看電子書導致大腦偷懶 遺忘得更快

Readers using electronic books are less likely to absorb what they have read because the information is presented in such simple form. Devices such as the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader display text in such a clear, legible format that this encourages the brain to be ‘lazy’, making it more difficult to take things on board, research suggests. The findings go against the conventional wisdom that legibility makes it easier for people to learn and remember information.

新電子科技時代的到來大大革新了人們的閱讀方式和閱讀習慣，網上海量電子讀物的下載方便了書蟲的生活。可是，專家發現，廣泛使用電子閱讀器，比如：索尼電子閱讀器（Sony Reader）和亞馬遜手提閱讀器（Amazon Kindle）的讀者因閱讀方式變得“太過於方便”，導致“大腦偷懶”，讀者看過信息就會忘記。專家的這一發現與電子閱讀器廠商所宣傳的：方便學習與吸收信息等相沖突，一方面科技提高了閱讀效率，但是另一方面科技也退化了人類自身的能力。

A study by Princeton University found that a significant number of those tested could recall more information when it was presented in unusual typefaces. The research suggests that introducing 'disfluency' - by making information superficially harder to understand - deepens the process of learning and encourages better retention. The psychologists said information which has to be actively generated rather than 'passively acquired' from simple text is remembered longer and more accurately.

據悉，由美國普林斯頓大學牽頭的關於“電子閱讀器”效率的實驗中，專家發現讀者在閱讀普通傳統“紙質”讀物時，可以回憶起更多的信息。專家分析，傳統紙質讀物相對於電子閱讀器的“不方便性”增加了讀者的閱讀難度，使得讀者相對更珍惜自己的閱讀信息，這種“閱讀不流利”一定程度上鼓勵了書蟲們開動自己的大腦去思考書中的信息與問題，提高了記憶的效率。心理學家分析，這種“主動性學習”（閱讀紙質讀物）相比“被動性學習”（閱讀電子閱讀器）更加能增強讀者的主動性。換句話來說，書蟲們都有一種心理：我都看得那麼費勁了，不記點東西下來就太可惜了吧。

It has been argued that e-readers and computers hinder us from absorbing information because their screens and fonts tell our subconscious that they words they convey are not important. Mr Lehrer said the study showed the whole history of typography was had missed the point when it comes to learning. He said: 'It has been a movement towards easy to read fonts. We assume that anything which makes it easier to see the content is a good thing. 'When we see a font that is easy to read we're able to process that in a mindless way, but when we see an unfamiliar font, one full of weird squiggles, we have to work a little bit harder.'That extra effort is a signal to the brain that this might be something worth remembering.'

此外，有專家還分析，讀者還有一種心理，估計是電子閱讀器顯示方式是“屏幕”或者電腦的緣故，讀者會覺得這種提供信息的方法不夠正式，進而會有電子閱讀器提供的信息也不會那麼準確和重要的心理。專家Mr Lehrer 說：“電子閱讀器徹底革新了人類閱讀習慣，不管怎樣，我們必須肯定它帶來的方便性，然而不可否認的是過於方便的科技會讓我們自己退化。這也解釋了爲何閱讀紙質讀物、或者比較難閱讀的東西時，我們會記得比較多，因爲它需要我們多費點功夫去理解。”對令人難忘。這恐怕是迄今爲止，最自然的、最直接讓您在事業上一飛沖天的方法。”