Physical Books, E-Books, and Retention
by Matthew Alfs, M.H., R.H., Author
Copyright 2017 by Matthew Alfs. All Rights Reserved
With the advent of digital publishing, virtual books—often called “e-books”—seem to have become all the rage. Yet, how do they stack up against physical books?
A recent survey from the Pew Research Center demonstrated that while e-books are gaining in popularity, only 23% of 2,252 Americans aged 16 or older had read a book on a tablet or e-reader over the last year, compared to 67% who had read a physical book.
While one might suspect that college students would prefer e-books to physical books as textbooks, a recent survey of college students by Direct Textbook revealed just the opposite: According to that study, 72% of respondents preferred a physical textbook over an e-book, stating that they like to highlight the text, that print text-books are easier to read and that e-readers make their eyes hurt, and that they can’t focus or concentrate when reading e-books like they can when reading printed books. (https://campustechnology.com/articles...)
Perhaps this preference is also because students sense what a 2014 trial of 50 graduate students revealed: that reading a physical book fostered better retention than reading an e-book! But why would this the case? One of the chief trial researchers, Anne Mangen PhD from Norway’s Stavanger University, found that the physical act of turning a page and of sensing the pile of pages to one’s right and one’s left somehow cemented the book’s information into a reader’s brain. (See https://www.shoppersbase.com/thinking....)
This aspect of retention is why I continue to write books with the intention of having them physically published: I want my readers to most effectively retain the information they glean from my books. It is also why I will never buy an e-reader, but continue to add physical books to my 4,000+-vol. home library and my several-hundred-volume working library at my clinical office.
I simply want to perpetuate what James Russell Lowell said so well: "Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind."
Copyright 2017 by Matthew Alfs. All Rights Reserved
With the advent of digital publishing, virtual books—often called “e-books”—seem to have become all the rage. Yet, how do they stack up against physical books?
A recent survey from the Pew Research Center demonstrated that while e-books are gaining in popularity, only 23% of 2,252 Americans aged 16 or older had read a book on a tablet or e-reader over the last year, compared to 67% who had read a physical book.
While one might suspect that college students would prefer e-books to physical books as textbooks, a recent survey of college students by Direct Textbook revealed just the opposite: According to that study, 72% of respondents preferred a physical textbook over an e-book, stating that they like to highlight the text, that print text-books are easier to read and that e-readers make their eyes hurt, and that they can’t focus or concentrate when reading e-books like they can when reading printed books. (https://campustechnology.com/articles...)
Perhaps this preference is also because students sense what a 2014 trial of 50 graduate students revealed: that reading a physical book fostered better retention than reading an e-book! But why would this the case? One of the chief trial researchers, Anne Mangen PhD from Norway’s Stavanger University, found that the physical act of turning a page and of sensing the pile of pages to one’s right and one’s left somehow cemented the book’s information into a reader’s brain. (See https://www.shoppersbase.com/thinking....)
This aspect of retention is why I continue to write books with the intention of having them physically published: I want my readers to most effectively retain the information they glean from my books. It is also why I will never buy an e-reader, but continue to add physical books to my 4,000+-vol. home library and my several-hundred-volume working library at my clinical office.
I simply want to perpetuate what James Russell Lowell said so well: "Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind."
No comments have been added yet.
