The question of whether the digital reading is not reading the paper stirred for many years scholars and commentators. With cries of outrage Cassandras meet those of their detractors, as already stated in the record that I spent about 2009.
Recently, a study has toured the international press (Guardian, New York Times, Rue89 …) and I was a bit upset synthesis that was made, which seemed a new stir the perennial debate about the electronic and paper … In fact, the finding it stores less in digital format only paper format seems so far removed from reality practices and findings of experts (“When we look closely at the effects of screens on the brain, we find that IT support will not change much for reading “said Stanislas Dehaene), I wanted to know more.
In the IGEL conference held in July in Turin, Jean-Luc Velay Laboratory of Neurosciences cognitive Marseille and Anne Mangen at the University of Stavanger in Norway made the presentation of a study (which has not yet been published) that finally seems to clarify the purpose of the debate.
study protocol set up was pretty simple, patiently explains Jean-Luc Velay. The researchers gave students read 50 Marseille (bac bac + 2 + 8) a new police 28 pages of the novelist Elizabeth George: half had the new electronic format and must read on a reading light with pages turned with buttons, one on paper … The researchers spent time establishing groups to be less unbalanced possible. Most students had not really used to read digitally. Everyone had read the news and then immediately, and answer a long questionnaire, which took a total of about half past one per student. The goal: to measure the memory, attention, understanding …
On the attention, Jean-Luc Velay me do not speak again, proof that the moral panic on this issue seems passing fashion … On memorizing the text content (whether such words or phrases were present in the text), both groups achieved the same performance. The questions relating to the characters, their relationships, places, objects, again, few differences. Both groups included the same stories … On the temporal aspects of the story (to know what season meet the protagonists, for example), the paper gave readers a little more accurate than the other answers. But when asked what part of the text was mentioned such an event (the text contained 3 parts), readers of papers were much more accurate for locating events in text space than others (which seems rather logical, given the shortcomings of electronics in the field). A final test asked readers to put 14 historical events in chronological order, and again, the paper readers were more successful than others to find the correct order.
Image: the difference between the electronic reading and paper reading on the temporal understanding of the place of the events of the story, the setting, the scenery, the characters, objects and rebuilding the plot. Jean-Luc Velay, the difference can be seen in this diagram on memorization of objects is not to be considered as not statistically significant. Via the article that the New York Times on this subject.
What does this mean? Something quite simple and quite logical in fact. When reading, the eyes are used, but also the hands, body … We do not bed with our eyes and brain! Reading is done with all the senses! EBooks do not have the same physical characteristics as their paper counterparts (in terms of resistance, weight, volume, taking into account their thickness …). What has been sought with the researchers showed that experience is whether the movements associated with playing a role in our understanding of history. Dematerialization of the support not visibly real impact on our ability to store a plot to understand as a whole and in detail. By cons, it seems to disrupt our ability to spatiotemporal tracking, both in the place of the book and the place of history, a semblance impact the other. As the hand movements used to get around in the space of the book, it also allows him to identify the place of history. What this study shows is that we are a little lost in space of the eBook in the digital book. Our approach to volume, thickness, the same sequence of history is disturbed by the lack of spatial and temporal cues we receive touch, kinesthetic paper book …
Is it serious doctor?
Contrary to statements that emerged from the alarming press reports, Jean-Luc Veray is confident. For him, there is nothing there that design can not be repaired. Indeed, this is already the case in some models newer than those tested with students reading lights. In fact, he says, someone who reads a lot with an eBook may use other tracking information and designers aware of this criticism, introducing more and more elements to compensate for this .. . (display of the progression, time spent playing, remaining play time, better display of parts and sections …). Experience with an expert group is certainly worth tempted to see if the results are confirmed or disprove, the researcher suggests. Of course, browse an eBook is still awkward, but nothing seems impossible to offset or better.
Still, Jean-Luc Veray highlights something important, relative to the engagement of the body in playback. He who has worked extensively on issues of transition from handwriting to the writing on the keyboard, both have virtues (Stanislas Dehaene is more reserved on this issue). The important thing for him is that one is able to measure the changes that the transition from one mode to another will induce cognitively, before changing from pen to keyboard. Convenience or simplicity can not be our only criteria for decision. We must measure and be aware of the impact of changes that our technologies provide before widespread, particularly among younger people.
Changing media or cultural change?
This is more difficult to measure, the researcher concedes, it is the cultural transformation that format shifting armature. At the time of the launch of the paperback, many observers were concerned about the changes that reading stood and facilitated, would bring … Is the media can have an influence on reading longer texts more complex or creative narrative forms (philosophy, essays, poetry …)
Anne Mangen and other colleagues conducted a similar study with readers in print and iPad, reports Guardian – but the text was very short – one page – and very emotional content … explains Jean-Luc Velay. According to these results, the electronic readers have felt less empathy with the characters and would feel less immersed in the story … A result to be taken with still a lot of downside, both because the conditions of experience appear very limited and that the questionnaire has obviously not tried to watch anything but the feelings of the readers (there were no questions on registering or understanding other aspects, as in the study with French researchers.)
But, as expressed very well the researcher André Gunthert comment an article about this study on the blog of Jean-Noël Lafargue, many comparative studies between reading printed and electronics do not consider the influence of cultural factors. Or, “reading is not just a cognitive phenomenon, it is a cultural institution that gives different values to productions by the legitimacy of their issue, and if appropriate format” . Reads the same way Proust in a paperback edition and Pleiades? We read in the same way the same edition with a different cover? The reads in the same way at different ages, at different social backgrounds? The reads in the same way if the author names had been changed? “In short, the theory that the book would be a” soft “work, independent of its support, is a theoretical approximation that ignores the social and cultural reality of the practice of reading, well described by historians like Roger Chartier, Jean-Yves Mollier or Anne-Marie Thiesse … “
These are certainly effects to be measured … But when we better understand the contributions of the study, we realize that the media does not really affect our understanding, except for understandable reasons, on the space-time tracking.
Digital must find its corporeality
The introduction of new technologies led to changes in cognitive who are increasingly studied, which must assess whether the effects are positive or negative, and how technology can compensate … ” In general, new technologies minimize investment in tangible assets. facilitate the lives of individuals is often to reduce the physical energy expended “, said Jean-Luc Veray. What is the cognitive impact of this reduction tangible investment? questions the researcher. It was long thought that cognitive processes were abstract, detached from the body. Today, we know that they are deeply rooted in our bodily activities (besides researchers talk of “embodied cognition” or embodied cognition ). “Our movements, our ways of doing things in space, our trips help our cognitive processes. Reducing bodily activity, as we offer the technology, do not we risk setting back the representations cognitive one is built? acquire, interpret information as it requires using our bodies. “
This reflection leads us to believe that the digital reading should still think his physicality .. . Our bodies that sag behind our screens we already demanding. Reading is walking she be more effective on cognition as sitting or standing reading, as several studies now show reassessing cognitive function of walking. The popularity of treadmills, offices sit / stand and gadgets (like Cubii) that make efforts while sitting (see the folder dedicated to the world about it) are they a way to give back corporeality of these technologies that we remove
How to design electronic reading devices that reintroduce corporeality, can compensate the physicality of books? Us “immobilizing” easier to read, by removing all its rough edges, digital technologies may reduce, alter subtly cognitive representations that reading builds. Nothing really seems alarming, but there is there, certainly a factor that designers must take into account. Arguments in any case that calls for a return to a design that mobilizes the body. Perhaps quite differently from the way it is practiced with non-digital tools there … This is a track any more exciting if the war virtues media
Hubert Guillaud
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