不深度閱讀，人就會(huì)變蠢 作者：Maryanne Wolf 譯者：郭嘉寧 校對(duì)：劉 蕊 策劃：唐 蕭 Skim reading is the new normal. The effect on society is profound 當(dāng)略讀成為新常態(tài) 本文選自 The Guardian| 取經(jīng)號(hào)原創(chuàng)翻譯 關(guān)注 取經(jīng)號(hào)，回復(fù)關(guān)鍵詞“外刊” 獲取《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》等原版外刊獲得方法 Look around on your next plane trip. The iPad is the new pacifier for babies and toddlers. Younger school-aged children read stories on smartphones; older boys don’t read at all, but hunch over video games. Parents and other passengers read on Kindles or skim a flotilla of email and news feeds. Unbeknownst to most of us, an invisible, game-changing transformation links everyone in this picture: the neuronal circuit that underlies the brain’s ability to read is subtly, rapidly changing - a change with implications for everyone from the pre-reading toddler to the expert adult. 在你下次坐飛機(jī)旅行時(shí)試著環(huán)顧下四周。iPad成為了嬰兒與蹣跚學(xué)步的孩子的新型奶嘴。年齡還小的學(xué)齡兒童在智能手機(jī)上閱讀故事，年長些的男孩子們則完全不閱讀了，而是趴在電子游戲前。父母與其他乘客在Kindle上讀書，或是略讀著大量郵件和新聞。在我們大多數(shù)人還沒有意識(shí)到的情況下，一場(chǎng)無形又顛覆性的變革把所有人都聯(lián)系到了一起。構(gòu)成大腦閱讀能力的神經(jīng)回路正在細(xì)微而快速地變化，無論是預(yù)學(xué)孩童還是閱讀專家，都受到了影響。
As work in neurosciences indicates, the acquisition of literacy necessitated a new circuit in our species’ brain more than 6,000 years ago. That circuit evolved from a very simple mechanism for decoding basic information, like the number of goats in one’s herd, to the present, highly elaborated reading brain. My research depicts how the present reading brain enables the development of some of our most important intellectual and affective processes: internalized knowledge, analogical reasoning, and inference; perspective-taking and empathy; critical analysis and the generation of insight. Research surfacing in many parts of the world now cautions that each of these essential “deep reading” processes may be under threat as we move into digital-based modes of reading. 正如神經(jīng)科學(xué)研究所顯示，在六千多年前，讀寫能力的習(xí)得使得人類大腦中形成了一個(gè)新的回路。這個(gè)回路最初很簡單，用來解讀基本信息，比如一個(gè)人的畜群中有多少只山羊，到現(xiàn)在進(jìn)化為高度復(fù)雜的可以閱讀的大腦。我的研究描繪了現(xiàn)在的可閱讀大腦是如何促成了一些最重要的智力與情感過程的發(fā)展，包括知識(shí)內(nèi)化，類比推理與推斷；換位思考與共情；批判性分析與洞察力的產(chǎn)生。這一研究涉及到了全球不同地區(qū)，它的結(jié)果警示我們，隨著人類轉(zhuǎn)入數(shù)字化模式閱讀，以上每一個(gè)重要的“深度閱讀”過程都可能面臨威脅。
This is not a simple, binary issue of print vs digital reading and technological innovation. As MIT scholar Sherry Turkle has written, we do not err as a society when we innovate, but when we ignore what we disrupt or diminish while innovating. In this hinge moment between print and digital cultures, society needs to confront what is diminishing in the expert reading circuit, what our children and older students are not developing, and what we can do about it. 這不是一個(gè)關(guān)于紙質(zhì)閱讀與數(shù)字閱讀、科技創(chuàng)新哪個(gè)更好的簡單二元問題。就像麻省理工學(xué)院學(xué)者雪利·特克爾(Sherry Turkle)寫到的，當(dāng)我們做出創(chuàng)新時(shí)，作為一個(gè)社會(huì)我們沒有錯(cuò)，但當(dāng)我們忽視創(chuàng)新過程中擾亂與削弱了什么時(shí)，我們就錯(cuò)了。在這個(gè)印刷文化與數(shù)字文化的轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)，社會(huì)需要正視以下問題，在我們專門負(fù)責(zé)閱讀的回路中什么正在減少，在我們的孩子及年長的學(xué)生中有什么能力沒有發(fā)展起來，以及我們能對(duì)此做些什么。
