Ebooks and Information Retention

A new study from West Chester University suggests that ebooks negatively effect how much information readers actually retain. Out of a small group of middle school students, WCU professors Heather Schugar and Jordan Schugar found that that students who read ebooks retained less information than the students who read the same content in print books.

The Schugars compared reading ebooks to watching a PowerPoint presentation: all flash, distracting from the message. One college student noted that reading ebooks can allow for more distractions due to access to Facebook and other online offerings. However, other students noted that ebooks are far more affordable, and they allow students to search for specific terms when studying.

Read more information on the West Chester study here.

Meanwhile, a new Harris Interactive poll shows that the majority of Americans read ebooks (54%). Two thirds of millenials read ebooks. The most interesting figure for me is that the Americans who read at least some ebooks tend to read more books per year overall, as opposed to people who just read print books.

Divergent by Veronica Routh (HarperCollins) was the top ebook bestseller for the week of April 12.