Chapter 6. Emotional and motivational aspects of digital reading

Emotions guide our actions and have a profound influence on how we approach, experience and later remember information. This chapter provides an overview of the role of emotions in reading and describes how emotional processes differ across digital and print texts. After introducing what emotions are and how they can be measured, we discuss the influence of text genre on inducing emotions. We further explore the effects of digital texts on the emotional experiences in narrative and expository text reading. We then consider the importance of the reader’s motivational orientation, as it may influence preferences for digital vs. print texts. Finally, we discuss the impact of the communicative and collaborative aspects of digital reading environments on the emotions emerging during reading. It is evident that little is known about the impact of digitalisation on emotional processes during reading, and more theory-based research is needed.

• Affiliations: 1: University of Turku; 2: University of Szeged; 3: Fernfachhochschule Schweiz; 4: Gomez Universitat de Barcelona; 5: Université Paris 8; 6: Freie Universität Berlin