We know from research that the reading circuit is not given to human beings through a genetic blueprint like vision or language; it needs an environment to develop. Further, it will adapt to that environment’s requirements – from different writing systems to the characteristics of whatever medium is used. If the dominant medium advantages processes that are fast, multi-task oriented and well-suited for large volumes of information, like the current digital medium, so will the reading circuit. As UCLA psychologist Patricia Greenfield writes, the result is that less attention and time will be allocated to slower, time-demanding deep reading processes, like inference, critical analysis and empathy, all of which are indispensable to learning at any age. 從研究中我們得知，人類的閱讀回路不同于視力或者語言，它不是通過基因藍(lán)圖獲得的。它需要環(huán)境來形成。而且，它會(huì)適應(yīng)于環(huán)境的要求，不同的書寫系統(tǒng)和所用媒介的特點(diǎn)都會(huì)對(duì)它產(chǎn)生影響。如果主導(dǎo)的媒介傾向于快速，多任務(wù)導(dǎo)向的閱讀過程，且適合處理大量信息，就像如今的數(shù)字媒介一樣，那大腦形成的閱讀回路也會(huì)如此。加州大學(xué)洛杉磯分校的心理學(xué)家帕特里夏·格林菲爾德（Patricia Greenfield）寫到，結(jié)果是，我們會(huì)花更少的精力與時(shí)間去進(jìn)行慢速耗時(shí)的深度閱讀，就像推斷、批判性分析與共情，而這些對(duì)于任何年齡的學(xué)習(xí)都是必不可少的。 Increasing reports from educators and from researchers in psychology and the humanities bear this out. English literature scholar and teacher Mark Edmundson describes how many college students actively avoid the classic literature of the 19thand 20th centuries because they no longer have the patience to read longer, denser, more difficult texts. We should be less concerned with students’ “cognitive impatience,” however, than by what may underlie it: the potential inability of large numbers of students to read with a level of critical analysis sufficient to comprehend the complexity of thought and argument found in more demanding texts, whether in literature and science in college, or in wills, contracts and the deliberately confusing public referendum questions citizens encounter in the voting booth. 心理學(xué)與人文學(xué)科的教育者與研究者們不斷發(fā)表報(bào)告證實(shí)了這一點(diǎn)。英語文學(xué)學(xué)者與教師馬克·愛德蒙森（Mark Edmundson）說到，有許多大學(xué)生主動(dòng)避免閱讀19世紀(jì)與20世紀(jì)的經(jīng)典文學(xué)，因?yàn)樗麄儾辉儆心托娜プx篇幅更長，更難懂的文本。我們不必為學(xué)生在認(rèn)知過程中的不耐煩太擔(dān)心，但是我們應(yīng)該擔(dān)憂這一現(xiàn)象的內(nèi)在原因，即大量的學(xué)生在閱讀中可能無法運(yùn)用足夠的批判性分析。這會(huì)使他們難以理解更吃力的文本中出現(xiàn)的復(fù)雜的思想與論述，不論是在大學(xué)的文學(xué)與科學(xué)課上，或是在遺囑，合同中及在投票處會(huì)遇到的故意混淆人的全民公投問題。
Multiple studies show that digital screen use may be causing a variety of troubling downstream effects on reading comprehension in older high school and college students. In Stavanger, Norway, psychologist Anne Mangen and her colleagues studied how high school students comprehend the same material in different mediums. Mangen’s group asked subjects questions about a short story whose plot had universal student appeal (a lust-filled, love story); half of the students read Jenny, Mon Amour on a Kindle, the other half in paperback. Results indicated that students who read on print were superior in their comprehension to screen-reading peers, particularly in their ability to sequence detail and reconstruct the plot in chronological order. 