m-Reading: Fiction reading from mobile phones

Mobile phones are reportedly the most rapidly expanding e-reading device worldwide. However, the embodied, cognitive and affective implications of smartphone-supported fiction reading for leisure (m-reading) have yet to be investigated empirically. Revisiting the theoretical work of digitization scholar Anne Mangen, we argue that the digital reading experience is not only contingent on patterns of embodied reader–device interaction (Mangen, 2008 and later) but also embedded in the immediate environment and broader situational context. We call this the situation constraint. Its application to Mangen’s general framework enables us to identify four novel research areas, wherein m-reading should be investigated with regard to its unique affordances. The areas are reader–device affectivity, situated embodiment, attention training and long-term immersion

Text Materialities, Affordances, and the Embodied Turn in the Study of Reading.

Digital texts have for decades been a challenge for reading research, creating a range of questions about reading and a need for new theories and concepts. In this paper, we focus on materialities of texts and suggest an embodied, enacted, and extended approach to the research on digital reading. We refer to findings showing that cognitive activities in reading are grounded in bodily and social experiences, and we explore the cognitive role of the body in reading, claiming that–influenced by tacit knowledge and the task at hand–textual meaning is enacted through a mental and physical engagement with text. Further, applying the concept of affordances, we examine how digital technologies have induced new ways of physically handling and mentally interpreting text, indicating that brain, body, text, and technologies are integrated parts of an extended process of reading. The aim of the paper is to encourage empirical research on the interplay between body (including brain), text, and text materialities, a focus we argue will deepen our understand of the current transformation of reading.publishedVersio

Smartphones: reading habits and overuse. A qualitative study in Denmark, Lithuania and Spain

Recently, the smartphone has become the key device in families andworkplaces, changing people’s habits and ways of interaction in our liquidand hyperconnected societies. Little research has been done on the useof smartphones for reading, since the telephone was not associated withreading until very recently. This paper presents an overview of digital mobilereading in the digital literacy context and tries to answer different researchquestions, such as: how do people read on the smartphone? Do people havean addiction to/misuse of mobiles? Its objective is to offer empirical dataabout people’s experiences of digital mobile reading and to analyse how wedepend on our smartphone through a small-scale qualitative study includingdifferent informants from three European capital cities: Copenhagen(Denmark), Madrid (Spain) and Vilnius (Lithuania).The paper does not aim to generalise its findings, but to advance the field of digital literacy research, a field in which the meaning (the interviews) has been interpreted in relation to a wider socio-cultural context.The results report that the “context”, the “time” and the “situation” wherereading is carried out are decisive for understanding; furthermore, the typeof navigation that readers can perform on the smartphone has importantconsequences in the reading process, hence, the layout must be well designedfor active and attentive users on mobile devices. Our Informants assert thatsituations like boredom, waiting or loneliness can induce the use of thesmartphone. Therefore, more research is needed, in different areas and withnew digital literacy programmes in order to help young people (and adults)use their mobiles as advantageously as possible

Phone Use, Offline Neglect, and Reachability: A Qualitative Study in Denmark, Lithuania, and Spain

The use of smart technology (ST) has dramatically increased in recent years, with smartphones and tablets affording use in all locations and for innumerable purposes. Consequently, we relate differently to our surroundings – a condition we refer to as 'offline neglect'. This paper reports the results of a qualitative, small-scale project investigating how informants from three European capital cities, Vilnius, Lithuania, Madrid, Spain, and Copenhagen, Denmark, perceive the changes associated with ST-induced offline neglect in the daily navigation of their physical and social environments. Our informants were generally quite verbose about the unwanted side effects of excessive phone use, especially on social relations. Nevertheless, most informants reported experiencing trouble with limiting their ST use although they did point to avoidance strategies. Based on our data, we introduce and discuss the concept of 'reachability' as crucial to understanding the effects of ST use on the social environment

Cognitive Restoration in Children Following Exposure to Nature: Evidence From the Attention Network Task and Mobile Eye Tracking

Exposure to nature improves cognitive performance through a process of cognitive restoration. However, few studies have explored the effect in children, and no studies have explored how eye movements “in the wild” with mobile eye tracking technology contribute to the restoration process. Our results demonstrated that just a 30-min walk in a natural environment was sufficient to produce a faster and more stable pattern of responding on the Attention Network Task, compared with an urban environment. Exposure to the natural environment did not improve executive (directed) attention performance. This pattern of results supports suggestions that children and adults experience unique cognitive benefits from nature. Further, we provide the first evidence of a link between cognitive restoration and the allocation of eye gaze. Participants wearing a mobile eye-tracker exhibited higher fixation rates while walking in the natural environment compared to the urban environment. The data go some way in uncovering the mechanisms sub-serving the restoration effect in children and elaborate how nature may counteract the effects of mental fatigue