Some research suggests we process information more effectively when we recruit multiple senses, and multiple brain areas, during task learning - seeing the words, feeling the weight of the pages, and even smelling the paper. We can flip pages to reread text as needed. When holding a book, we receive reminders of how many pages we’ve read and how many remain. Mangen says this may be because print provides sensorimotor cues that enhance cognitive processing. Print readers were more likely to accurately recall the story’s chronological order. The texts were identical, but Kindle readers pressed a button to progress through the book, while print readers turned pages. In one of Mangen’s studies, participants read a story either on a Kindle or in print and then underwent comprehension tests. But they lack an important aspect of the reading experience: turning the page. Those are likely superior to other digital-text formats, Mangen says. However, e-readers, like Kindles, don’t require scrolling and reduce eyestrain with e-ink technology. In addition, the LED screens’ constant flickering glow creates more work for our eyes, causing visual and mental fatigue. When we have to remember what we just read and we don’t have spatial to help, that’s taking some of our bandwidth.” “In our working memory, we can hold about seven items at a time, so the goal when reading is to take away as many demands as possible. Scrolling demands more from our working memory, she adds. It’s harder to map words that aren’t in a fixed location, because we lose important “visual placeholders,” says Singer Trakhman. But imagine drawing a map of something with constantly moving landmarks, like a webpage. When we read, our brains construct a cognitive map of the text, like recalling that a piece of information appeared near the top, left-hand page of a book. A 2017 study found participants’ reading comprehension suffered when they scrolled through a comic book’s individual panels instead of seeing them all at once. Scrolling through digital text may impair comprehension by creating spatial challenges. Reading print also generated more activity in the parietal cortex, which processes visual and spatial cues. Print materials were more likely to activate the medial prefrontal cortex and cingulate cortex, both involved in processing emotions. Participants viewed advertisements on a screen and on a printed card while undergoing an fMRI scan. In a 2009 study, the marketing research company Millward Brown found the brain processes physical and digital materials differently. However, existing research does offer some clues. “There’s not much on the reading of actual texts,” Mangen says. This may be because of the shallowing hypothesis - constant exposure to fast-paced, digital media trains the brain to process information more rapidly and less thoroughly. Format didn’t affect their grasp of the main idea, but students missed details when reading on screens.ĭigital reading impairs comprehension, particularly for longer, more complex texts, says Mangen. In 2016, Singer Trakhman examined undergraduates’ reading comprehension after they read digital and print versions of articles. TL DR: Digital Reading Equals Shallower Processing Everything’s so quick and accessible that we may not be truly digesting anymore.”īoth scientists agree digital is fine to scan news headings for main ideas, but longer, complicated texts are best read in print, especially to retain the details. “It’s one of the best parts of our digital world - everything is at our fingertips and we can get the headlines in a second - but it may also be one of the pitfalls. “We read digital more quickly, we think we must understand it better,” explains Lauren Singer Trakhman, who studies reading comprehension at the University of Maryland, College Park. Studies found digital reading breeds overconfidence. If people associate screen time with casual web-surfing they may rush through without fully absorbing the text.ĭo you think you’re the exception? Most people do. It provides spatial and tactile cues to help readers process words on a page. Print is visually less demanding than digital text. I think it’s healthy for us as human beings to sit down with something that doesn’t move, ping, or call on our attention.” “And it’s a whole different kind of immersion than responding to stimuli. “ is kind of like meditation - focusing our attention on something still,” says Anne Mangen, a literacy professor at the University of Stavanger in Norway. Turns out print is easier to comprehend than digital text. Digital books have been with us for a decade - but how well are we absorbing it all? Many swapped hard copy textbooks and worksheets for websites and other digital resources. During the coronavirus pandemic, students worldwide shifted from the classroom to remote, online learning.
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