Savannah McCamey

Professor Hunter

ENG 1201 A50

5 February 2017

Annotated Bibliography

Black, J.E., and J.L. Barnes. "The effects of reading material on social and

non-social cognition." Poetics, vol. 52, 2015, pp. 32-43. OhioLINK

Electronic Journal Center, doi:10.1016/J.POETIC.2015.07.001.

This is a study created by two students of University of Oklahoma, Jessica

Black and Jennifer Barnes in 2015 to see the effects of fiction and non-fiction

materials on social cognition and intuitive physics. They define theory of

mind (ToM) as is the ability to infer and reason about mental states: our own

and other people's beliefs, desires, and intentions. In a portion of their

study, they replicated a previous study done by David Kidd and Emanuele

Castano in 2013 that set out to understand the effects of reading fiction on

theory of mind. The five experiments conducted by Kidd and Castano nearly

proves that reading fiction has positive effects on social cognition-

specifically theory of mind. The hypotheses in both studies were tested by a

series of activities including reading fiction or non-fiction literature before

taking the Reading the Mind in Eyes test (RME). The RME is multiple-choice

and displays photos of peoples eye regions before asking the participant to

choose one of four words that best describe the emotion being felt by the

subject of the photo. Controls were set in place for all the experiments
mentioned including the Author Recognition Test and The Short Autism

Spectrum Quotient to gauge familiarity with reading fiction and ToM

comprehension. Both studies present substantial evidence that reading

fiction positively affects ToM development.

This piece is very likely to be credible as it was published by the University

of Oklahoma. Given the multiple sources cited within this work as well as the

experiment conducted to create this, the authors show a proficient amount

of information to have written the study. I will use this source as a supportive

element when explaining my stance on reading novels and their effects on

ToM development and for a definition of theory of mind.

American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Communications and Media.

Media and Young Minds. Pediatrics, vol. 138, no. 5, 2006.

10.1542/peds.2016-2591.

This article written by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2016 speaks to

the importance of parent-child interaction and danger of media concerning

the development of cognitive, language, motor, and social-emotional skills in

0 5 year-olds. The article explains that media can be beneficial to the

learning of toddlers and is largely done by parents watching with the child

and then revisiting and teaching the content later on. Going on, the piece

reiterates that beginning at the age of 15 months and using applications

created specifically for teaching that arent available for commercial use,
children are able to gain new language but still have difficulty generalizing

this knowledge to the physical world. Although the effects are most probably

of a lesser intensity than the interaction decrease between parents and

children when the television is on, studies show that excessive television

viewing in the early years of childhood and delays in cognition, language,

and social/emotional development have close relations. Using the evidence

available, this article recommends a limited time of 1 hour per day of digital

media for children 2-5 years-old. This allows for engagement in activities that

support development and healthy habits for life.

This article was written to inform health care providers and parents of the

effects of digital media on young children and encourage healthy habits.

Having been written by the American Academy of Pediatrics, I find it to be

absolutely credible and to have authority on the subject. It relies on over 45

studies to create an accurate picture of the effects digital media has and the

importance of limiting the amount it is used. I will use the entirety of the

summary of this article to explain and describe the effects of digital media,

including television, on language and social/emotional development.

Chu, Melissa. Books vs. TV: How They Stack Up Against One Another. The

Blog, The Huffington Post, 11 July 2016.

www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-chu/books-vs-tv-how-they-

stac_b_10928340.html.

Melissa Chu wrote this article which was featured in the Huffington post to

describe and compare the effects of watching television to reading books.

She uses the information from multiple studies to encourage healthier

lifestyles and provides tips for changing habits. To inform her audience on

the effects of watching television, she references a 2013 study led by Hiraku

Takeuchi from Tohoku University in Japan. This study involved 276 children

and their mothers. The findings indicate that parts of the brain associated

with arousal and aggression as well as the frontal lobe that lowers verbal

reasoning thickened as the children watched more television. The results

also show an indirect correlation between the hours of television being

watched and the scores of verbal proficiency tests. As the children consumed

more media, their tests results were lower regardless of factors including

age, gender, and economic background. Watching television actually

affected the communication between the mother and child. Generally, during

the session of television viewing, comments made from the mother towards

their child were sparse and random- they didnt relate to the childs

comments. Chu goes on to describe the nature of television watching as

passive and fast-paced. She notices the lack of reflection on the

concepts portrayed and character depth relative to books.

Chu compares all of that information to what she found on the effects of

reading novels in a study by Gregory Burns and colleagues at Emory

University. The fMRI readings indicate that the students from the trials

display higher levels of connectivity in brain regions related to language.

Referring to another study, Chu expresses the delays in cognitive decline and

decrease of Alzheimers in elders who read on a regular basis.

This article presented a lot of information from multiple studies that directly

relate to my research topic making it a clear choice for a source. Reading

Chus references and method for summarizing sources, Ive determined this

article is reliable and shows authority on the subject. The content pertains to

my topic very well and is another supporting source.

Fields, Douglas. "Watching TV Alters Children's Crain Structure and Lowers

IQ". blog.brainfacts.org. blog.brainfacts.org/2015/05/watching-tv-alters-

childrens-brain-structure-and-lowers-iq/#.WKEkJDsrLIU.

