How Comprehension and Retention are Affected by the Digital

By Marcia Banks

Marcia: What do you find most fascinating about Maryanne Wolf’s research on reading?

Abigail: Maryanne Wolf’s insights are phenomenal. She wrote a book several years ago discussing the “biliterate (reading) brain”, the idea that it’s crucial for children to learn to read both online and on paper because these skills serve different purposes and fulfill different needs. Reading on paper is typically about understanding and comprehension, while reading online is more for quick information.

Marcia: Why do you think there’s such a difference?

Abigail: It’s partly because our brains do not process digital and paper sources in the same way. The brain processes physical and digital materials differently.  When you read on paper, you naturally slow down, which aids in comprehension. Online reading tends to be faster, often more superficial, and geared toward gathering information. There’s also the issue of scrolling online: your eyes move quickly, which reduces comprehension and memory retention. But if you want just information, then online is just fine.

Marcia: Does that difference apply to reading on a tablet too?

Abigail: A tablet can be somewhat better than a computer for reading for comprehension because you are not constantly scrolling. But it still lacks an important reading experience: turning the page. Reading on my Kindle, for example, allows me to jump back to previous pages, though it’s not as intuitive as with a physical book. With a traditional book, I recently found myself flipping back to a map several times to understand historical context, something much harder to do on a tablet.

Marcia: Would children raised reading online find books tedious to stay with?

Abigail: Absolutely. Kids who start reading on the internet, on screens, often find books too slow, and they can get bored quickly. We have to remember that our brains are not naturally trained to get involved in the words on paper book. There is no ready-made genetic program for learning to read. The brain must create new circuits.  It is essential to help children bridge the gap between the two ways of reading. My feeling, though Maryanne Wolf never says this, is that one of the ways we can shift gears with children, particularly with boys, is to put them into graphic novels. Graphic novels will provide the quickness of the screen while still offering real words on a page.

Marcia: Do graphic novels help because kids slow down and pay attention to the pictures?

Abigail: Exactly. They will look at the pictures, so it seems like it’s faster, but in fact, they’re absorbing information from the pictures as well. If we’re aiming for a biliterate (reading) child, they also need to be literate in handwriting. I still remember watching first graders in your school learning cursive; it was remarkable. Writing in cursive is quicker and more fluid than printing. I recall a study where university students taking notes on laptops were monitored with EEGs. It revealed that, for many students, the signals went from their eyes to their fingers without engaging the memory circuits. So, here they were, taking notes they couldn’t remember later.

Marcia: Getting away from the differences between reading online and traditional paper reading, you are saying that you retain more if you write down notes instead of typing them?

Abigail: Yes. They looked at people who printed notes versus those who wrote in cursive. They found that cursive note-taking can enhance memory retention and deepen engagement with the material. Everyone needs to learn to write. Writing in cursive engages the brain differently from typing or printing. We know that typing does not engage the brain with the same level of cognitive interaction as handwriting does. Research shows that university students who take handwritten notes, especially in cursive, retain information better. Typing, in contrast, often bypasses the memory circuits. So, there’s value in teaching children cursive, even in a digital age.

Marcia: Handwriting notes creates a stronger connection to the content?

Abigail: Exactly. With cursive, you’re more connected to the page. Studies consistently show that writing by hand aids in comprehension and memory.

Marcia: Returning to our understanding of the reading brain, Maryanne Wolf emphasizes the importance of learning to read traditional texts even as our reliance on digital technology grows. Correct?

Abigail: Certainly. The digital world is here to stay, so kids need to know how to use both formats effectively. We need to teach students to use each style purposefully. Reading in both ways meets different needs, and we need to do them both.

Marcia: What does Maryanne Wolf say about reading to children out of books versus using tablets?

Abigail: Maryanne Wolf says we need to read to young children from a book, not a tablet. There’s something essential in turning the pages, understanding left-to-right reading, and experiencing a tangible book. Wolf emphasizes that humans weren’t originally designed to read; it’s an acquired skill that requires training.

Marcia: Why is reading from a physical book better for kids?

Abigail: It’s partly about familiarity. If children see their parents reading from a book, they’re more likely to understand the structure and approach books the same way. Kids build vocabulary, engage in storytelling, and develop language skills differently with books than with tablets.

Marcia: You mentioned that humans weren’t designed to read. Can you elaborate?

Abigail: Yes, as Maryanne Wolf points out, the human brain wasn’t naturally wired for reading. Reading is a relatively recent development—just six millennia since we began putting scratches down on the ground and making them into something we can read. Reading requires us to sit still, focus, and process symbols visually, which is far from what our brains evolved to do. I’ve been asked, if we aren’t naturally wired for reading, what were we meant to do? I say we were meant to tell stories, to connect through spoken words and shared narratives. Yet, as Maryanne Wolf points out, “The problems are that there are many things that would be lost if we slowly lose the cognitive patience to immerse ourselves in the worlds created by books and the lives of feelings of the friends who inhabit them”.(Page 46) Reading from a book requires cognitive patience. What I find is that if you do not learn to read from a book, you do not develop cognitive patience.That’s what we’ve got to teach kids because when they go online, yes, they get the information, but they don’t have the cognitive patience to understand what it is they’re reading. They’re just looking at the words. And I think this is a problem that we have in the world at the moment. 

Marcia: Cognitive patience?

Abigail: It is about the ability to slow down your thinking so that you can actually understand what’s happening, to read with focus and sustained attention, avoiding from multitasking or skimming over parts of a text. I think this is also true with writing. For instance, I can type 80 to 85 words a minute. I cannot write nearly that many. So my impatience wants me to type, but then I run out of ideas. If I handwrite my ideas, the act of handwriting means that I’m thinking at the same time of what I am writing, and it’s a totally different process.

