Why we remember more by reading – especially print
– than from audio or video
https://theconversation.com/why-we-remember-more-by-reading-especially-print-than-from-audio-or-video-159522
https://theconversation.com/why-we-remember-more-by-reading-especially-print-than-from-audio-or-video-159522
How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds: Research suggests that as the brain grows dependent on phone technology, the intellect weakens
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-smartphones-hijack-our-minds-1507307811
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-smartphones-hijack-our-minds-1507307811
Know what? How digital technologies undermine
learning and remembering by Naomi S.Baron
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378216621000187
Abstract
Are digital technologies affecting how we learn, what we know, and how we remember? We examine three aspects of these questions: the impact of the internet on cognitive skills, the way GPS is reshaping abilities to navigate physical space, and differences between digital and print reading. The goal of the analysis is to understand potential effects of digital technologies on educational practices and goals.
We begin by reviewing research demonstrating the growing tendency to depend on digital devices and the internet to do our remembering for us. Regarding GPS, there is mounting evidence that reliance on GPS devices reduces our ability to navigate physical space on our own. Worryingly, studies indicate correlations between decreased navigational skills and dementia. Finally, the article documents how digital reading tends to lead to a more superficial approach to text than traditional print.
Technologies have consequences, including in education. If digital technologies lead to diminished memory, lower our ability to find our way in physical space, and foster shallower reading, we need to consider the consequences for both formal and informal learning.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378216621000187
Abstract
Are digital technologies affecting how we learn, what we know, and how we remember? We examine three aspects of these questions: the impact of the internet on cognitive skills, the way GPS is reshaping abilities to navigate physical space, and differences between digital and print reading. The goal of the analysis is to understand potential effects of digital technologies on educational practices and goals.
We begin by reviewing research demonstrating the growing tendency to depend on digital devices and the internet to do our remembering for us. Regarding GPS, there is mounting evidence that reliance on GPS devices reduces our ability to navigate physical space on our own. Worryingly, studies indicate correlations between decreased navigational skills and dementia. Finally, the article documents how digital reading tends to lead to a more superficial approach to text than traditional print.
Technologies have consequences, including in education. If digital technologies lead to diminished memory, lower our ability to find our way in physical space, and foster shallower reading, we need to consider the consequences for both formal and informal learning.
The English Major, After the End
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2023/03/09/reflecting-end-english-major-opinion
Andrew Newman notes:
As the neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf demonstrates in Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World (HarperCollins, 2018) literacy education, beginning in early childhood, involves the brain’s neuroplasticity. In a sense, the reading brain is a sort of artificial intelligence, because literacy, unlike language, is not innate. It doesn’t depend on existing “circuits”; it shapes new ones. Their most elaborate capacity is for the sort of deep reading occasioned by literature: characterized by contemplative, associative thought, empathetic connections and insights. She writes, “The expansive, encompassing processes that underlie insight and reflection in the present reading brain represent our best complement and antidote to the cognitive and emotional changes that are the sequelae of the multiple, life-enhancing achievements of a digital age.” In other words, as our absorption in digital media has affected our cognitive development, literature provides a necessary counterbalance.
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2023/03/09/reflecting-end-english-major-opinion
Andrew Newman notes:
As the neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf demonstrates in Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World (HarperCollins, 2018) literacy education, beginning in early childhood, involves the brain’s neuroplasticity. In a sense, the reading brain is a sort of artificial intelligence, because literacy, unlike language, is not innate. It doesn’t depend on existing “circuits”; it shapes new ones. Their most elaborate capacity is for the sort of deep reading occasioned by literature: characterized by contemplative, associative thought, empathetic connections and insights. She writes, “The expansive, encompassing processes that underlie insight and reflection in the present reading brain represent our best complement and antidote to the cognitive and emotional changes that are the sequelae of the multiple, life-enhancing achievements of a digital age.” In other words, as our absorption in digital media has affected our cognitive development, literature provides a necessary counterbalance.
A Book You Remember, a Kindle You Forget
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-05-01/a-book-you-remember-a-kindle-you-forget
Stephen Carter notes:
“Baron endorses Nicholas Carr’s “shallowing” hypothesis, which she describes as the notion that “when reading on a digital device, people expend less mental effort than when reading print.” The idea has been much debated, but increasingly seems to be true. The fear is that the loss of mental effort will lead to a loss in overall thoughtfulness. Baron reports: “In 2019, US teenagers averaged 7 h and 22 min daily of screen time – not including work for school assignments. Of this, 39% was spent using social media, compared with 2% for eReading.” (Requiescat in pace, democratic dialogue!)”
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-05-01/a-book-you-remember-a-kindle-you-forget
Stephen Carter notes:
“Baron endorses Nicholas Carr’s “shallowing” hypothesis, which she describes as the notion that “when reading on a digital device, people expend less mental effort than when reading print.” The idea has been much debated, but increasingly seems to be true. The fear is that the loss of mental effort will lead to a loss in overall thoughtfulness. Baron reports: “In 2019, US teenagers averaged 7 h and 22 min daily of screen time – not including work for school assignments. Of this, 39% was spent using social media, compared with 2% for eReading.” (Requiescat in pace, democratic dialogue!)”