Scholarly reading (and writing) and the power of impact factors: a study of distributed cognition and intellectual habits.
Terje Hillesund
Frontiers in Psychology July 17, 2023 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1165700 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Social scientists working at universities in digitally dominated task environments |
| Keywords | Embodied cognition Distributed cognition Impact factor if Intellectual habits Scholarly reading Text creation |
| Key findings | Argues that scholarly reading and writing are distributed cognitive processes in which brains, bodies, and material artifacts such as printouts, computers, and the Internet are dynamically coupled. Reports that participants' reading was so tightly entangled with their writing that this coupling had to be central to the analysis, with a further link to their digital publishing activity. |
Abstract
Using observational interviews and introducing theories of embodied and distributed cognition, this study examines the scholarly reading and the intellectual habits of a group of social scientists. All participants were working at universities in task environments dominated by digital artifacts and technologies. The study found a strong connection between scholarly reading and the scholars' writing processes and a further coupling to their digital publishing activity. While examining the participants' print and online reading, it turned out that their reading was so tightly coupled to their writing that this entanglement had to be at the core of the analysis. In the study, scholarly reading and writing are analyzed as cognitive processes that extend beyond the brain and body and comprise cognitive artifacts of texts and their material bearers, such as printouts, digital displays, computers, and the Internet. In the process of creating text-or reading and writing-brains, bodies, and artifacts are considered to be dynamically coupled in a distributed cognitive process. Based on interviews with a sample of academics, the study analyses how their scholarly reading relates to the other elements in such an extended process and how they utilize the affordances of cognitive digital artifacts in their creative and intellectual endeavors.