At 2:45 PM -0500 9/7/07, Jeffrey Nagelbush wrote:
This reminds me of a project I supervised for a high school student a number of years ago in which she had other students read an essay either on paper or on the computer. She then tested their comprehension of what they read. The passage they read was fairly short and no difference in comprehension was found, but there was one striking difference. Every student who read the paper version finished reading before the first student who had the computer version finished reading. If this is a generalizable result it might partially explain why students read less from the electronic textbook. It was taking longer to read and they got tired/bored.
Basically, even a good computer screen has no place near the resolution of a good printed text. This technical limitation explains why reading from a computer screen is more difficult and time consuming, and thus a less efficient way to study. In another decade or two this may not be true, but for now books are still better!
-- The best argument against intelligent design is that people believe in it. * PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Psychology Department 507-389-6217 * * 23 Armstrong Hall Minnesota State University, Mankato * * http://krypton.mnsu.edu/~pkbrando/ * ---
