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489

Using Shakespeare to Answer Psychological Questions: Complexity and Mental Representability of Character Networksuse asterix (*) to get italics
Christian M. Thurn; Simone Sebben; Zoran KovacevicPlease use the format "First name initials family name" as in "Marie S. Curie, Niels H. D. Bohr, Albert Einstein, John R. R. Tolkien, Donna T. Strickland"
2024
<p>Theater plays are a cultural product that can be used to learn about the capacity of human cognition. We argue that Kolmogorov complexity may be suited to operationalize the demand that is put onto a<br>recipient's cognitive system to represent the character system of a play with sufficient detail and accuracy<br>to follow the narrative. We analyze Shakespeare’s plays and European Drama by means of network<br>analysis in four studies: In Study 1, we use Shakespeare's plays to estimate an approximate limit of<br>complexity of character networks that humans can mentally represent. In Study 2, we investigate where<br>the approximated limit lies in relation to the overall distribution of complexity in European plays. In<br>Study 3, we focus on how complexity and the total number of speaking characters in the plays relate in<br>European theater plays. In Study 4, we analyze the robustness of network complexity across researcher<br>degrees of freedom using Shakespeare’s plays. We show how research on social networks can be<br>conducted in a reproducible, transparent way, especially when relying on cultural products such as literary works.</p>
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network analysis; Shakespeare; Social Brain Hypothesis; European Drama; Kolmogorov complexity; Cognitive Capacity
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Humanities, Social sciences
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2023-06-16 12:40:14
Veli-Matti Karhulahti