Research: readers remember less of a story when reading on e-readers

Readers who read a book on an e-reader remember less of the plot than readers who read the same story in a paper book, according to European scientists who researched reading behavior on the two media.

In the survey, a group of 50 readers read a 28-page short story by author Elizabeth George. Half used a Kindle e-reader to read the text, while the other half absorbed the story through a paperback. Readers were then questioned about such things as the plot, characters, structure and various scenes, The Guardian reports.

The research shows that both groups broadly explain the story in the same way, but Kindle readers find it significantly more difficult to reconstruct the plot than readers who read a normal book. This would appear by having the reader arrange fourteen events in the story in the correct order. Kindle users underperformed.

One possible cause would be the ‘physical feedback’ provided by a book. For example, the number of pages read makes the reader feel how far he has progressed in a book, which is impossible on an e-reader. This feedback would also allow readers of a paper book to better focus on the story being told. An earlier Norwegian study among primary school pupils also showed that the level of reading comprehension with printed texts is on average higher than with reading the same text in PDF form on a computer screen.

Together with their research publishers, the researchers say they want to provide guidance on the question of which form is best used for a certain text: print or digital. Education can also benefit from the findings.