What parents need to know
Reading on screen leads to more shallow processing and can hinder comprehension. Crucially, students were unaware of their reading behavior and didn’t reflect on how the medium affected them. Your child doesn’t realize screens are making them worse readers.
Full Citation
Jensen, K.H., Roe, A., & Blikstad-Balas, M. (2024). The smell of paper or the shine of a screen? Students’ reading comprehension, text processing, and attitudes when reading on paper and screen. Computers & Education, 213, 105107.
Publication Type
Peer-reviewed research article published in Computers & Education
What They Studied
University of Oslo researchers examined Norwegian students’ reading comprehension, processing strategies, and metacognitive awareness when reading identical texts on paper versus screens. The study investigated not just whether comprehension differed, but whether students were aware of any differences and how they adapted their reading strategies to different mediums.
Key Findings
- “Reading on screen leads to more shallow processing and can hinder reading comprehension”
- “Students were unaware of their reading behavior and didn’t reflect much on reading in different medium”
- Students don’t recognize that they’re processing text differently on screens
- Without this awareness, students can’t compensate for or correct the shallow processing patterns screens induce
- The metacognitive blindness is concerning: students believe they’re reading equally effectively regardless of medium
- Students don’t take screen reading as seriously as paper reading, even when texts are equally important
- The automatic shift to shallow processing on screens happens without conscious awareness or intent
- This means simply telling students to “focus more” on screens is unlikely to be effective – the shallow processing is triggered by the medium itself
- The Oslo research adds international replication to the body of evidence on reading medium effects
- For parents, the key implication is that children won’t self-report that screens are affecting their reading – they genuinely don’t notice
- Teachers and parents need to make medium decisions for students, as students can’t reliably evaluate this themselves
