FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  May 29, 2024
CONTACT:  Patricia Lamiell, lamiell@tc.columbia.edu

NEW YORK, NY — Amid continuing debates about the best ways to support children’s developing reading skills, educational neuroscientists at Teachers College, Columbia University have found the first evidence that children’s brains process written texts more deeply when they are presented in print rather than on a digital screen.

For their study, published in the journal PLOS One on May 22, Teachers College Associate Professor Karen Froud, Lecturer Dr. Lisa Levinson, Research Scientist Dr. Chaille Maddox, and doctoral candidate Paul Smith ’26 conducted brain imaging of 59 middle-schoolers from the New York metropolitan area. After reading different text passages on a laptop and on a printed page, test participants were directed to read words that were related or unrelated to the meaning of the passages.

Following the reading of print text, brain activations – measured using high-density electroencephalography, or HD-EEG – revealed that children had more effectively elaborated their representations of text meanings, and were therefore more able to draw connections with new concepts. The representations of text meanings were less richly elaborated following reading on-screen, and the children’s brains had to work harder to build meaningful connections. These differences between printed and digital texts provide intriguing evidence that medium of presentation matters for depth of processing at the level of the brain. 

The pandemic years have been a time of unprecedented disruption to our educational systems, and the consequences for students are still not fully understood. Amid pre-existing doubts about the impact of digital media on the development of reading and related skills, children and educators were abruptly forced into online instruction. Even more of students’ engagement with text, at all levels, is now through various digital devices. Educators are being challenged to understand how reading comprehension and learning are changing in the age of digital information, and to adapt their approaches accordingly.

But as calls for evidence-based education continue, there remains a lack of consensus about the pros and cons of reading on the printed page vs. screen. 

Against this background, Teachers College neuroscientists set out to ask questions of primary importance for educators, parents and policy-makers: Is reading through digital media a hindrance to the level of engagement needed for deep reading? How does digital reading affect text understanding, the retention of content, and depth of information processing? And, how does the brain handle these differing demands?

“Learning to read is such a crucial skill for engaging in school, and society. If we can understand more deeply how this profoundly human skill is mastered, we can help children and teachers to make more effective use of different media for information processing and retention,” said Froud, lead author of the study as well as Principal Investigator for the Neurocognition of Language Lab at Teachers College, and Director of the Program in Neuroscience and Education at Teachers College.

“Neuroscience provides methods to explore the intricate brain processes that contribute to reading. This allows us to understand the underlying mechanisms rather than just observing reading behavior itself, which is the outcome of many interacting processes. By recording brain activations, it is possible to identify subtle distinctions in depth of processing between texts that are presented on computer screens and those presented on paper. Observations like this can help to determine how children’s brains are affected by the medium of presentation, and enhance understanding of changes in literacy skill in an increasingly digital world.” 

To conduct their study, the authors used high-density electrode arrays placed on the children’s heads to monitor their brain activations in response to reading tasks. First, the researchers developed sample texts that were carefully balanced for linguistic complexity, all containing factual subject matter that could typically be encountered by 10-12-year-olds during their average daily schooling. Then, they developed lists of words that could easily be processed by the children, but that represented different “meaning distances” from the texts: close, medium, and unrelated. Children’s brain activations were monitored as they read the texts and then evaluated the meanings of the words. Finally, the authors reviewed the brain responses to determine which categories of words required greater neural resources to process. 

Key Findings Include:

• Digital text presentation is associated with shallower processing: When texts were presented on a screen, the children’s brain responses, captured using electroencephalography (EEG), all showed that words at a “medium” distance from the passage meanings were as tough to process as words that were not related to the passage at all.
• A “Print Advantage” for deeper processing of information: When texts were presented on a printed page, the children’s brain responses revealed on average that they could more easily make connections between what they had just read and both closely and distantly-related words. This finding indicates that the meaning networks built during print reading are richer and deeper than those established during digital reading.
• Value of Different Media for Different Tasks: Textbooks, articles, stories – all are essential learning materials, and all might be presented in printed or on-screen formats. It is valuable for students to be able to process written information in both media. For deep processing, the printed page has an advantage at the level of the brain. But there is also a place for shallower processing of information, and that could be best supported through on-screen presentations. 

“The crucial thing is that teachers know what the different approaches can do, what they are most useful for, and how to most effectively use the tools at their disposal,” Froud said. “Our findings suggest that there are distinct roles for different media during instruction. We plan additional work to understand more about how various media can support children at different stages of reading skill development, and those with diverse needs.”

About Teachers College, Columbia University
Founded in 1887, Teachers College, Columbia University, the first and largest graduate school of education in the United States, is perennially ranked among the nation’s best. Teachers College’s mission is to create a smarter, healthier, and more equitable and peaceful world. Teachers College engages in research and prepares professionals in its three main areas of expertise—education, health and psychology—to work with public and private entities in local, national and global communities and inform public policy. Students choose from among 150 separate programs to earn graduate degrees, which are conferred by Columbia University. While it is closely affiliated with Columbia University and collaborates with it on many programs, the College is an independent, autonomous institution with a separate, independent governing board, president, and financial endowment.