Books or gadgets: scientists have investigated which reading format is better perceived by children
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Reading printed materials contributes to six to eight times better understanding of what is read, compared to texts in electronic format.
This is evidenced by a study by scientists from the University of Valencia (Spain), published in the Review of Educational Research, writes The Guardian. They analyzed more than two dozen studies published between 2000 and 2022 that looked at reading comprehension. Their participants were almost 470,000 students.
“Comprehension of texts read digitally was close to zero. This may be due to the fact that the linguistic quality of digital texts is generally lower than printed ones.
For example, the text in social networks can be “entertaining”, without complex syntax, and therefore not encourage reasoning“, says University of Valencia professor Ladislao Salmeron.
| Photo: 6okean/Depositphotos |
Salmeron adds that thinking when reading digital texts is also more superficial than when reading printed materials. This can mean that the reader is “not completely immersed in the story”.
At the same time, the researchers did not find a negative relationship between reading texts in electronic format and reading comprehension among high school students and students.
Salmeron explains this trend by the fact that young children are less able to distance themselves from distractions – for example, messages that arrive on the device while reading.
“The ability to regulate our cognition develops in adolescence. Young children may not be fully prepared to self-regulate their activity during digital reading“, he adds.
The authors of the study also stated that young children who frequently read from digital media may be less able to increase their academic vocabulary.
“The researchers are not against digital reading, but caution that it is not as useful for comprehension as print. This is why school leaders should place more emphasis on reading print formats instead of digital formats. This especially applies to students of lower grades“, says co-author of the study Lidia Altamura.
Salmeron adds that the poor perception of information from electronic media does not depend on where it is presented: on social networks or on educational websites.
“We expected that reading educational portals would be significantly better associated with text comprehension, but our data suggest that this is not the case“, he claims.
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