許多研究顯示，數(shù)字化閱讀可能正在對(duì)高中生與大學(xué)生的閱讀理解產(chǎn)生一系列令人擔(dān)憂的不利影響。挪威斯塔萬格的心理學(xué)家安妮·曼根（Anne Mangen）與她的同事研究了高中生在不同媒介下是如何理解相同的材料的。曼根的團(tuán)隊(duì)向測(cè)試對(duì)象詢問了一些關(guān)于一個(gè)短故事的問題，這個(gè)故事是一個(gè)充滿欲望的愛情故事，對(duì)學(xué)生有普遍的吸引力。一半的學(xué)生是在Kindle上讀的“珍妮，我的愛”，另一半學(xué)生則是在平裝書上讀的。結(jié)果顯示，在紙質(zhì)書上讀的學(xué)生比在屏幕上讀的學(xué)生在理解上表現(xiàn)得更好，尤其是在對(duì)細(xì)節(jié)排序，及按時(shí)間順序重現(xiàn)情節(jié)的能力上更為突出。 Ziming Liu from San Jose State University has conducted a series of studies which indicate that the “new norm” in reading is skimming, with word-spotting and browsing through the text. Many readers now use an F or Z pattern when reading in which they sample the first line and then word-spot through the rest of the text. When the reading brain skims like this, it reduces time allocated to deep reading processes. In other words, we don’t have time to grasp complexity, to understand another’s feelings, to perceive beauty, and to create thoughts of the reader’s own. 圣荷西州立大學(xué)的劉子明（音譯）開展的一系列研究表明，讀書的“新常態(tài)”是略讀，在詞與詞間跳躍并隨意瀏覽文本。許多讀者如今在閱讀時(shí)采用F或Z的模式，即他們抽樣讀第一句話，在剩下的文章中再挑一些詞瀏覽。當(dāng)進(jìn)行閱讀的大腦像這樣略讀時(shí)，深度閱讀的時(shí)間將有所減少。也就是說，我們沒有時(shí)間去領(lǐng)會(huì)復(fù)雜的內(nèi)容，去理解其他人的感受，去感知美，以及去形成讀者自己的想法。 Karin Littau and Andrew Piper have noted another dimension: physicality. Piper, Littau and Anne Mangen’s group emphasize that the sense of touch in print reading adds an important redundancy to information – a kind of “geometry” to words, and a spatial “thereness” for text. As Piper notes, human beings need a knowledge of where they are in time and space that allows them to return to things and learn from re-examination – what he calls the “technology of recurrence”. The importance of recurrence for both young and older readers involves the ability to go back, to check and evaluate one’s understanding of a text. The question, then, is what happens to comprehension when our youth skim on a screen whose lack of spatial thereness discourages “l(fā)ooking back.” 卡琳·利陶（Karin Littau）和安德魯·派珀（Andrew Piper）指出了閱讀的另一個(gè)方面：物質(zhì)性。派珀，利陶與安妮·曼根的團(tuán)隊(duì)強(qiáng)調(diào)道，紙質(zhì)閱讀的觸感為信息增添了一個(gè)重要部分：字詞的一種“幾何結(jié)構(gòu)”，及文本在空間上的“存在感”。就像派珀指出的，人類需要知道他們?cè)跁r(shí)間與空間的位置，這讓他們可以返回并在重新審視中有所得，派珀稱此為“重現(xiàn)的技術(shù)”。重現(xiàn)之所以重要，部分在于我們能夠返回、檢查并評(píng)估自己對(duì)文本的理解，這對(duì)年輕與年長的讀者而言都是一樣的。那么問題來了，當(dāng)我們的年輕人在屏幕上略讀，其中缺失的空間上的存在感使他們無法“回顧”時(shí)，他們的理解會(huì)怎么樣呢？ US media researchers Lisa Guernsey and Michael Levine, American University’s linguist Naomi Baron, and cognitive scientist Tami Katzir from Haifa University have examined the effects of different information mediums, particularly on the young. Katzir’s research has found that the negative effects of screen reading can appear as early as fourth and fifth grade - with implications not only for comprehension, but also on the growth of empathy. 