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I’ve seen people read books. When I ask them, they can’t even tell me what happened in the last 5 minutes, and in some cases, can’t recall a single significant detail of what they read throughout the entire book. So from an unverified anecdotal standpoint I think it’s a wash.
However there have been dozens of studies on this topic over the last 70 years. One of the more significant recent studies was This one where they looked at brain scans of people reading and listening to audiobooks and found that the brain activity between the two different kinds of readers was the same, down to the specific region of the brain.
The most comprehensive meta-analysis of these studies found that there was no reliable difference in comprehension or retention between the modes of reading, which proves both our anecdotes are just statistical outliers and not indicative of any real innate difference.
Skimming the first study, it was 9 people. Also, it doesn't "disprove" my argument at all. In these studies, the participants were likely sitting in a quiet room, and in the first study at least, half were taking notes and effectively quizzing each other! Of course it was just as effective for remembering. I remember things people tell me in person. It's literally how school works.
My post was specifically talking about how most people consume audiobooks in practice. They don't sit in a quiet room, taking notes, and quizzing each other. They're doing the dishes, driving, walking, working, reading, watching YouTube while also playing a game on their phone (yes really). Completely different scenario. How many times have you talked to someone distracted and at the end they're like "huh?" Now apply that to audiobooks. I'm sure if you sit in a quiet room and study via audiobook it's extremely effective, but again, most people don't do that.
There's probably even a study out there proving my point, that people don't listen and retain information properly when distracted, but I'm not going to go looking for it to win an internet argument. Either you get my point or you don't.
you're being trolled.
You think people did studies for decades on this in order to troll this one Lemmy user?
Nah I think this person just is out of practice for reading comprehension
you're more generous than I am.
You literally didn’t even read or comprehend the studies I sent you my man lmao
Lmao you skimming just the first study and not comprehending it at all is not helping your case for reading over listening. Of course you control for outside variables when you compare two things, that’s how studies work.
I mean if you can refute 70 years of studies and the current scientific consensus be my guest, but the data we have does not support your opinion at all.
My man, that study only tested whether reading and listening are comparable for learning. Do you not see how that's basically irrelevant to my original comment?
What I sent you comprises nearly 50 different studies over a 70 year span and over 4,000 participants from elementary school age to adults, in a variety of environments and tested for comprehension and retention of the information specifically, the exact thing your comment is based on, and the findings were that there is no real difference between the two.
The irony of you making a case for the superiority of reading written words for comprehension and I sent you two written sources and you absorbed and comprehended almost none of it. Like, would it have helped if I sent them to you in audio form instead?
Aight fine you got me with the bait. I regretfully read the second link. Let me summarise it for you.
The second study looked at whether people understand things better when they read information or listen to it.
Overall, the researchers found that reading and listening were about equally effective for understanding information. However, reading seemed to help more in certain situations. For example, people did better when they could read at their own paceinstead of having information read to them at a fixed speed. Reading also helped more when the task required deeper thinking, like making connections or understanding ideas that were not directly stated, rather than just remembering exact details.
The study also suggested that the difference between reading and listening may depend on the language being studied. In languages where spelling and pronunciation are closely connected, reading and listening seemed more similar than in languages where they are less predictable.
Again, no mention of testing in distracted settings. You're just making shit up at this point. But if you want to feel smart because you "read" 40 books per week while doing the dishes, you do you. You seem to care very deeply about this topic since you're all over this thread.
There you go. Glad you finally got there.
Why would they do that? Add confounding factors to their study?