Anne Mangen

Digitizing Literacy: Reflections on the Haptics of Writing

Writing is a complex cognitive process relying on intricate perceptual-sensorimotor combinations. The process and skill of writing is studied on several levels and in many disciplines, from neurophysiological research on the shaping of each letter to studies on stylistic and compositional features of authors and poets. In studies of writing and literacy overall, the role of the physically tangible writing device (pen on paper; computer mouse and keyboard; digital stylus pen and writing tablet; etc.) is rarely addressed. By and large, the (relatively young) field of writing research is dominated by cognitive approaches predominantly focusing on the visual component of the writing process, hence maintaining a separation between (visual) perception and motor action (e.g., haptics1). However, recent theoretical currents in psychology, phenomenology & philosophy of mind, and neuroscience – commonly referred to as “embodied cognition” – indicate that perception and motor action are closely connected and, indeed, reciprocally dependent. Today, most of our writing is done with digital writing devices (the computer, the mobile phone, the PDA [i.e., Personal Digital Assistant]), rather than writing by hand. The switch from pen and paper to mouse, keyboard and screen entails major differences in the haptics of writing, at several distinct but intersecting levels. Handwriting is by essence a unimanual activity, whereas typewriting is bimanual. Typically, handwriting is also a slower process than typewriting. Moreover, the visual attention of the writer is strongly concentrated during handwriting; the attentional focus of the writer is dedicated to the tip of the pen, while during typewriting the visual attention is detached from the haptic input, namely the

Reading and writing fluid Hypertext Narratives

We describe a new way to present and author hypertext narratives. The Fluid Reader constructs a unified interactive text from the content of multiple nodes and allows a reader to explore alternative paths within it. The Fluid Reader has been available as a hands-on museum exhibit for nearly a year to date, where it has been enjoyed by readers of all ages. Its success has prompted further interest and development in Fluid hypertexts. We have designed and implemented an authoring tool called the Fluid Writer that uses a new treetable visualization to help authors construct and manage alternative paths in a Fluid hypertext. Finally, an exploration of the narrative implications of Fluid hypertext suggests that it may be more suitable than conventional hypertext for formulaic fictions such as mystery stories.

Why don’t we read hypertext novels?

Ever since their appearance in the early 1990s, hypertext novels were presented as the pinnacle of digital aesthetics and claimed to represent the revolutionary future of literature. However, as a literary phenomenon, hypertext novels have remained marginal. The article presents some scientifically derived explanations as to why hypertext novels do not have a mass audience and why they are likely to remain a marginal contribution in the history of literature. Three explanatory frameworks are provided: (1) how hypertext relates to our cognitive information processing in general; (2) the empirically derived psychological reasons for how we read and enjoy literature in particular; and (3) the likely evolutionary origins of such a predilection for storytelling and literature. It is shown how hypertext theory, by ignoring such knowledge, has yielded misguided statements and uncorroborated claims guided by ideology rather than by scientifically supported knowledge.

Literature and readers’ empathy: A qualitative text manipulation study:

The alleged crisis of the humanities is currently fueling renewed interest in the affective benefits of literary reading. Several quantitative studies have shown a positive correlation between literary reading and empathy. However, the literary nature of the stimuli used in these studies has not been defined at a more detailed, stylistic level. In order to explore the stylistic underpinnings of the hypothesized link between literariness and empathy, we conducted a qualitative experiment in which the degree of stylistic foregrounding was manipulated. Subjects (N = 37) read versions of Katherine Mansfield’s “The Fly,” a short story rich in foregrounding, while marking striking and evocative passages of their choosing. Afterwards, they were asked to select three markings and elaborate on their experiences in writing. One group read the original story, while the other read a ‘non-literary’ version, produced by an established author of suspense fiction for young adults, where stylistic foregrounding was reduced. We found that the non-literary version elicited significantly more (p < 0.01) explicitly empathic responses than the original story. This finding stands in contradiction to widely accepted assumptions in recent research, but can be assimilated in alternative models of literariness and affect in literary reading. We present an analysis of the data with a view to offering more than one interpretation of the observed effects of stylistic foregrounding.

Trendy w badaniach czytelnictwa

The paper analyses reading research trends in Lithuania (1990–2004) based on main research directions listed in Action 1404 E-READ of an international research organization COST. Digital technologies are replacing paper media at an increasing pace, which affects the reading process. The research directions defined by COST represent this trend. These directions are compared with main trends in reading research, done in Lithuania. The purpose of the paper is to analyse reading research trends of Lithuanian and international researchers during the last decade. Information for this research was gathered using National bibliography database, database “Lituanistika”, Lithuanian academic digital library E-LAB, Google search engine, information on COST (Cooperation between Science and Technology) Action 1404 E-READ webpage and internal network. Metadata was structured by showing the main themes. The bibliographic information was analyzed using theoretical abstraction method, which is used to define the structure and position of the object studied. Theoretical description of reading was developed using deductive and inductive analysis methods of the scientific publication content. It allowed to distinguish and compare main trends in reading research. The paper further presents summarized information about reading research in Lithuania.

List of Volumes

This section contains a list of volumes that have been cited for the book Learning to Write Effectively: Current Trends in European Research . The study of writing from a developmental perspective inquires about the particular ways in which knowledge of writing evolves over time. The term writing, however, has multiple meanings. It can be employed for referring to a cultural practice that fulfills different functions, writing can be used, for example for mnemonic, religious or poetic functions. Moreover, writing is a cultural, institutionally supported practice; children learn to write at school. Their evolving notions about the functions of writing, the way in which they handle the spelling system of their language and their grasp of the different genres of discourse are unavoidably intertwined with schooling. Keywords: mnemonic; spelling system; writing