Working Memory
Empirical Articles/Evidence
And the Net
Cognitive Overload: "when the load exceeds our mind's ability to store and process the information …we're unable to retain the information or to draw connections with the information already stored in our LTM" (in Carr, p. 157)
Components: Central executive, phonological loop, and visuospatial sketch pad (Baddeley, 1992)
Divided attention
Shallow learning
Attentional Capacity: "Multimedia format(s) exceed viewers' attentional capacity (Carr, p. 163).
High cognitive cost
Task-switching & ineffective multi-tasking
"Learning facts and concepts will be worse if you learn them while you're distracted," (Carr, p. 166).
Reading
Saccades: Visual focus advances in little jumps, pausing briefly at different points along each line. This is how people read print media. Carr, p. 167
"F" is the pattern eye-trackers revealed readers of online media make with their gaze. F = fast. "How do users read on the web? They don't" (in Carr, p. 168)
"There is absolutely no question that our brains are engaged less directly and more shallowly in the synthesis of information when we use research strategies that are all about 'efficiency,' 'secondary (and out-of-context) referencing,' and 'once over, lightly" (in Carr, p. 170).
"What's important, and troubling, is that skimming is becoming our dominant mode of reading."
"Mental calisthenics" we engage in online may lead to a small expansion in the capacity of our working memory," (Carr, p. 172) #
Plasticity
Working memory has been linked to language comprehension and reasoning (Baddeley, 1992) as well as problem-solving and planning (Cowan, 2010).
Loop: store that serves as a backup system for comprehension of speech under taxing conditions but that may be less important with simple, clearly presented material (Baddeley, 1992)
Pad: sets up and manipulates visuospatial imagery (Baddeley, 1992)
Executive: attentional controller (Baddeley, 1992)
"Working memory stands at the crossroads between memory, attention, and perception."
Individual differences
Novice vs. Expert
Young vs. Old
4-5 item ("chunk") span
Deep reading is by no means a passive exercise. The reader becomes the book. (in Carr, p. 101).
Reflection: I agree with most of what the book is claiming. I found it very interesting that during the historical chapter on how print media developed into the book that Carr highlighted the high cognitive load required by "scripture continua," and the top-down control necessitated by reading silently. In later chapters he discusses how the divided nature of web reading is also likely to have a high cognitive cost, similar to task-switching. It seems as though Carr believes that reading in print media is the only way to go, or maybe he'd include reading online media in a print-media fashion. I generally agree that there's nothing like turning the pages of and getting lost in a good book, but the space for that in our current time is limited. I think we need to know how to read online. If two arguments are linked together, don't jump back and forth. Read each thoroughly, then compare. The tool can be used in an adaptive, productive manner. It doesn't have to be the end of deep learning as we know it.