Study shows readers absorb less information when reading on a Kindle
Researchers at Stavanger University in Norway have found that people tend to absorb less information when reading on a Kindle versus printed paper. After being asked to read a short story written by Elizabeth George, people using a Kindle performed significantly worse on a test that measured plot reconstruction than did those that read the same story from a printed paperback book. The team has not published their results yet but did present what they've found to a group at a conference in Italy recently.
As ebooks become more popular, scientists (and educators) have begun to wonder if the experience a reader gets from reading using an electronic device is different from that experienced by those reading words printed on paper—or more specifically, if the experience is better or worse. The team at Stavanger asked fifty people to read a 28 page short story, and then to take a test afterwards to see...