Douglas Fields is Chief of the Nervous System Development and Plasticity

Section at the National Institute of Health and he writes an article on the

Brain Facts website to inform parents of the effects of watching television on

children. He writes this article using the reference of Takeuchis study

conducted in Japan, The impact of television viewing on brain structures:

Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. He expresses the difference in

brain regions of different children that correlate with the amount of TV they

view. They examine the same children several years later to find the

anatomical changes strengthened through the years. The regions correspond

to arousal, aggression, emotions, and vision. There was an increase in gray

matter in many regions including the frontal lobe which lowers verbal IQ. The

changes were proportional to the amount of TV being watched.

This article is very relevant to my topic and supports information Ive

gathered from other sources. I know it is reliable because it comes from a

sight sponsored by many reputable health institutions and cites a popular

study.

Jivanda, Tomas. Brain Function Boosted for days after reading a novel.

Independent.co.uk. www.independent.co.uk/news/science/brain-function-

boosted-for-days-after-reading-a-novel-9028302.html.

Tomas Jivanda reports for Independent by examining the work of Emory

University in their study of the effects of novels on the brain. This research

shows that reading an enticing narrative causes connections in the brain to

increase and last for days after. The more reading occurs, the better the

connection, similar to muscle memory. Jivanda explains that neurons can

trick the mind into thinking its performing an action that it isnt when it is

reading. The participants of the study only had their brains scanned after

reading, not during and these scans still show the effects of reading up to

five days after finishing the novel.

This source is reliable because its referencing a study Ive come across

multiple times in my research. I will use this specific article because it

presents different parts of the study than what Ive found elsewhere.

Lowry, Lauren. "Tuning In" to Others: How Young Children Develop Theory of

Mind. The Hanen Centre. 2016, http://www.hanen.org/helpful-

info/articles/tuning-in-to-others-how-young-children-develop.aspx.
This article, written by speech-language pathologist, Lauren Lowry, was

published on The Hanen Centre website and informs its audience about the

importance of theory of mind (ToM) development. Lowry explains that skills

learned in early childhood such as attending to and copying people are the

building blocks of developed ToM later in life. These skills help explain what

ToM is and they include: recognizing others emotions and using words to

express them, knowing that they are separate and different than others,

knowing that people behave to get what they want or avoid what they dont

want, understanding the cause and consequences of emotions, and the

ability to pretend or role play. According to Lowry and her sources, theory of

mind really appears between the ages of 4 and 5 as typically developing

children begin considering the thoughts and feelings of others. Skills tend to

develop in this order: understanding desire, understanding thought or

beliefs, understanding that seeing something leads to knowing about it,

understanding inaccurate thoughts or false beliefs, and finally

understanding hidden feelings. The understanding of figurative language,

sarcasm, and lies fall into the understanding of ToM. Lowry then expresses

that some experts believe ToM develops over a lifetime as a person

experiences people and their behaviors more. She tells the issues that arise

when ToM isnt well-developed. These include not understanding others

decisions and finding it difficult to have conversations, tell stories, or make

friends. She gives examples of ways to improve ToM that are based on her
sources one of which is using books to discuss characters thoughts and

feelings.

Lauren Lowry has plenty of authority on this subject given her career is

based on knowing and understand language development. She uses plenty

of credible sources and writes in an unbiased, helpful way in this article. The

content will help me explain to my audience the importance and principles of

theory of mind and its development.

Why Reading Matters: A Holistic Study for the Digital Age. Films Media Group,

2009, fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=19259&xtid=41293.

This documentary is narrated by science writer Rita Carter and produced by

BBC to discuss different effects reading has on the mind. The documentary

shows modern science at work, using fMRI machines to scan the brain while

its processing things. Using fMRI its shown that reading builds new

connections and helps minds use new words to understand others. In the

documentary, Dr. Cathy Price from the Wellcome Trust Centre for

Neuroimaging at the University College in London tells that when reading,

the brain isnt creating any new regions, but is developing stronger

connections between ones we already use. She explains that the brain uses

and combines primal functions to distinguish characters, convert that

knowledge into an auditory function, then to a motor function, and finally to

ones comprehension of the word. Price shows that the areas of the brain

active when reading arent solely for that function but are active when
processing shapes or speaking. Carter also interviews Professor Friedeman

Plvermuller from the Medical Research Council at the Cognition and Brain

Sciences Unit of Cambridge Academy. Prof. Plvermuller shows a scanning of

the brain when reading action words. These words activate areas of the mind

associated with the motor function of acting out those words. For example, if

the word read is stand an area of the mind related to leg movement

becomes active as if the reader themselves was doing the action. Jane Davis

from The Reader Organization, a book group developed to use reading as

therapy for psychological problems, talks about the immense progress shown

in the members of the club. The report many testimonies of depression relief

as they read through novels and try to empathize with the characters.

According to Professor Maryanne Wolf of Tufts University in Boston, from

2004-09 children middle school and high school aged are flattening or

declining in reading comprehension skills. She attributes these losses to

media. The documentary also touches upon the belief that video games can

be positively influential and give an empathetic experience according to

Novelist and Game Designer Naomi Alderman.

This documentary uses some studies to advocate for reading and its

benefits. I think it does a decent job at this, but talks briefly upon many

subjects without giving full detail. For this reason I am able to use some of

the quotations and information of the professors and doctors. I will not
include the opinions of those who arent experts in their field, although I

think it helped balance the bias of the film.