Storytelling em e-picturebooks e implicações cognitivas

Abstract

The invention of portable computing devices, such as tablets and smartphones, has influenced the development of digital reading experiences with even more varied features than the e-books designed for the first e-readers. Among these experiences are the so-called e-picturebooks, terminology used to categorize digital picturebooks (PINTO; ZAGALO; COQUET, 2012). The purpose of this research is to explain how a new digital configuration of picturebook, based on its specific features, restructures the way in which stories are conceived and understood, and why that may indicate different cognitive systems operating in reading and understanding of the stories. The argumentation starts from the definition of key concepts such as storytelling and comprehension (ALBÆK et. al., 2011; KINTSCH; RAWSON, 2007). Then, we resorted to the field that was conventionally called picturebook theory to define the printed picturebook (NIKOLAJEVA; SCOTT, 2011). In order to analyze the book-app - application for mobile devices which is the format most closely associated with the concept of e-picturebook - examples are grouped according to five main guidelines regarding the features of this type of digital book: (i) multimedia resources; (ii) multiple forms of the verbal text; (iii) real-time interactivity; (iv) gamefication; (v) new forms of content organization. The source of the examples approached in the research is the Bologna Ragazzi Digital Award, an award that has been offered since 2012 to the best book-apps for children of each year. In order to investigate how the emergence of e-picturebook influences the environment in which stories are conceived and apprehended, we introduce a theoretical framework based on recent approaches in Cognitive Science: the distributed cognition and the concept of cognitive artifact (CLARK, 2003, HUTCHINS, 1995; 2001, NORMAN, 1993). That theory contributes to the understanding of the e-picturebook as a distinct storytelling experience of the printed picturebook, presenting a new perspective of phenomenon analysis which privileges the opportunities related to cognitive abilities and the specific potentials of that category of e-book.