When you have difficulty remembering the spelling of a word, do you pretend to write it with a pen or type it with a keyboard?  “Digital technologies are producing subtle but systemic changes in how we think,” says Dr. Michael Chan-Reynolds, an associate professor of Psychology at Trent University, who is setting out to explore how digital devices affect interactions between individuals and information. For instance, people have a more difficult time deciding whether a word is spelled correctly when they respond with their feet compared to when they respond with their hands. “I have a fun job,” laughs Professor Chan-Reynolds. “I’d be surprised if I didn’t get nominated for an Ig Nobel Award,” he adds – referring to the annual Harvard-based awards for “improbable research” or, as their website states, “achievements that first make people laugh, and then make people think.”

While he has yet to land the Ig Nobel Prize, Prof. Chan-Reynolds has recently been recognized with the prestigious Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation’s Early Researcher Award. The award aims to support promising, recently-appointed Ontario researchers build their research teams of undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, research assistants, associates, and technicians with the goal of improving Ontario’s ability to attract and retain the best and brightest research talent. The award is for $100,000 over five years and is matched by $50,000 from Trent University.

“Prof. Chan-Reynold's Early Researcher Award affirms that he is an emerging research star who is quickly gaining international stature,” says Dr. Neil Emery,
vice-president, Research & International at Trent. “One of the reasons he is gaining recognition so quickly is the multi-disciplinary approach of his research. He knits together diverse fields such as psychology, computer science and English. It's no surprise he is doing well here since interdisciplinary research is a hallmark of Trent. Moreover, the Early Researcher Award focuses on training researchers and Prof. Chan-Reynolds excels at training personnel at all levels from undergraduates to postdoctoral associates. High quality training of students is the University's primary concern so we are quite proud that Mike has landed this award.”

Prof. Chan-Reynolds plans to use the funds to further explore the ways in which digitization of information is impacting how we consume information. From our physical to our emotional and psychological responses, digital media is affecting our experience of reading in every way. “We are going through a period of change as we move from pen and paper-based technology to electronic technologies for everything from note-taking to reading and interacting with information,” observes Prof. Chan-Reynolds. “People have strong opinions about whether this constitutes progress or a serious step backwards.  What I'm interested in is not whether these changes are good or bad, but rather how they change some of the more fundamental things that we take for granted about how people think and how they react emotionally to those types of things and not just in an abstract way but also hopefully in as real-world a context as possible,” he explains adding facetiously, “I'm sure with the scroll, people were complaining that the book was the death of reading as well: ‘Man, they’re just going to write so much now,’” quips Prof. Chan-Reynolds in the voice of an alarmed scribe. “’There is no need to be concise!’”

As hard as the scroll-to-book transition may have been, even Prof. Chan-Reynolds admits there are reasons to look more deeply at how the transition from the book to digital media is affecting us. “Take reading itself,” he says. “There are two ways to read: vertically, meaning we read a narrative from start to finish, and horizontally, where we click on the hyperlink that interests us – whether it's what type of cat food should I get, or what's this thing on my hand - whatever that goal is in the moment, and let this horizontal jumping generate the narrative. We are creating narratives ourselves with our own choices instead of reading narratives written for us by other people. Now imagine at the limit of this scenario you have never read a narrative that was written for you by someone else and now you're at university and you have to write a narrative for someone else. If you've never read material written for other people how would you learn how to write for other people?

Aside from the possible perils to academia, Prof. Chan-Reynolds intends to investigate the changing physical, psychological, and even the moral interactions we have with digital media and its content. “Have you ever fallen asleep while reading in bed?” asks Prof. Chan-Reynolds, reflecting on our seeming universal preference to recline in a comfy chair or bed to read. “Now imagine a glass and aluminum framed thing hitting you in the head instead of a softcover book,” he pauses, “There’s something about the physicality of the thing that changes how we interact with it.”

From the physical to the moral, digitization appears to affect almost every aspect of our interaction with information. On the moral question, Prof. Chan-Reynolds tests the hypothesis that things, once digitized, seem to hold less value. “When it comes to money,” he affirms, “all the evidence suggests that our understanding of its value disappears once it's no longer concrete, once it's become digitized. The same can be said for digitized music. Cultural taboos seem to disappear and people think nothing of putting music on their computer and letting strangers download it.” Prof. Chan-Reynolds is now testing to see whether this hypothesis holds true with the written text.

“Imagine this scenario,” proposes Prof. Chan-Reynolds, “you're in a courtroom setting and they bring up the Bible and they want you to swear to tell the truth, so help you God. Now what if the Bible was on an iPad instead?” With research already underway, this question is no bid for an Ig Nobel Award. Prof. Chan-Reynolds and his research team are currently conducting tests using galvanic skin responses to determine whether the digital text on an ipad has the same impact as the good book itself with results forthcoming…

“Listen,” says Prof. Chan-Reynolds, “books have evolved. Penguin invented the pocketbook, I think, in the early 1900s and it was perfect. It was meant to fit in your pocket, it was light and easily carried around – it was the result of centuries of evolution. Now we have new technologies but they haven't gone through that same evolution. This change – and how it affects us – is still ongoing.”