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posted by mrpg on Friday August 31 2018, @11:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the read-this-slowly dept.

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

[...] When we have any function, whether it's language or vision or cognitive functions like memory, we aren't dealing with a straight line to the brain that says "This is what I do." The brain builds a network of connections, a network of neurons that have a particular role in that function. So when we have a new cognitive function, like literacy, it doesn't have a preset network. Rather, it makes new connections among older networks, and that whole collection of networks becomes a circuit. It's a connected scaffolding of parts.

The beauty of the circuit for functions like literacy is its plasticity. You can have one for each different language, like English or Chinese or Hebrew. And then something miraculous happens: the circuit builds upon itself. The first circuits are very basic — for decoding letters as we're learning to read — but everything we read builds upon itself.

So what's changing now with technology? How is that affecting our circuits?

The fact that a circuit is plastic is both its beautiful strength and its Achilles' heel. Reading reflects our medium. And to the extent that a digital medium is going to require us to process large amounts of information very quickly, it will diminish from the time we have for slower processing work.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/27/17787916/reader-come-home-maryanne-wolf-neuroscience-brain-changes


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 01 2018, @06:16PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 01 2018, @06:16PM (#729292)

    it is curious how letters have survived the whole techno development from the, say 60s to now.
    lots has changed but the letters are still the same as before.

    one would assume, that with increase of "data consumption", that formatting of the letters would have made a leap or two.

    ofc we now have many new fonts and lots of (useless) styling and even more "boxing of areas" on a web page, but
    the letters (and sentences) have stayed the same and the changes have not contributed to a quicker understanding of the presented information.

    it is curious that A.I. has not been trained on eye-movement and then allowed to fix color, spacing and size of
    individual letters (and words) in a article for easier and faster "consumption of information".

    i am pretty sure, that if a STANDARD for this type of formatting would take hold, like there are rules for every language,
    then the brain would learn this too and would get "the gist" of printed information much faster?

    the computer screen being much more flexible then a static book page, still only has "static" letters, for example.
    maybe it will require another 100 years?