Care Courses Blog

In today’s dig­i­tal world, it can be easy to assume that screens are the most effi­cient way to access infor­ma­tion. How­ev­er, when it comes to read­ing and tru­ly under­stand­ing what we read, research con­tin­ues to show that print mate­ri­als offer dis­tinct cog­ni­tive advantages—especially for deep, focused learning.

For ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tors, who are con­stant­ly learn­ing and sup­port­ing oth­ers’ learn­ing, this is par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant to know.

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The Science Behind the Benefits of Reading Print Books

Read­ing on paper isn’t just about per­son­al preference—it’s about how our brains process infor­ma­tion. In fact, stud­ies from fields like psy­chol­o­gy, neu­ro­science, and edu­ca­tion sug­gest that when peo­ple read print­ed text, they tend to under­stand and remem­ber more than when they read the same mate­r­i­al digitally.

Key find­ings include:

• Improved com­pre­hen­sion and recall: Research from Norway’s Uni­ver­si­ty of Sta­vanger found that stu­dents who read on paper per­formed bet­ter on com­pre­hen­sion tests than peers who read dig­i­tal­ly. Notably, the phys­i­cal­i­ty of books helps us track progress and locate infor­ma­tion more easily.
• Less cog­ni­tive strain: Stud­ies show that dig­i­tal read­ing often tax­es work­ing mem­o­ry and atten­tion. Scrolling, screen glare, and pop-ups may require extra men­tal effort, leav­ing few­er resources for actu­al­ly under­stand­ing the content.
• Deep­er men­tal engage­ment: When read­ing print­ed text, peo­ple are more like­ly to use metacog­ni­tive strategies—like re-read­ing, set­ting goals, or paus­ing to reflect. As a result, under­stand­ing and reten­tion sig­nif­i­cant­ly improve.

As Sci­en­tif­ic Amer­i­can writer Fer­ris Jabr explains, the brain treats let­ters as phys­i­cal objects and maps out texts as if nav­i­gat­ing a land­scape. For instance, when read­ing a book, we instinc­tive­ly remem­ber where in the text we saw something—such as the top of the left-hand page. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, this sense of ori­en­ta­tion is far hard­er to achieve on a screen.

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Physical Interaction Supports Learning

There’s also some­thing impor­tant about the tac­tile expe­ri­ence of read­ing print. Turn­ing pages, under­lin­ing text, and writ­ing in margins—all these phys­i­cal inter­ac­tions help anchor what we read in memory.

In con­trast, dig­i­tal read­ing often feels more fleet­ing. We scroll through words with­out the same sense of spa­tial or phys­i­cal progression.

Read­ers also report feel­ing more in con­trol when read­ing print. You can flip back to an ear­li­er sec­tion, skip ahead, or sim­ply pause and reflect—all with­out click­ing or swip­ing. Not only are these behav­iors sat­is­fy­ing, but they also sup­port stronger com­pre­hen­sion and deep­er engagement.

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What This Means for Early Childhood Educators

As edu­ca­tors, we under­stand the impor­tance of deep, focused learn­ing. Whether we’re read­ing pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment mate­ri­als or sup­port­ing chil­dren in their ear­ly lit­er­a­cy jour­neys, it’s worth con­sid­er­ing how the medi­um affects the message.

Books remain pow­er­ful learn­ing tools—not just for nostalgia’s sake, but because our brains are still wired to inter­act with them in mean­ing­ful ways. Choos­ing print over dig­i­tal can enhance com­pre­hen­sion, help read­ers stay engaged longer, and improve mem­o­ry reten­tion. These are just a few of the many ben­e­fits of read­ing print books.

Looking for More Ways to Support Your Learning?

Print­ed resources can be an excel­lent tool.  Don’t under­es­ti­mate the ben­e­fits of going back to the basics with a good old-fash­ioned book. Some­times, the sim­plest meth­ods are still the most powerful.

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Ref­er­ences

1. Jabr, F. (2013). The Read­ing Brain in the Dig­i­tal Age: The Sci­ence of Paper ver­sus Screens. Sci­en­tif­ic Amer­i­can. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/
2. Jar­o­dz­ka, H., van der Helden, J., & Tram­per, J. (2018). Learn­ing from paper, learn­ing from screens: Impact of screen read­ing behav­iour and sup­port design on read­ing and learn­ing out­comes. Com­put­ers & Edu­ca­tion, 123, 43–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.04.010
3. Man­gen, A., & Velay, J. L. (2010). Read­ing lin­ear texts on paper ver­sus com­put­er screen: Effects on read­ing com­pre­hen­sion. Inter­na­tion­al Jour­nal of Edu­ca­tion­al Research, 49(2–3), 107–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2010.03.005
4. Gawande, A. (2014). E‑Book Read­ing and Its Impact on Aca­d­e­m­ic Libraries. Library Phi­los­o­phy and Prac­tice. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/1173/
5. More­head, Kay­la & Dun­losky, John & Raw­son, Kather­ine & Blasi­man, Rachael & Hol­lis, R.. (2019). Note-tak­ing habits of 21st Cen­tu­ry col­lege stu­dents: impli­ca­tions for stu­dent learn­ing, mem­o­ry, and achieve­ment. Mem­o­ry. 27. 1–12. 10.1080/09658211.2019.1569694.
6. Fitzsim­mons, G., Mcgillivray, M. A., & Bouch­er, L. M. (2019). Read­ing from paper com­pared to screens: A sys­tem­at­ic review and meta-analy­sis. Jour­nal of Research in Read­ing, 42(2), 288–325. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467–9817.12269
7. Mar­golin, L. H., Driscoll, M. S., & Toland, K. L. (2013). Com­pre­hen­sion and work­load dif­fer­ences for VDT and paper-based read­ing. Inter­na­tion­al Jour­nal of Indus­tri­al Ergonom­ics, 43(4), 336–344. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ergon.2013.02.002
8. Kosta­gi­o­las, P. A., Aggelopoulou, V. A., Niakas, D. A., & Tsili­giri, I. V. (2018). An Inves­ti­ga­tion into Stu­dents’ Pref­er­ence for E‑books and Print Books in a High­er Edu­ca­tion Insti­tu­tion. Elec­tron­ic Jour­nal of Aca­d­e­m­ic and Spe­cial Librar­i­an­ship, 19(1), 1–13. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1318666.pdf
9. Chang, S., & Hsieh, C. (2018). Print Ver­sus Dig­i­tal: Under­stand­ing the Accep­tance of Schol­ar­ly Arti­cles in Aca­d­e­m­ic Libraries. Jour­nal of Library Admin­is­tra­tion, 58(2), 138–156. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1266161.pdf