Students have lower reading comprehension when scrolling text online than they do when reading printed material, according to a recent study by Arizona State University and University of Illinois researchers Christopher Sanchez and Jennifer Wiley, published in the journal Human Factors.
The report, "To Scroll or Not to Scroll: Scrolling, Working Memory Capacity, and Comprehending Complex Texts," described how two groups of 20 students each wrote essays after reading passages in printed or scrolled formats. Those reading the scrolled versions had poorer comprehension of the material.
"Quite simply, scrolling means that all information does not fit in a single screen, and information 'overflows' off the screen out of immediate view," the study says.
According to the abstract, "These findings show that the way text is presented can interact with learner abilities to affect learning outcomes." These results "have implications for both educational technology and human interfaces that present information using displays that can vary in size and construction."
Of particular interest is the increasing use of smaller hand-held devices that may make the phenomenon even worse. The authors state that more research is needed to examine the educational implications. If comprehension declines measurably in other studies, it may hold back the movement toward electronic textbooks as a means to control costs.
The entire study is available online here.
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