Do you learn just as much from listening as from reading?
You can take in the content both ways, but reading has some advantages, according to a researcher.
"Many people probably think it doesn’t matter whether you read or listen to a book, but there are differences," says Marte Pupe Støyva.(Stock photo: Shutterstock / NTB)
Maybe you listen while driving, cleaning, or working out.
But if you want to learn about a topic and plan to read a popular science book – does it matter whether you listen to the book or read it?
You can learn from both
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It depends, says Marte Pupe Støyva, who emphasises that both reading and listening can lead to learning.
She is a PhD candidate at the University of Stavanger and researches how students read.
It's difficult to measure 'learning,' and therefore difficult to claim that one format is better than the other, says Støyva. It depends on what you want to achieve.
"For instance, reading gives you a chance to learn about spelling and how written language is structured, something you don’t get from listening. On the other hand, listening helps you pick up on things like pronunciation," she says.
Marte Pupe Støyva researches how students read their curriculum.(Photo: Elisabeth Tønnessen / University of Stavanger)
Short pauses and time to reflect
The format affects how we engage with a text. In her research, Støyva has mapped how students read.
"I work with a small group of master's students who have filmed their own reading sessions," she says.
Støyva found that students don't just read straight through without stopping. They take short pauses, reread sections, go back, underline sentences, and take time to reflect.
"With listening, the experience is quite different," she says.
Less focus when multitasking
A 2016 study found no significant difference between those who read digitally and those who listened to the same text when later tested. This suggests people can absorb the content equally well.
A 2019 study also showed that brain activity was quite similar whether participants read or listened to the same material as an audiobook.
However, those participants were lying still in an fMRI machine. In everyday life, however, we often do other things while listening.
"If you're listening while cleaning or driving, it's a completely different context that triggers many other cognitive processes than lying still and focusing solely on listening," says Støyva.
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We still don’t know much about how different activities affect what we retain from listening.
"But we do know that reading demands mental and physical focus in a way that listening often doesn't. And multitasking can negatively affect how much we actually absorb from what we hear," she says.
When you read, you have to concentrate and be present with the text.(Photo: Shutterstock / NTB)
Adjusting your pace
Another key factor, according to Støyva, is how complex the text is and how familiar the listener already is with the topic.
"The more demanding the text, the more effort it takes to understand it. When you read, you naturally adjust your pace and reading strategy along the way. It feels automatic, something you hardly notice," she says.
Listening, on the other hand, gives you less control over those adjustments.
That may help explain findings from a 2010 study where reading came out on top.
One group listened to a podcast, while another read the same text. The podcast group performed significantly worse on a subsequent test, according to Time Magazine.
Still, listening can be a useful tool, says Marte Pupe Støyva.
"Especially for students who struggle with reading and writing difficulties or have visual impairments," she says.
But it's not the same whether you read or listen, she says.
"I think many people assume it's the same whether you read or listen to a book, but there are differences," says Støyva.
Don't absorb as much
Vivian Kjelland is an associate professor at the University of Agder's Department of Natural Sciences. She studies how we learn and has written a book on study techniques that actually work.
Would you learn just as much from listening to a popular science book as from reading it?
"My immediate thought is no," says Kjelland.
Kjelland both reads a lot and listens to many audiobooks and podcasts. She has noticed a clear difference in how much she retains.
"At the same time, it probably varies from person to person and depends on the topic," she says.
For subjects like anatomy and physiology, which Kjelland teaches, there are many details and concepts to remember.
"In that case, I think most people would struggle to take in as much through listening as through reading," she says.
Even if a book or podcast is fascinating, you’ll quickly forget what you learned if you don't retrieve it, says Vivian Kjelland.(Photo: Liv Unni Tveitane/ University of Agder)
No simple answer
Kjelland has looked at what the research says, including a large meta-study from 2022 that reviewed studies going back to the 1950s.
"One of the main conclusions from this summary was that reading is more effective for understanding than listening – provided that you can control the reading speed yourself," says Kjelland.
Still, the results were not entirely consistent.
"There's no clear-cut answer because many factors play a role, such as age, topic, language, and whether participants are asked to simply recall information or apply it in a broader context," she says.
The key takeaway was that reading gave better understanding when readers could set their own pace.
"That makes perfect sense. You can go back, reread sections, piece things together, and give your brain time to process and understand it," she says.
Skilled listeners
Podcasts and audiobook platforms now let you adjust playback speed and rewind, too.
"Even so, when listening to a podcast or audiobook, people are often less immersed in the content. You're exposed to more sensory input from your surroundings, and there's a higher chance that you'll be distracted by other things," says Kjelland.
Still, she believes today's youth may be more skilled listeners and have developed effective strategies for learning through audio.
"At the university, we're seeing a big issue: many students no longer read their course material. It used to be a given that students bought and read the curriculum, but that's no longer the case," she says.
Knowledge needs to be retrieved
Regardless of whether you listen or read, the content is easily forgotten, Kjelland explains.
"Even if a book is very interesting, you'll forget it unless you actively do something to remember it," she says.
A good way to make information stick is to actively recall what you've read, as Kjelland has previously explained. That means retrieving the knowledge from your own mind and explaining it to others or even yourself.
Every time you retrieve the information from memory, the memory trace becomes stronger, and it becomes easier to remember.
"If you’ve listened to an audiobook and understood it, try retelling the content afterward. If you repeat it a few times, ideally a few weeks apart, you'll remember it much better," she says.
Clinton-Lisell, V. 'Listening Ears or Reading Eyes: A Meta-Analysis of Reading and Listening Comprehension Comparisons', Review of Educational Research, vol. 92, 2022. DOI: 10.3102/00346543211060871 (Abstract)
Daniel, D.B. & Woody, W.D. 'They Hear, but Do Not Listen: Retention for Podcasted Material in a Classroom Context', Teaching of Psychology, vol. 37, 2010. DOI: 10.1080/00986283.2010.488542 (Abstract)
