Email has improved communication between friends and family. Cell phones have improved safety and communication in families. Store scanners, surveillance equipment, GPS and safety features on automobiles have improved our lives. Laptops in schools allow students to create amazing projects. However, reading a book on a computer may not be one of those improvements.
Norwegian Researchers Say Books Are Better Than Computers
Holding a book and turning the pages allows individuals to have an experience with the book. It also helps with attention spans. The scrolling and clicking that is necessary to read a book on a computer is distracting. The reader is more likely to remember information read from a book and less likely to remember if read on a computer screen. Technology does not improve everything in our lives.
Anne Mangen, associate professor at the Center for Reading Research at the University of Stavanger in Norway, believes that the physical appearance of a book offers tranquillity to the reader. "Several experiments in cognitive psychology have shown how a change of physical surroundings has a potentially negative affect on memory. Technology provides for a number of dynamic, mobile and ephemeral forms of learning, but little is known about how such mobility and transience influence the effect of teaching. Learning requires time and mental exertion and the new media do not provide for that," Mangen believes. [ScienceDaily, December 22, 2008]
Paper Wins Over The Screen
Swedish researchers believe that reading on paper is better. The navigation required reading a book on a computer distracts from the written word. Reading a book promotes better understanding than reading from a screen. Mangen also believes that when text is not perfectly adapted to the computer screen, the reader struggles to maintain attention. This can lead to increased problems with comprehension.
Hypertext Stories Decrease Comprehension
Mangen is most critical of hypertext stories. These works use hypertexts, video, sound, and pictures embedded into the text. These stories resemble a computer game more than a written work. Mangen states, "The most important difference is when the text becomes digital. Then it loses its physical dimension, which is special to the book, and the reader loses his feeling of totality."
Mangen is especially interested in the relationship between motor functions and attention. The more a reader must do to continue with the reading experience, the more potential there will be to lose comprehension and more opportunities to abandon reading and move on to something else.
Sources:
"Storybooks On Paper Better For Children Than Reading Fiction On Computer Screen, According to Expert" ScienceDaily.com, December 22, 2008.
Anne Mangen’s work, "Digital fiction reading: Haptics and immersion," is published in the Journal of Research in Reading, 2008.
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