美國媒體研究者麗莎·格恩西（Lisa Guernsey）和邁克爾·萊文（Michael Levine），美國大學(xué)的語言學(xué)家娜奧米·巴倫（Naomi Baron），及海法大學(xué)的認(rèn)知科學(xué)家塔米·卡茲（Tami Katzir）調(diào)查了不同信息媒介產(chǎn)生的影響，尤其是對(duì)年輕人的影響?？ㄆ澋难芯堪l(fā)現(xiàn)在屏幕上閱讀的消極影響早在四、五年級(jí)就出現(xiàn)了，這不但損害了人的理解能力，同時(shí)也對(duì)共情能力的發(fā)展不利。 The possibility that critical analysis, empathy and other deep reading processes could become the unintended “collateral damage” of our digital culture is not a simple binary issue about print vs digital reading. It is about how we all have begun to read on any medium and how that changes not only what we read, but also the purposes for why we read. Nor is it only about the young. The subtle atrophy of critical analysis and empathy affects us all. It affects our ability to navigate a constant bombardment of information. It incentivizes a retreat to the most familiar silos of unchecked information, which require and receive no analysis, leaving us susceptible to false information and demagoguery. 批判性分析，共情能力，及其他深度閱讀過程可能成為我們數(shù)字文化所帶來的意外“附加傷害”，這不是一個(gè)簡單的紙質(zhì)閱讀與數(shù)字閱讀對(duì)立的二元問題。它關(guān)乎于我們所有人是如何開始在任意媒介上閱讀，這不只改變了我們閱讀的內(nèi)容，還改變了我們閱讀的目的。這也不僅只關(guān)系到年輕人。批判性分析及共情能力的不易察覺的衰退影響著我們所有人。它影響了我們應(yīng)對(duì)時(shí)常發(fā)生的信息轟炸的能力，鼓勵(lì)我們退縮回最熟悉的未經(jīng)核查的信息孤島，其中不需要也接收不到任何分析，讓我們易于被虛假信息與煽動(dòng)行為影響。
There’s an old rule in neuroscience that does not alter with age: use it or lose it. It is a very hopeful principle when applied to critical thought in the reading brain because it implies choice. The story of the changing reading brain is hardly finished. We possess both the science and the technology to identify and redress the changes in how we read before they become entrenched. If we work to understand exactly what we will lose, alongside the extraordinary new capacities that the digital world has brought us, there is as much reason for excitement as caution. 在神經(jīng)科學(xué)中，有一個(gè)不隨年齡改變的古老規(guī)則：用進(jìn)廢退。當(dāng)應(yīng)用到閱讀大腦內(nèi)的批判性思考時(shí)，這是一條充滿希望的原理，因?yàn)樗凳玖诉x擇的作用。閱讀大腦發(fā)生的變化還沒有結(jié)束。我們擁有科學(xué)與技術(shù)，來趕在閱讀方式的變化根深蒂固前去發(fā)現(xiàn)并解決問題。如果我們努力去理解我們將要失去的究竟是什么，再加上數(shù)字世界帶給我們的非凡新能力，那么我們有理由在謹(jǐn)慎的同時(shí)，抱有相同的期待。
We need to cultivate a new kind of brain: a “bi-literate” reading brain capable of the deepest forms of thought in either digital or traditional mediums. A great deal hangs on it: the ability of citizens in a vibrant democracy to try on other perspectives and discern truth; the capacity of our children and grandchildren to appreciate and create beauty; and the ability in ourselves to go beyond our present glut of information to reach the knowledge and wisdom necessary to sustain a good society. 我們需要培養(yǎng)新型的大腦：一個(gè)無論在數(shù)字還是傳統(tǒng)媒介中都能進(jìn)行深度思考的“雙語”閱讀大腦。許多事都取決于此，包括民眾能否在一個(gè)活躍的民主國家中換位思考、辨析真相，我們的孩子與孫輩能否欣賞與創(chuàng)造美，及我們自己能否超越如今的信息過剩，獲得足夠的知識(shí)與智慧來維持一個(gè)良好的社會(huì)。
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