DATELINE–The Research Triangle, N.C.

The Journal for Applied Medicine & Technology released a report earlier this week which suggests that a recent increase in computer use has led to a dramatic decline in literacy among adult Americans.

Entitled “A Qualitative Analysis of Computer Use and User Literacy,” the already controversial study was a collaboration among several universities and anonymous test subjects drawn from America’s best-known corporations. Over the course of three years, researchers in eight different cities tracked the reading habits and literacy skills of over 5,000 professionals who use computers in the workplace or at home.

The researchers claim to have found what they call “unambiguous” and “compelling” evidence that a decrease in reading comprehension and related cognitive skills closely followed any increase, no matter how slight, in the use of personal computers.

Wisconsin State University professor Dr. Ruhig Hurmes is one of the study’s lead researchers. Hurmes believes that the main factor behind this negative correlation can be found in the “nature of the computer, itself” which, he believes, “discourages readers from spending any serious length of time with a difficult task…especially if a solution or a simpler problem can be reached by merely clicking on a graphic.” Dr. Hurmes also points to the rising popularity of celebrity news programs, infomercials, computer magazines, and the Nick at Nite cable network as major factors contributing to the decline in America’s reading skills.

“Let’s face it, if the choice is between spending 5 seconds with a info-bite or 30 minutes with a thought-provoking essay, what would the average American choose?”

Professor Hurmes went on to answer his question with an exhaustive series of charts outlining the choices of his real-life test subjects. According to the results of the Computer Use & User Literacy study, nearly 92% of professionals working within a computer environment repeatedly opted for the 5 second info-bite while only 5% of those polled chose to spend time with the headier essay. An additional 3% failed to distinguish the one from the other and asked shortly thereafter to be excused from the test.

The study goes on to state that among the 92% of Americans who chose the info-bite, almost 78% of them preferred their information exclusively in the form of images, while another 15% percent expressed a preference for some combination of image and text. Only 7% of the info-bite crowd chose a strictly textual format for their 5 second data feeds.

The facilities used to conduct the Computer Use & User Literacy study were set up to mimic real world scenarios. Subjects spent half of the test in an artificial living room with a couch and the other half in an office cubicle with a captain’s chair. In addition to the simulated decor, scientists provided the test subjects with a television monitor in the first scenario and a computer terminal in the second. Finally, the study’s participants were offered printed matter at regular intervals during the testing procedure. The printed matter ranged from magazines without color illustrations or color photographs to independently produced news, commentary and historical analysis periodicals.

In only a handful of cases did test subjects actually let go of the computer’s mouse or the television remote control long enough to pick up one of the readily available printed materials. In fact, many subjects could not even recognize what the printed materials were due to the fast-paced and psychologically-intensive nature of their computer use.

“Some of our participants actually refused to go home after several hours of Internet access and/or spending time with a high-definition TV,” writes one of the study’s technicians, “we were even forced to physically restrain one participant, a young man, after he stumbled across both a pornographic satellite TV channel and a Web site dedicated to instant sports scores within the same testing session.”

Critics of the study have a very different take on the published results. Just hours after the Journal for Applied Medicine & Technology hit the newsstands, computer industry representatives charged that the researchers had “stacked the deck” against their products by providing “cutting-edge Internet services” and “unavailable television technology” to unsuspecting test subjects. The study’s detractors also claim that if the test participants had been primed for the enhanced information they received during the course of the study, no significant behavioral changes would have come to the researchers’ attention.

Dr. Hurmes dismisses such criticisms as irrelevant and misleading. “The real proof,” he adds, “is in our algometric scores. Not one subject complained of physical discomfort during hours of repetitive and uninformative computer use–that’s a shocking omission considering that we set up the testing environments to produce maximum distress in almost all subjects.”

For their next study, Dr. Hurmes and his colleagues will test the “moral thermometer” of computer users. It is uncertain what the doctors will find when they venture into the realm of morality and social responsibility, but one thing is for certain: their next study is guaranteed to generate a controversy of like proportions.