Keynote talk “Generational and developmental changes in digital reading habits and text comprehension” on the workshop for the DFG network “Reading Science” in Göttingen on October 6, 2022.

1. Generational and
developmental changes in
digital reading habits and text
comprehension
Ladislao Salmerón
ERI Lectura & Departamento de Psicología evolutiva y de la educación
Universidad de Valencia
DFG Network on Reading * 6/10/2022

2. Research Institute on
Reading (ERI Lectura)
Research unit of the University
of Valencia created in 2012 “to
foster the scientific study of
reading and to transfer such
knowledge to society”
www.uv.es/lectura
Multidisciplinary unit
Neuroscientific study of reading
Technology for improving reading
Promotion of reading in schools
Reading and students with disabilities
Reading in applied contexts
Adolescents literature
2/37

3. • Why reading habits?
• Screen inferiority & Digital reading habits
• Generational changes
• Developmental changes
• Future of digital reading

4. · Children & adolescents
Reading
habits
Reading
comprehension
abilities
Torppa, Niemi, Vasalampi, Lerkkanen, Tolvanen, & Poikkeus, 2020
Why Reading habits?

5. · Children & adolescents
Reading
habits
Reading
comprehension
abilities
Torppa, Niemi, Vasalampi, Lerkkanen, Tolvanen, & Poikkeus, 2020
Why Reading habits?
Academic
achievement

6. · adults :
Reading
habits
Emotional,
cognitive and
physical health
Marshall, 2020
Why Reading habits?

7. · adults
-Positive relation with empathy measures (metaanalysis: Mumper & Gerrig, 2017)
-Negative relation with cognitive decline (metaanalysis : Yates, Ziser, Spector, &
Orrell, 2016)
-Readers of fiction life up to four more months (Bavishi, Slade & Levy, 2016).
Leisure Reading
Why Reading habits?
Reading
habits
Emotional,
cognitive and
physical health

8. How digitalization of Reading is affecting those relations?
Why Reading habits?

9. • Why reading habits?
• Screen inferiority & Digital reading habits
• Generational changes
• Developmental changes
• Future of digital reading

10. Screen inferiority effect
The same piece of text is comprehended better in
print than on a digital screen
Metaanalytical evidence: small effect size
·Clinton (2019). g = −.25 (mostly undergraduates)
·Delgado et al. (2018). Between g = −.21; Within
dc = −0.21 (mostly undergraduates)
·Furenes et al. (2021). g = −.22 (children)
·Kong et al. (2018). g = −.21 (mostly undergraduates)
·Öztop & Nayci (2021). g = -.42 (only studies in Turkish)

11. Screen inferiority effect
Potential explanations
• Shallowing hyphotesis (Annisette & Lafreniere, 2017; Wolf & Barzillai,
2009)
• Certain types of social media (e.g., texting and Facebook) promote rapid,
shallow thought that can result in a decline of reflective thought.
• Scan and shift hypothesis (Jensen et al., 1997; Nikkelen et al., 2014).
• Quick rhythm of digital media, with constant cuts and edits, emphasizes the
adoption of an attentional style characterized by scanning and quick switch of
focus.

12. Digital reading habits
• Print reading habits usually involve reading
novels, magazines, or comics on paper. Such
habits are positively related to reading
comprehension skills.
• Metaanalytical evidence: medium effect size
• Relation between “print exposure” and
reading comprehension across life-span (r =
.36-.41) (Mol & Bus, 2011; Locher & Pfost,
2020; van Bergen et al., 2020)

13. Digital reading habits
• Would digital reading habits (e.g. social
media, webpages, forums) also relate to
reading comprehension skills?
• Metaanalytical evidence: null/small effect
size
• Relation between frequency of digital reading
and reading comprehension (r = .06)
(Altamura, Vargas, & Salmerón, subm)

14. • Why reading habits?
• Screen inferiority & Digital reading habits
• Generational changes
• Developmental changes
• Future of digital reading

15. Generational changes

16. Generational changes
Predictions
“Digital natives” “Nostalgic paper lovers”

17. Generational changes
How to measure changes on (effects related to) reading habits?
· Self-reports
· Interviews
· Publication /data collection year

18. Generational changes
Liu (2005)
· Self-reports

19. Generational changes
Baron & Mangen
(2021)
· Interviews

20. Generational changes
· Moving from descriptive changes to correlational evidence
Arnold L. Glass & Mengxue Kang (2022) Fewer students are benefiting
from doing their homework: an eleven-year study, Educational Psychology, 42:2, 185-199, DOI:
10.1080/01443410.2020.1802645

