A Comparison of Reading On-line and Paper Documents

This systematic literature review was undertaken primarily to examine the role that print and digitally mediums play in text comprehension. Overall, results suggest that medium plays an influential role under certain text or task conditions or for certain readers. Additional goals were to identify how researchers defined and measured comprehension, and the various trends that have emerged over the past 25 years, since Dillon's review. Analysis showed that relatively few researchers defined either reading or digital reading, and that the majority of studies relied on researcher-developed measures. Three types of trends were identified in this body of work: incremental (significant increase; e.g., number of studies conducted, variety of digital devices used), stationary (relative stability; e.g., research setting, chose of participants), and iterative (wide fluctuation; e.g., text length, text manipulations). The review concludes by considering the significance of these findings for future empirical research on reading in print or digital mediums.

De stralende lezer. Wetenschappelijk onderzoek naar de invloed van het lezen, Ed. Frank Hakemulder, 2011

This article investigates the influence new technologies might have on ways we read and understand literature in the age of electronic media, specifically in terms of interacting with digital interfaces. As a number of media and communication theorists suggest, electronic media bring about the way we use and understand texts, what in turn has an impact on our thinking. An experiment was designed in order to test whether electronic interface affects literary processing in terms of attention, interest and understanding. Additionally, readers’ performance was compared to their personal preferences for reading on screen or in print. Participants read a short story and were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: reading the story from a computer screen or in print. They were asked to underline striking passages while reading, and to fill out a questionnaire afterwards. Contrary to popular belief, results suggested that reading from screen versus reading in print do not yield significant differences.

2001

With the computer being more integrated into daily life, more and more people need to read online information. Online information is often formatted in a similar fashion to printed information. But are they similar in their effectiveness? The present study investigates the effect of information format on user's preference and reading time when people read online information or printed information. The study tested one, two and threecolumn formats. This study involved forty two participants from three main adult age groups: young (18-40 years), middle-aged (40-65 years) and seniors (65+ years). The overall mean age was 50.0 years (S.D. = 20.44 years). Participants were divided into two reading groups: online and on paper. A balanced number of participants from each age group was assigned to each reading treatment. There was no significant difference in the reading speed and preference between different column formats. In agreement with findings from previous studies, reading on paper was 10-30% faster than reading online. The paper concludes with suggestions to designers of online information. As previous studies showed, some action needs to be taken to improve reading speed, such as using bigger font size or high contrast between the text and the background.

Proceedings of the Human Factors and …, 2001

This paper presents the results of an experiment measuring the difference of reading speed and preference when reading on paper or screen. Extending previous experiments on the topic of reading speed measurements, which usually concentrate in specific age groups, in this experiment, forty two participants from across the adult life span took part in reading on computer screen or on paper. Results are in agreement with previous studies, which showed that reading from paper is significantly faster (around 10-30%) than reading from screen. No significant differences in terms of reading speed and preference among the three information layouts (one-column, two-column and threecolumn formats) used in this experiment were found.

Proceedings of The Asist Annual Meeting, 2005

The purpose of this study was to examine the navigational patterns of graduate students' text markings when they interact with electronic documents during an active reading process, thus taking on the role of authors. The readings took place in two settings, private and document sharing, where in the latter environment each document was shared among a group of students. The resulting interaction was monitored and electronically logged for each of these environments, which then provided us with user-navigational patterns taxonomy. Descriptive and statistical tests were carried out on the activities observed within this taxonomy to develop a framework for comparing the reading patterns for readers working in individual and document sharing environments. This framework was then used to obtain user feedback during the interview sessions that were held with the participants of this study. Because of our investigation, we were able to create a set of specific recommendation that system designers can use in order to create better, more intuitive, and userfriendly electronic reading and marking systems.

This paper reports the result of an experiment which tested the users' experience regarding electronic-or paper-based reading. The use of electronic means for reading is widely spread and utilized for a wider variety of tasks, including on-line or electronic reading. In addition, the development of "E-Book" has become fashion in IT industry and even been predicted to replace the conventional paper-based reading. Nevertheless, little research has been done to understand the association of user preferences between these means, in particular, with regard to Chinese environment. A qualitative performance measurement applied to 20 university students was carried out, in which recorded the user behavior and critical incidents in different reading modes based on an analysis of a videotape of reading process, in order to understand the usage of different means, as well as to monitor how people responded to various reading environments. The results showed that most people did not cope with e-based reading well. The disadvantages of paper-based reading, however, did not yet converted to advantages for e-based reading. The main barriers identified are the lower level of man-machine interactions and self-control during e-reading process. Other technical issues such as the glaze of screen, and layout and reading position were also reported. A list of recommendations was made in order to design an e-based reading device which can provide a more comfortable reading experience. Additional implications and future research directions were also discussed.

Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics, 2011

This study compares the performances of paper and electronic media during a reading task that includes frequent page turning. In the experiment, 18 subjects read multi-page documents aloud while referring to endnotes using paper, a large display, and a small display. Results revealed that reading from paper was 6.8% faster than reading from a large electronic display and 11.4% faster than reading from a small electronic display. No difference was found between scores of recognition tests of important words of documents among the three conditions, which indicates that paper is the most effective medium for people to read text speedily without reducing comprehension. Detailed analyses of the reading process show that, in the Paper condition, people perform both text reading and page-turning simultaneously. However, when using computer displays, reading and turning pages were divided completely and performed separately.

Mind, Brain, and Education, 2018

ABSTRACTThe present research aimed to determine the circumstances under which comprehension between paper and e‐readers is comparable and what role working memory plays in successful comprehension of text presented in these formats. Narrative and expository texts were presented in electronic and paper formats to determine whether readers glean different information for these text types via different presentation formats. Results indicated that comprehension for paper and electronic formats may not be equivalent. Although comprehension of thematic information presented via e‐reader was better than when reading for detail (as in expository passages), it did not lead to comprehension as successfully as printed text. In addition, removing working memory led to the disappearance of the effects of presentation method and the type of questions, suggesting that it was important for individual differences in use of the e‐reader device. Implications for the appropriate use of e‐readers are di...

Handbook of Research on Instructional Systems and Educational Technology, 2017

In the age of online textbooks and digital reading devices, the nature of active reading has changed. During active reading, learners build and analyze the materials they read by applying specific strategies, such as annotating, summarizing, and developing study guides or other artifacts in an effort to comprehend, memorize, and synthesize information. However, research suggests that as textbooks migrate to the digital space, contemporary active reading may be more accurately conceptualized as, at least in part, dependent upon the medium or the platform on which it occurs. This chapter proposes a novel perspective for understanding active reading called Multimedia Active Reading, which is empirically grounded in prior research that uncovered ways in which learner behaviors in the tablet textbook environment map to common physical active reading strategies (i.e., annotation, reorganization, browsing, and cross-referencing) and introduced and evaluated novel active reading support des...