Dr. Maryanne Wolf's presentation from TPR's Think Science event on February 22, 2019: "How the Internet Affects Your Brain."

1. The Reading Brain in a Digital World:
The Good, the Bad, and the Unknown
(Not in that Order)
Maryanne Wolf Social Science Foo Academy February 2, 2019

2. Literacy is a basic
human right.
Across all learners,
all ages, all
backgrounds.
THE MISSION
Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice

3. Gene
Classrooms
Neural
Circuits
THE WORK:
Connecting
Neuroscience to
our World
Cognitive
Behaviors
Cell /
Neuron
Brain
Areas

4. • Literacy changes the brain,
which changes the individual,
which changes society,
which changes the future of the
species.
• This has all begun to change.
Reading as the ‘Canary in the Mind’

5. The human brain was
never born to read.
Each reader creates a
new, plastic reading
circuit from older
cognitive and
linguistic structures.
The Reading Circuit and Neuroplasticity

6. Brain can rearrange
itself in multiple
ways to read,
depending on
writing system,
development of
the circuit’s parts,
and medium.
Bolger, Perfetti, & Schneider
English
Chinese &
Kanji
Japanese
Kana
Brain can
rearrange itself in
multiple ways to
read, depending
on writing system
and medium.
Bolger, Perfetti, &
Schneider
Multiple Circuits
Plasticity of Reading Brain
IMPICATIONS of PLASTICITY:
Multiple Circuits, Multiple Influences

7. tForming the Circuit in the Young:
Developing Each Component and then Connect

8. Each child creates a
new reading circuit by learning to
connect the developing cognitive
and linguistic structures.
The Young Reading Circuit:
Multiple Paths Diverge Here
The rich get richer and the
poor poorer.
...Matthew 4:23

9. Elaborating the Circuit (or Not):
From Decoding to Deep Reading

10. Background Knowledge
Perspective Taking/Empathy
Critical Analysis
Novel Thought
Inference,
Deduction/Induction,
Analogical Thinking
Imagery
Insight & Reflection
Deep Reading: Science plus Poetry

11. Deep Reading
….requires both milliseconds
during the reading act and
years of formation to
connect critical thought and
empathy to insight.
The medium matters.

12. “Every medium has its costs and weaknesses; every
medium develops some cognitive skills at the expense
of others…the Internet may develop impressive visual
intelligence, the cost seems to be to deep processing:
mindful knowledge acquisition, inductive analysis,
critical thinking, imagination and reflection.”
-Patricia Greenfield, 2009
The Reading Circuit Reflects the Medium

13. “We transgress not because we try to build the new, but
because we do not allow ourselves to consider what it
disrupts or diminishes.”
- Sherry Turkle, Alone Together
• Past vs. Future
• Traditional vs. Innovative
• Print vs. Digital
The HINGE MOMENT:
From Print Culture to Digital World
No Binaries

14. Evidence (Not Good) from Infancy to Five: Early Language
Development
iPad, Extra-Sensory
Stimulation,and
Attention
Hirsh-Pasek et al. 2014
Zuckerman & Radesky, 2017
Christakis, et al., 2018

15. Meta-analysis of Effects of Print and Digital
Media On Comprehension
54 Studies
171,055 Participants
Print better than
Digital (p<.001)
• Across most genres
• Across timed
conditions
• Increasing over the
years 2000-2017
Delgado, Vargas, Ackerman, and
Salmeron; Educational Research Review
(in press)

16. Less time on
concentrated
reading; more
distractions
(27/hr); less
immersion.
1 2 3
EVIDENCE in Adults
“Skimming is the New Normal”
(Liu, 2005, 2009, 2014)
Information
increases along
with skimming,
browsing,
keyword spotting;
F or Z pattern of
reading.
Decreased
sustained
attention and
memory.
(Baron, 2014, 2018)

17. The Unknown:
Implications for Democracy
• If reading largely changes to adapt to digital characteristics:
we will reduce deep reading
with less time for critical analysis and empathy,
less ability to grasp complexity, to perceive beauty,
to evaluate truth value, or to understand and
empathize with others’ perspectives,
all of which threatens a democratic society.

18. The GOOD: Technology and Global Literacy Initiatives
How can we connect reading
brain research with the
needs of non-literate children
around the world?
CURIOUS LEARNING: Global Literacy Project

19. Ensuring the formation of deep
reading across any medium is
an INOCULATION
against false information,
demagoguery, indifference to
“other”.
A Goal for the Good: “Biliterate Brain” with
Deep Reading across Mediums

20. Stewards of the Next Generation
“It would be catastrophic to become a nation of technically competent
people who have lost the ability to think critically, to examine
themselves, and to respect the humanity and diversity of others.
And unless we support these endeavors, it is in such a nation that we
may well live. It is therefore urgent now to support curricular efforts
aimed at producing citizens who can take charge of the own reasoning,
who can see the different and foreign not as a threat to be resisted but
as an invitation to…expand their own minds and capacity for
citizenship.”
Martha Nussbaum

21. Future of the Deep Reading Brain:
“Use It or Lose it”, But Choose It
This time…this hinge moment…let us
choose with all our intelligence.