21. Generational changes
Regression of Hedges's g on publication date
publication date
-14,0 -12,0 -10,0 -8,0 -6,0 -4,0 -2,0 0,0 2,0 4,0 6,0 8,0
Hedges's
g
1,25
1,00
0,75
0,50
0,25
0,00
-0,25
-0,50
-0,75
-1,00
-1,25
-1,50
-1,75
publication date
-14,0 -12,0 -10,0 -8,0 -6,0 -4,0 -2,0 0,0 2,0 4,0 6,0 8,0
0,75
0,50
0,25
0,00
-0,25
-0,50
-0,75
-1,00
-1,25
-1,50
-1,75
Regression of Hedges's g on publication date
publication date
-14,0 -12,0 -10,0 -8,0 -6,0 -4,0 -2,0 0,0 2,0 4,0 6,0 8,0
Hedges's
g
1,25
1,00
0,75
0,50
0,25
0,00
-0,25
-0,50
-0,75
-1,00
-1,25
-1,50
-1,75
2001 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Screen inferiority effect is increasing over the years.
Delgado et al., 2018
2005, g = .00
2017, g = -.35
· Publication /data collection year

22. Generational changes
Year of data collection
Relation between digital reading habits and reading comprehension
decreases over the years.
Altamura et al., subm
2002, g = .20
2020, g = -.10
· Publication /data collection year

23. Generational changes
• Trend in moving from paper to digital reading problematic:
• No sign that comprehension is improving with growing presence of technology
• Continuslly diminishing ability to comprehend digital texts, & lenght of academic
texts assigned
• Increasengly negative association with development of reading comprehension
• Use of publication year / data collection year as a proxy for generational
changes
• Potential confoundings:
• Displacement theory (Mokhtari et al., 2009): Reading time replaces by growing
audiovisual consumption

24. • Why reading habits?
• Screen inferiority & Digital reading habits
• Generational changes
• Developmental changes
• Future of digital reading

25. Developmental changes
Does the age/grade of introduction to digital reading devices relate to
pupils’ comprehension?
· Individual testing sessions (comparing paper vs. digital)
· Relations between frequency of reading and reading comprehension

26. Developmental changes
· Individual testing sessions (comparing paper vs. digital)
No metaanalytical effect of grade level on the screen inferiority (Delgado et
al., 2018)

27. Developmental changes
· Individual testing sessions (comparing paper vs. digital)
Major difference between 4th – 8th grade students in a representative
sample of US (Jewsbury, et al., 2020)

28. Developmental changes

29. Developmental changes

30. • Representative sample of 4th and 8th grade students in
the US (N = 149400 & 144900)
• Reading comprehension measure:
• NAEP includes several texts, but each student reads only 1
literary and 1 expository text
• 3 types of questions: locate, integrate and evaluate
• Text and questions are presented on a tablet
Developmental changes Salmerón et al., in press.
Reading & Writing
· Relations between use and reading comprehension

31. 4th grade 8th grade
Less than
30 minutes
About 30
minutes
About 1
hour
About 2
hour
About 3
hour
4+ hours
· Frequency digital device use in language class
Developmental changes Salmerón et al., in press.
Reading & Writing

32. · Prediction of reading comprehension scores
After controlling for:
· Student: gender, disability status, socio-economic status, English as second language,
reading self-efficacy, grit, attention, need for cognition.
· Teacher/class: teacher training for integrating ICT, disruptive behavior in class, ratio
student to digital devices, % devices that worked.
Negative relation with:
· Frequency digital device use in language class
· Use digital device to practice strategies
Positive relation with:
· Use digital devices for project research
Developmental changes

33. 4th grade 8th grade
Digital device usage frequency in
English/language class
-4.03* -2.07*
Use digital devices for project research 1.34* 0.90*
Use digital device to practice strategies -1.02* -1.22*
· Prediction of reading comprehension scores
NAEP 2017
Average Reading
Comprehension
Standard
deviation
4th grade 222 38
8th grade 267 36
Developmental changes

34. Developmental changes Altamura et al., subm
· Relations between frequency of
digital reading and comprehension
The association between digital
reading habits and reading
comprehension increases with age
(increase of .017 units by year)

35. Developmental changes
· Evidence suggest stronger negative effects in Primary vs. Secondary
· Tentative evidence of a stronger screen inferiority effect in 4th vs. 8th grade
· Stronger negative association between digital reading at language classroom in
4th. Vs. 8th grade
· Stronger positive association between digital reading at home as age increases
· A critical foundational period for reading comprehension (and
subcomponents) acquisition

36. • Why reading habits?
• Screen inferiority & Digital reading habits
• Generational changes
• Developmental changes
• Future of digital reading

37. Future of digital reading
• How far down can we go?
• Do we really need long form reading?
2026

38. Future of digital reading
• Need for models of reading comprehension that account for media
processing differences
• Need to identify features of digital documents that support
comprehension (Clinton et al., 2021; Furenes et al., 2021)
• Introduction of digital reading in schools based on acquisition of
foundational skills (EF, self-regulation abilities?)

39. Future of digital reading
• Academia needs to support the use of complex methods (large scale,
“long” longitudinal)
• Just reading or a general cognitive effect?

40. Colaborators
Pablo Delgado Cristina Vargas Laura Gil Marta Vergara Lidia Altamura
Rakefet Ackerman
Technion Institute
Ivar Braten
University Oslo
Naomi S. Baron
American University
Mario Romero
Amelia Mañá

41. Thank you all for your attention
ladislao.salmeron@uv.es
www.uv.es/lectura
www.uv.es/lasalgon
Funding