The Influence of Text Annotation Tools on Print and Digital Reading Comprehension

Recent studies that compared reading comprehension between print and digital displays found a disadvantage for digital reading. A separate line of research has shown that effective use of learning strategies and active learning tools (e.g. annotation tools: highlighting, underlining and notetaking) can improve reading comprehension. Here, the influence of annotation tools on comprehension and their utility in diminishing the gap between print and digital reading was investigated. In a 2 X 2 experimental design, ninety three undergraduates (mean age 29.6 years, 72 women) read an academic essay in print or in digital format, with or without the use of annotation tools. In general, the results reinforce previous research reports on the inferiority of digital compared to print reading comprehension. Our findings indicate that for factual-level questions using annotation tools had no effect on comprehension in both formats. For the inference-level questions, however, use of annotation tools improved comprehension of printed text but not of digital text. In other words, text-annotation in the digital format had no effect on reading comprehension. In the digital era, digital reading is the norm rather than the exception; thus, it is essential to improve our understanding of the factors that influence the comprehension of digital text.