Researchers have developed a method to quantify the processing load imposed by narrative texts, called Narrative Entropy (Sn). They applied this method to two scenes from different stories and found that a single-voice monologue had a higher Sn score than a dialogue scene. This result challenges the authors' initial intuition and highlights the need for further investigation into the construct's validity. The study pre-registers a design to test competing interpretations of this finding, including measurement error and formula incompleteness. --- Why it matters: This research matters because it proposes a new way to measure the cognitive load imposed by narrative texts, which could have implications for fields such as education, marketing, and artificial intelligence. Understanding how readers process complex narratives can inform the development of more effective communication strategies. Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.18109