefits of absorptive reading, the types of texts that elicit absorption in children, how absorption interfaces with reading motivation and engagement to support comprehension development, and how absorptive reading can be leveraged in K-12 classrooms to improve reading outcomes.
Select Publications
Prezioso, M., & Harris, P.L. (Accepted; Forthcoming 2025). Early make-believe and children’s absorption in fiction. In Schindler, I. & Franziska, D. Development of aesthetic experience: Towards an integrative empirical approach. Cambridge University Press.
Prezioso, M., & Harris, P. L. (2023). Children’s absorption in fiction: Self-reports by avid and occasional readers. Psychology, Creativity, and the Arts. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000611
Prezioso, M. (2023). From knowledge to understanding: A reorientation of English literature education. English in Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/04250494.2023.2186221
Prezioso, M. (2022). Well, I’m back: Samwise Gamgee and the future of Tolkien’s literary pastoral. Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature. 41(1), 219-235. https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol41/iss1/13
Prezioso, M. (2021). Enchantment and understanding in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials: Advancing cognition through literature. Children’s Literature in Education, 52, 543–554. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-020-09431-8