How do people imagine when they read? And does everyone imagine in the same way?
Our ReaderBank team have launched a range of new activities designed to help you discover more about the reading mind and contribute to cutting edge research on the science of our inner worlds.
Explore our interactive experiences designed to unlock the mysteries of reading and imagination – you’ll learn about your own reading experiences and also contribute to groundbreaking research into the science of reading!
REPAIR
We want to understand how reading and the imagination can shape (and be shaped by) our mental health to improve understandings of how we can ‘repair’.
IN TWO MINDS
This module explores what happens when something makes us feel mixed emotions and how this affects our reading experience.
IN IT TOGETHER
For some stories, we connect with characters in ways that can be hard to express: we might be friends for life, see the world through their eyes, or even imagine walking in their footsteps. But how and why does this process occur?
Take part in In it Together
THE IMAGINATION QUIZ
How do you imagine when you read? What kind of reader are you? Find out by taking our imagination quiz.
Take part in The Imagination Quiz
VOICE MATCH
Ever read a book, vividly imagined a character, and then watched a film or TV adaptation only to feel that the character’s voice was just … wrong? Explore how people experience the voices of fictional characters with VoiceMatch.
ReaderBank at the 2025 Edinburgh International Book Festival
The team were back at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August to launch these new modules, and Festival goers were able to join us for a series of workshops and panel discussions with the ReaderBank team.
Highlights included:
- A workshop for book industry partners led by IMH Professor in Practice Nick Barley where we forged new connections and shared ideas for the future of ReaderBank with writers, publishers and editors.
- ‘ReaderBank: Unlocking the Mind and Mental Health’
A sold-out public workshop where we presented our latest findings and launched a new collaboration with Canongate Books. We invited readers at the workshop to read Damian Barr’s latest novel The Two Roberts and to participate in a study where they tell us what is happening in their imagination in real time. We can’t wait to see the findings! - ‘The Science of the Imagination’
Lead ReaderBank researcher Ben Alderson-Day was in conversation with neurologist Adam Zeman, to explore the latest scientific research on the brain’s creative powers, from the phenomenon of ‘aphantasia’ to what happens when we imagine. - ‘Mental Health in the Digital Age’
Ben Alderson-Day was in conversation with journalist Jenny Kleeman and Emily Postan. Chaired by IMH’s Senior Creative Facilitator Mary Robson, the panel explored novel uses of virtual reality, augmented reality, and AI in the treatment of mental health conditions, as well as the moral considerations and safeguards needed to embed these treatments in the mainstream.
Learn more about ReaderBank
Visit the new ReaderBank website
Explore the first publication from the ReaderBank study
