correct that would have been obtained on the basis of
random guesses is .11. This difference is significant, t(9) =
6.8, p < 0.0001, r = .92. Thus art students also correctly
identified their classmates’ art above chance.
Study 2: Within-domain Recognizability of the
Notion of a Writer’s ‘Voice’
This study tested the hypothesis that individuals who are
highly familiar with the work of a given writer will
recognize other works by that writer that they have not
encountered before.
Method
Participants The research was conducted with seven
University of British Columbia advanced undergraduate
creative writing students who were highly familiar with five
well-known writers, and with each other’s writing.
Materials and Procedures The analogous procedure to that
described above for art students was used for creative
writing students. Prior to the study, they had been asked to
write a passage about a kitchen and a poem about a month
of the year. They were explicitly asked to include no
immediately identifying content in their writing (e.g., no
mention of surfing if it is known that they like surfing).
These constituted their two pieces of writing. At the
beginning of the study they were given three well-known
written passages by each of ten well-known writers as a
refresher. The well-known writers were Ernest Hemingway,
Douglas Coupland, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Allen
Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, TS Eliot, Jane Austin, George
Orwell, and Franz Kafka. These writers were chosen
because previous discussion with the class indicated that all
students were highly familiar with them. A sample of one of
the written passages by well-known writers (in this case,
Ernest Hemingway) that were provided to creative writing
students as a refresher is provided in Table 1.
Table 1: Sample of written passage by well-known writer
provided to creative writing students as a refresher.
“If the book is good, it is about something that you know, and
is truly written, and reading it over you see that this is so, you
can let the boys yip and the noise will have that pleasant
sound coyotes make on a very cold night when they are out in
the snow and you are in your own cabin that you have built or
paid for with your work.”
The creative writing students were then shown twenty rare
passages that they had not studied in class. A sample of one
of the passages by well-known writers (in this case, Jane
Austin) is provided in Table 2.
Table 2: Sample of written passage by well-known writer
provided to creative writing students as a test of their ability
to recognize writer’s style.
nice selves, Fanny looking as neat and white this morning as
possible, and dear Charles all affectionate, placid, quiet,
cheerful, good humour. They are both looking very well, but
poor little Cassy is grown extremely thin, and looks poorly. I
hope a week's country air and exercise may do her good. I am
sorry to say it can be but a week. The baby does not appear so
large in proportion as she was, nor quite so pretty, but I have
seen very little of her. Cassy was too tired and bewildered just
at first to seem to know anybody. We met them in the hall --
the women and girl part of us -- but before we reached the
library she kissed me very affectionately, and has since
seemed to recollect me in the same way.”
The creative writing students were also given the two
pieces of writing by each of their fellow classmates (the
passage about a kitchen and the poem about a month of the
year) that they had never seen before. They were given a
questionnaire, and asked to guess which famous writer
wrote each passage in the first set of passages, and which
classmate wrote each passage in the second set. For each
answer, they were also asked to state on a 3-point scale how
certain they were that they had not encountered the work
before.
Participants were debriefed, and the results were
analyzed. As in the first study, if the participant had
encountered the work before, or was uncertain about having
encountered it before, the score for this question was not
included in the analysis. Once again, less than 5% of scores
were not included in the analysis.
Results
The results are divided into two sections: recognition of
famous writers, and recognition of classmates’ writing.
Recognition of Famous Writers For creative writing
students exposed to passages by famous writers, the mean
proportion correct was .34, (SD = .28). The proportion
correct that would have been obtained on the basis of
random guesses is .10. This difference is significant, t(7) =
7.0, p < 0.0001, r = .94. Thus creative writing students
correctly identified above chance passages by famous
writers that they had not encountered before.
Recognition of Classmates’ Writing A similar but less
pronounced result was obtained with passages written by the
students themselves. The mean proportion correct was .27
(SD = .16). The proportion correct that would have been
obtained on the basis of random guesses is .14. This
difference is significant, t(7) = 2.3, p < 0.05, r = .66. Thus,
creative writing students also correctly identified above
chance passages written by classmates.
Study 3: Cross-domain Recognizability of Style
This experiment tested the hypothesis that familiarity with
an individual’s creative work in one domain facilitates
recognition of that individual’s creative work in another.
“However, here they are, safe and well, just like their own