One group was asked to read the two texts as PDF files on standard computer screens, the other read the texts on paper. The pupils’ individual reading skills and vocabularies had been charted beforehand, to make allowances for these variations.
The teens were then asked to answer questions that would show how well they had comprehended the text.
The results clearly demonstrated that those who had read on computer screens had understood less than those who read on paper. Perhaps surprisingly, this disparity was encountered with both the fiction and the factual prose.
Mental map; Why would this be?
An obvious difference between PC screens and paper is that paper is material. You can feel the weight, texture and thickness of a pamphlet or a book. You can see where it begins and ends. You can quickly leaf through the pages with your fingers.
This perceptible, direct experience gives you a mental map of the entire text. The brain has an easier task when you can touch as well as see.
Previous research has demonstrated that a mental map is particularly important if the text is long. Lengthy texts call for quicker navigation. You need to be able to leaf back and forth through different parts of the text to see, review and comprehend relationships and contexts.
Smooth glass
That physical experience is nearly absent when reading on a screen. You can only see a page or two at a time.
You experience the length of a text on a screen by using the scrollbar, the page number or other abstract and indirect markers.
Although tablets like iPads let you turn pages with a flick of the finger, your finger only brushes against smooth glass. The text and surface no longer comprise a tangible unit.
Paper speaks to your emotions
Comprehension is not the only thing that suffers. Paper also seems to communicate more to our emotions than a screen does, according to tests that Anne Mangen conducted recently with David Miall and Don Kuiken, who are professors of literature and psychology respectively at the University of Alberta in Canada.
They compared reading of a short narrative text on an iPad with reading it on paper. The test subjects who read on paper became more deeply involved with the story than those who read it on the tablet. These results are so fresh they haven’t been published yet.
Velay is known for research that shows that writing by hand activates other parts of the brain than typing on a keyboard.
Body and mind belong together
The findings open doors to essential insights with a rather classical bent: Mind and body are interlinked. This age-old understanding is getting increasing attention among neurologists, psychologists and philosophers.
Studies show that our brains don’t work like computers. We don’t sense things, then process the sensory perceptions afterwards.
On the contrary, there is a much greater and closer connection between what we sense and do with our bodies and what we understand.
The researchers want to find out how touching a book and a tablet affects the experience.
Is it a mistake for our schools to trade textbooks for reading tablets and PCs?
Mangen , the researcher thinks that educators shouldn’t decide to get rid of paper based on a blind faith in digital technology.
(Article source:sciencenordic.com)
(Pictures source:unsplash.com)
