John E. McEneaney, Ph.D.

Research interests
Reading theory, online learning, digital literacies, hypertext navigation, human-computer interaction, roles of text and graphics in comprehension, information foraging theory, and video data analysis.

My work spans a range of topics and methodologies in literacy, with reading theory as a central theme. My doctoral research involved developing a computer simulation of word learning from experience. At this time I also began corresponding with colleagues at the Moscow State Pedagogical University, resulting in visits to conduct collaborative work in 1991 and 1996. In the mid-1990s my work shifted to focus more specifically on reading theory and practice in online environments like the web. In the past few years I have begun working with video as a primary data, exploring the application of technologies for capturing and analyzing video data in studies of online reading.

Past research activities/experience

Artificial neural networks, parallel distributed processing models in reading, logic programming, teacher attitudes, and Russian reading education.

Model building and simulation have been important elements of my research. I have explored a wide range of model building methodologies including logic programming, artificial neural networks, and hybrid systems. As a result of my collaboration with Russian colleagues I have also explored the history of reading methods in Russia, where the concepts of phonological and phonemic awareness were first developed and applied in literacy education by Konstantin Ushinsky more than 150 years ago.

Ongoing research

• Autism, Agency, and Human-Computer Interaction.
• Reading and decision-making in a simulated ecommerce task.
• An information foraging approach to understanding online reading.
• On the role of text and graphics in comprehending the four-panel comic strip.

I am currently engaged in several projects that address social aspects of computer use, decision making in online literacy, modeling of online literacies as information foraging, and the psychology of the classic four-panel comic strip.

Selected Publications and Presentations

McEneaney, J. E. (2013). Agency Effects in Human–Computer Interaction. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 29(12), 798-813. DOI:10.1080/10447318.2013.777826

McEneaney, J. E. (2011). Web 3.0, Litbots, and TPWSGWTAU. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 54(5), 376-378.

McEneaney, J. E. (2009). Agency Attribution in Human-Computer Interaction. In D. Harris (Ed.), Engineering psychology and cognitive ergonomics, HCII 2009 (pp. 81-90). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

McEneaney, J. E. (2006). Agent-based Literacy Theory. Reading Research Quarterly, 41(3), 2-21.

McEneaney, J. E. (2001). Graphic and numerical methods to assess navigation in hypertext. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 55, 761-786.

McEneaney, J. E., Kolker, J., Ustinova, H. (1999). Technology Based Global Education and its Implications for School/University Partnerships. International Journal of Social Education, 13(2), 66-76.

McEneaney, J. E. (1997). Teaching them to read Russian: Four hundred years of the Russian bukvar. The Reading Teacher, 51(3), 210-226.

McEneaney, J. E. (1995). Back-propagation learning under non-optimal supervision: Developmental dyslexia in a computational model of reading. 1995 Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Midwest Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science Society, 126-131.

Research goals/plans for future projects

• Does link choice influence reader response in literary hypertext?
• Do computer display characteristics influence subjective timing judgments?

I have two projects currently in development, one focusing on the ways the availability of choice in hypertext links influences reader response to literary text and a second project that is more methodological, focusing on the ways the designs of experimental tasks in online studies of reading may influence the results that are obtained.

Workshops, In-Service Institutes, and Community Events

• Web Literacies
• Online Learning
• Classroom Technologies
• Video Data Analysis

Contact
mceneane@oakland.edu