Children's comprehension of electronic books: On empirical study

In order to investigate the effect of the electronic medium on comprehension and reading speed, a study of user interaction with electronic books was carried out comparing children reading an electronic book with children reading the same text in two different printed versions. The children were aged 9–11 years and were matched according to both gender and reading ability. The female participants were shown not to be disadvantaged with regard to the electronic text. No evidence was found to suggest that the added effects and visual dimension offered by the electronic book reduced participants’ comprehension of the text. Indeed, there was an indication that electronic books of this kind might actually aid the reader's comprehension of a text. Although no significant differences were found between groups of children reading different texts when testing the time taken to read the text and the time taken to read the summary, there was evidence that participants in the electronic book group read the text more slowly than they read the summary.