The inattentive on-screen reading: Reading medium affects attention and reading comprehension under time pressure

Abstract

This study explored the influence of reading media and reading time-frame on readers' on-task attention, metacognitive calibration, and reading comprehension. One hundred and forty undergraduates were allocated to one of four experimental conditions varying on the reading medium (in print vs. on screen) and on the reading time-frame (free vs. pressured time). Readers' mindwandering while reading, prediction of performance on a comprehension test, and their text comprehension were measured. In-print readers, but not on-screen readers, mindwandered less on the pressured than in the free time condition, indicating higher task adaptation in print. Accordingly, on-screen readers in the pressured condition comprehended less than the other three groups. Mindwandering and text comprehension were similar under free reading time regardless of medium. Lastly, there were no differences in readers’ metacognitive calibration. The results support the hypothesis of shallow information processing when reading on screen under time constraints.

Strategic Text Processing Across Mediums: A Verbal Protocol Study

“…In addition, we expected that among the participants who were asked to think aloud, participants reading in print would differ from those reading digitally with respect to strategic text processing, particularly with respect to deeper level strategies as revealed by inferences assumed to support mental model construction (e.g., backward, forward, and elaborative inferences; van den Broek, Fletcher, & Risden, 1993). We also grounded this hypothesis in the shallowing hypothesis (Annisette & Lafreniere, 2017) and prior empirical work consistent with this hypothesis (e.g., Ackerman & Goldsmith, 2011;Dahan Golan et al, 2018;Delgado & Salmerón, 2021;Halamish & Elbaz, 2020;Latini et al, 2020), which suggested that a lack of deep reading and, hence, more reliance on superficial text processing when reading on-screen is responsible for observed reading medium differences in comprehension performance. How ever, this is the first study to directly test the shallowing hypothesis by examining qualitatively different forms of text processing across the two reading mediums.…”

“…This difference was based on piloting of the materials, which indicated that a time limit of eight minutes would allow all students to read the entire text and that the average additional time used to think aloud was approximately seven minutes. These time limits were intended to make participants in all conditions experience a certain time pressure because reading medium effects have been found to be more pronounced when reading times are restricted (Delgado et al, 2018; see also Delgado & Salmerón, 2021).…”

Media Multitasking: A Bibliometric Approach and Literature Review

“…As suggested by the shallowing hypothesis, a frequent use of digital media fosters shallow thought and decreases people's tendency to use reflective thought (Annisette and Lafreniere, 2017 ). This way of thinking is often induced by time constraints as studies have shown lower reading comprehension and less successful problem solving on screen when participants faced time pressure (e.g., Sidi et al, 2017 ; Delgado and Salmerón, 2021 ). In addition, people who often use social media tend to prefer morally shallow life goals such as hedonism and image over goals related to morality and aesthetics.…”

The influence of language learner’s Buddhist background on non-native written language processing

“…The massive information flow, being the result of digitalization, has been instigating fragmentary understanding of written language and poor consolidation of the received information (cf. Delgado, Salmerón, 2021;Kekeeva, Darzhinova, Abdiraimova, 2020).…”