COST IS1404 E-READ Evolution of Reading in the Age of Digitisation

Anne Mangen, Ph.D.

Associate professor, The Reading Centre, University of Stavanger, NO

What is a COST Action?

• Research network funding from EU // COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology)

• Funding for four years • Meetings; Training Schools; Short Term Scientific Missions (STSMs);

Workshops/seminars etc.

• Bottom-up, research-driven

• Interdisciplinarity and international collaboration

Aim of the E-READ COST Action (11/2014-11/2018) • In view of the tremendous speed of the digitisation of reading it is

necessary to develop • An integrative model of reading

• A way to measure all aspects of reading

• The model and measures will • Improve scientific understanding of the implications of digitisation

• Help individuals, societies and sectors across Europe to optimally cope with and prepare for the effects

Why is networking through E-READ essential?

• There is evidence that linear text reading on screen(s) is different from text reading on paper • Paper/screen affordances might impact cognitive and emotional aspects

• What are the potential negative/positive effects of screen reading?

• We need to identify the best of both worlds (paper and screens)

Main scientific objectives

• Coordination of reading research

• Sustained interdisciplinary collaboration (particularly, between SSH

and natural sciences)

• Integration of multidimensional research through a model of reading

• Develop a knowledge base for effective dissemination to all

stakeholders

• Horizon 2020 applications

Reading is

• Human-technology interaction • Affordances of substrates (paper; screens)

• Multidimensional • Device/substrate (paper vs screen); text; reader; purpose

• Multisensory and embodied • Tactility & haptics; body and brain

An integrative model of reading

• Ergonomic dimension • physical engagement with a device; haptics

• Attentional/perceptual dimension • allocation of attention; audiovisual processing

• Cognitive dimension • Comprehension (at different levels); linguistic processing

• Emotional dimension • Low- and high-level processes and outcomes

• Phenomenological dimension • individually meaningful activity

• Sociocultural dimension • socially meaningful activity

The impact of digitization on

• Cognitive measures (recall; comprehension)

• Emotional measures (engagement; immersion)

• During/after the reading of different kinds of texts, for different purposes • News • Study • Information • Leisure • …

Extensively interdisciplinary network

• Established research network (2009-) • Literary studies • Media studies • Book history • Psychology • Neuroscience • LIS (Library and information science) • Philosophy • Biology • Educational sciences • HCI (Human-Computer Interaction)

• Funded nationally, regionally and internationally

Stakeholders and Stakeholder Liaison Officers (SLOs; two-three per category) • Scientific community

• Publishers & book trade (study/textbooks; literature; children’s books; etc.)

• Reading promotion agencies

• Educational practitioners

• Policy makers

• Hardware and software companies (eye tracking technologies; display technologies; digital reading devices)

• EU citizens

E-READ Deliverables

• Collections of existing empirical data on digital text reading • Scientific publications resulting in visibility in scientific communities in

relevant fields • A comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and testable model of reading • Interdisciplinary paradigms for measuring the impact of digitization on

reading • Recommendations for industry • Recommendations for the pedagogical field • A shared European research/knowledge database • Online publication and networking/collaboration tool (the Action web site)

www.ereadcost.eu