Marcia: We can have cognitive patience when reading a paper book but have less of it if reading online?

Abigail: Definitely. When reading from a book, you develop “cognitive patience,” a deeper form of engagement and comprehension. This quality often gets lost in digital reading, where kids move quickly but lack the patience to immerse fully in the material. In digital contexts, you may absorb facts, but you miss out on the nuance.

Marcia: Many university textbooks are usinig electronic versions. Can I assume there are going to be some comprehension issues, while the students may believe they are reading with understanding?

Abigail: The students reading the electronic versions of their textbooks are going to get the facts, they’re going to get the words, they’re going to get the basics, but they’re not going to understand the nuances. They’re not going to understand how things interrelate. As I said to my students last night, “That’s what I’m trying to do for you because you’re reading this textbook online. What I’m trying to do is to get you to understand how all this information connects.” One of my students said, “In the days when we all had textbooks, what would you be doing?” And I said, “We’d be moving faster and further. We’d be deeper into this information more than I can expect you all to do.” I find that, years ago, when I first started teaching psychology at the boy school, everybody had a textbook. They understood it at a level that my present college level students don’t. And I think it’s not just my class, it’s years of using the electronic book. 

Marcia: Let’s go back to reading to young children out of book.

Abigail: Maryanne Wolf said one of the reasons you read to your children, is that you expose them to words they never hear in other places. You read to children because you can read at a level they can’t read for themselves but that they can understand. Now everybody who’s read to their children knows that you always are reading a little bit ahead of their ability to actually physically read. But why? That’s because you’re giving them language and ways of speaking so that when they get up to reading at a higher level, those particular phrases and ways of reading and writing, will be understandable. It is also about the questions you ask during the story and afterwards, the discussions. With a book, there are pictures, you turn the pages, you can go back and revisit, spend time looking at the pictures. A physical book provides spatial and tactile cues to help readers process words on a page. Why do I need to read to my child? Because you are helping the child develop cognitive patience. You are teaching them how a book works. When children go to school and they have not been read to from a book, they do not understand the concepts of top to bottom, left to right, turn the pages right to left. When you see these children in kindergarten, with a paper book, they are all over the place with a book. They do not know how to find information in a book. They do not know what the numbers at the bottom of the page mean. Yes, they may get pieces of information, but they are not going to be able to link them together. They are not going to understand what those pieces of information mean and how they can be used in other ways. Unless you learn to read on a page, you cannot slow down enough to see how these pieces fit together, you are not going to understand and comprehend properly. The digital is simply too fast.

Marcia: I often remember on what side of the page, top or bottom where I can find a photo, a piece of information I read. I don’t think of being able to do so when I read a text on line.

Abigail: Yes, years ago, my students would say they could not remember the answer but it is on the left side of the page under the picture and the end of… When we read, our brains construct a cognitive map of the text. But you cannot do that with online reading. The landmarks move. That particular place knowledge is gone. What you hear is people saying, “I read it somewhere, but I don’t know where.” It’s harder to map words that aren’t in a fixed location.

Marcia: How does the experience of navigating digital information impact how we retain and prioritize what we read?

Abigail: When I am looking for research, I do it online. I’m looking at studies that have been digitized and I can do that quickly. I can quickly decide whether I am interested in the research, or not, and if not, move it away. When I find one I think may be interesting I’ll save it to my computer and then go back to that one and read it as if I am reading on a page. I am not going to waste the paper to print it off, but I am going to look at it while sitting on my hands so I do not scroll. I have the skills to read the article that way because I started on a book. I know how to slow down. I can read and comprehend at that reading level because I am biliterate. I have learned to read both ways. If I really need the study I downloaded then I will print it and can do all the things I want to do for better understanding, such as highlighting what I need.

Marcia: It sounds like the biliterate approach, mastering both digital and paper reading, is essential for future learning.

Abigail: As well as writing. Absolutely. Maryanne Wolf’s research emphasizes that each format has its own merits and functions. For children to thrive in today’s world, they need both skills.

Marcia: Thank you, Abigail, for sharing highlights of Maryanne Wolf’s book, Reader, Come Home, The Reading Brain in a Digital World.

Abigail: It has been charming to talk to you.

Key Points:

• It is important for children to learn to read both on paper and digitally, as each serves different purposes.
• Paper reading supports slower, deeper comprehension and reflection, building a “cognitive map” of the text that aids memory retention.
• Paper reading fosters “cognitive patience,” the ability to slow down, focus, and process information deeply, a skill essential for comprehension.
• Reading physical books to children helps them understand spatial concepts such as page navigation and left to right reading order, which are fundamental for effective reading.
• Digital reading facilitates rapid information gathering and skimming, which is useful for quick searches.
• Scrolling on line and the fluid layout online can impair comprehension and reduce recall and cognitive mapping, compared to reading physcial texts, as digital text can create spatial challenges.
• Tablet reading, such as a Kindle, is better for comprehension purposes than reading online but tablets still lack the tactile experience of turning pages, which contributes to cognitive mapping.
• Graphic novels may serve as a bridge to help young readers accustomed to digital reading by offering engagement through visuals while prompting comprehension.

To effectively prepare for the capacity for critical thinking, reflection, understanding in an increasingly dependency on digital technology, children need to learn to read early from traditional books to adapt effectively to different reading demands as they learn also to read online.

Abigail Norfleet James, Ph.D. Gendered Education Consultant Professor, University of Virginia

Experienced Educational Consultant with a demonstrated history of working in the education management industry. Skilled in E-Learning, K-12 Education, Customer Service, Classroom Management, and Professional Development in Gendered Education.