It’s been awhile since we read one of those studies about deeper comprehension and retention in print vs. digital communications. Yet that research keeps coming, and the results stubbornly keep being the same.

One the most recent of these studies was conducted by educational neuroscientists at Teachers College, Columbia University, who have found evidence (again) that children’s brains process written texts more deeply when they are presented in print.

The study was published in the journal PLOS in May 2024 by Teachers College Associate Professor Karen Froud, Lecturer Dr. Lisa Levinson, Research Scientist Dr. Chaille Maddox, and doctoral candidate Paul Smith ’26. For the study, researchers conducted brain imaging of 59 middle-schoolers from the New York metro area. (If we are honest, we’re all still a bit like middle-schoolers.) The results were unequivocal. Students’ comprehension of digital text was assessed as “shallow,” while they had better comprehension of the words on the printed page.

Laptop Vs. Printed Page

How was the study conducted? Researchers asked students to read different text passages on a laptop and on a printed page. They then asked participants to read (and identify) words that were related or unrelated to the meaning of the passages.

Following the reading of print text, researchers measured the students’ brain activations using high-density electroencephalography. They found that the children were more effectively able to represent the meanings of the text (and therefore more able to draw connections with new concepts) in print.

“The representations of text meanings were less richly elaborated following reading on-screen, and the children’s brains had to work harder to build meaningful connections,” according to the researchers. “These differences between printed and digital texts provide intriguing evidence that medium of presentation matters for depth of processing at the level of the brain.”

From a learning perspective, this research is particularly important since educators are still unraveling the full impact of the pandemic years. While there is no question that the pandemic was a time of “unprecedented disruption to our educational systems,” this research shows that the move away from print and towards digital screens is likely playing a role in children’s academic performance. Negative impact on performance or not, now it’s difficult to go back.

Marketing Parallels

What does this have to do with marketing? Quite a lot, actually. The parallels to print vs. digital marketing are interesting. Direct mail or email? Sales letter or LinkedIn message? It’s still education and communication. The subject matter is just different.

Digital communications provide instant gratification, and they certainly cost less, but are they as effective? If they don’t produce the same results, what’s the point?

It may also depend on the topic. Selling a blouse is different from selling financial services. One requires more deep brain processing than the other. So part of being that partner and consultant to your customers is unraveling the role of which channel to use and when. While we aren’t middle schoolers, and most of us are no longer being tested on The Iliad, there are still significant “on the ground” lessons to be taken when it comes to marketing.

Read more about the study’s methodology here.