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Originally Posted by zerospinboson
There is more than enough research that links working consistently below your previously-received level of education with cognitive decline, yes. This is not to say that reading a single fluff novel will make you retarded, but I don't think that's what the quoted author was trying to say.
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The quoted author said that "bad" reading was like "bad" food, and didn't say that working consistently below your education level would lead to cognitive decline, but rather suggested that what he thought of as "bad" reading was harmful - even as part of a calorie-controlled diet. He did indeed suggest that reading a single fluff novel was harmful - even if not saying it was fatally so.
I'm not convinced that there is more than enough research to support your point either. Academia often looks down its nose at forms of cognition that are alien to it. Take, for example, creole languages, which were often dismissed as being a simplified subset of the parent languages, but which more recent research shows to be equally rich grammatically.
Sure, if you don't exercise your brain at all it can suffer, but there are many ways to stay sharp, and sticking to "good" reading (whatever that means) is not required.
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Anyway, arguments about 'integrative thinking' are very nice, but to notice trends they have to be there. And while there are definitely patterns in romance novels (girl meets prince, girl bats eyelashes, girl becomes pregnant and enjoys a 'fulfilling life' in tent of bedouin), they are not necessarily very interesting ones. GIGO applies. There is no reason to expect that "different material" will only reliably expand horizons when you vary both the subject and the quality; varying the former should be more than sufficient.
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My point was not that people would see patterns within each different type of reading, but that they would see patterns across them - and the reason that I mentioned "integrative thinking" was that the author mentioned right-brainedness.
Why is there no reason to expect that reading different material will expand ones horizons? I have every reason, because whenever I've done it, it has.
If you keep reading the same kind of stuff, then I'd agree that you'll get less and less out of it. But reading a wide range (in various dimensions) will, I think, make you sharper rather than duller.