Erik Wästlund in Scientific American
2013-12-20Erik Wästlund, Lecturer in Psychology and researcher at CTF, appears in the latest issue of the popular science magazine Scientific American. The article talks about how people easier understand and remember text on paper compared to text on a screen.
- As a part of my Ph D thesis I conducted a study where I compared reading comprehension between paper and screen. The results showed that text on paper was easier to understand. A common objection then was that “once the next generation screens are here the differences will disappear”, but even if the screens are much better today, our brains are still the same. My main point is, then as now, that you have to design the information to make it as simple as possible to enable and fulfill its purpose. To achieve this, one must start from each medium and adjust the layout accordingly. Digital publication gives fantastic opportutinites and is great in all kinds of ways, but, when it comes to reading and deep learning, it still seems as if the printed material is preferrable, says Erik Wästlund.
Erik Wästlunds Ph D thesis
Experimental studies of human-computer interaction: Working memory and mental workload in complex cognition, 2007, University of Gothenburg.