Sarah Bro Trasmundi

My research interest falls within the field of embodied reading. Specifically, I am interested in investigating the experiential basis for reading based on methods from qualitative cognitive sciences. I seek to combine first-person experiences of reading with video-observations of what happens as students read on screen and on paper. By comparing reading of akin scientific texts (within social education) in print and on digital devices I am interested in investigating whether there is an advantage of paper over digital reading when reading challenges emerge as paper-based texts afford a richer embodied engagement. Such research interests open up for questions as: What are the prerequisites of experiential reading? To what degree are they a matter of genre and format (scientific texts; poetry), medium (laptop; iPad; print book), purpose (task-based; creative; informational), environment (materials available such as pencils, rulers, music as well as the actual location for reading) etc.? Finally, by revealing such questions I am interested in understanding how such knowledge be used to impact on practice so practitioners (teachers for instance) are able to design efficient reading environments and readers reading strategies are improved. The research interests listed here are aligned with WG3 objective as I focus on capturing subtleties of personal emotional engagement during reading. It combines experiments (combinations of third-person psychophysiological measures e.g., heart rate, pupil dilation, skin conductance response) with first-person phenomenological approaches (e.g., numerically aided phenomenology).

On a par with the Action’s main objective my research aims at improving the measure of reading on paper and screens. In a particular research study: How do University Students Read? I investigate reading challenges and potentials as they emerge in natural reading ecologies. The study is thus important not just from a student perspective, but also in a broader socio-economical perspective if the goal is to enhance learning and reduce the high number of drop outs that relate to students dropping out due to their inability to establish efficient reading practices. Further, it is investigated how students engage with digital and analogue mediums to understand how different reading ecologies scaffold specific reading tasks. Those investigations will generate a row of initiatives that involve the development of 1) courses and procedures for establishing efficient reading practices and 2) guidelines for designing curriculums in accordance with reading tasks and purposes and for organising reading activities incl. choice of medium. Such initiatives can have an impact on the number of students dropping out due to their inability to establish efficient reading practices.