Effects on Text Understanding and Memory by Types of Display Media: Comparison between E-book Readers and Papers

The aim of this paper is to understand the learning effect by difference of display media and text contents. Thirty six subjects read two types of short texts that are literary text and descriptive one about scientific topic by using tablet computer (iPad) and paper. We compared subjective evaluation about each type of displays, reading speed per characters, score of memory test and comprehension test after reading texts. At first, the result of subjective impressions showed that iPad’s readability has already achieved the equivalent to papers’. Subjects recognized that iPad was superior to paper in terms of display sharpness and easiness of turning pages. On the other hand, subjects felt less fatigue and higher concentration while reading texts on paper. Secondly, significant difference by ANOVA was observed between two types of media on reading speed and word memory test score only using descriptive text. Finally, it is concluded that paper is still higher usability media than tablet computer for understanding sentence. 1. はじめに