Reading process and internet: relevant considerations

Abstract

This paper aims to demonstrate the current debate involving cognition, reading and internet. At first, we present the arguments involving neuroscientists, such as Pinker (2010) and Carr (2010). Then, according to the meta-theoretical foundations of Metateoria das Interfaces (COSTA, 2007), the objective is to redesign the debate by building an internal interface between Psycholinguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, in order to explain the differences in traditional and online readings. Then, we make an analysis of reading based on three assumptions: (i) the language is based on logical-linguistic-communicative mechanisms, (ii) it is necessary to understand the functioning of such mechanisms, as well as the notions of adaptation to different contexts, to outline the different types of reading and possible consequences for brain structure, (iii) as well as a form of expression entails semantic-pragmatic change, the media in that particular text is interfering with its content and, consequently, the reader's cognitive processing. The following article aims, therefore, to investigate reading as an inferential cognitive processes, in order to illustrate that reading on the Internet, despite being different from the traditional sense, should be explored by theoretical studies with relevant descriptive and explanatory capacity.