​Among my fris who are serious readers (and that's most of them), there is an almost universal preference for printed paper books over electronic screens. Reasons for this preference range from the tactile pleasure of turning one page after another to the yeasty whiff of nostalgia that emanates from between the covers of a book that has some years on it. One fri insists on reading in the bathtub, which predisposes her to paper for obvious reasons.

　　我的朋友中大多是重度阅读者，他们普遍更倾向于在纸质上书写而不是在电子屏上。他们倾向的原因从享受翻页时带来触摸上的满足，到怀恋老旧书本的封面散发出来阵阵发酵的气味。其中一个朋友坚持认为显而易见的原因是她在浴室阅读时，使她更倾向于使用纸质书。

　　Better Comprehension With Paper

　　纸质书籍更易理解

　　In addition to such subjective sensory pleasures as these, reading from paper offers a far more tangible benefit as compared with reading from screens — namely, better comprehension. The vast majority of studies comparing the two reading mediums have concluded that readers simply retain more from reading on paper than they do from an electronic device.

　　除了这些主观的感官享受外，与屏幕阅读相比，纸质阅读还提供了一个更具体的好处--即更好的理解力。绝大多数比较这两种阅读媒介的研究都认为，读者在纸上阅读比在电子设备上阅读能保留更多内容。

　　While many theories have been proposed to account for this disparity, including "digital distraction" (the temptation to browse or multitask while reading on a screen), the challenge to "spatial memory" of text that is not always located on the same part of a page, and even "rampant self-delusion" in screen readers who overestimate their level of reading comprehension and thus don't put as much effort into the act of reading, there is no general consensus over why we retain more of what we're reading when we read from paper.

　　尽管很多解释这一差异(纸质阅读理解得更好)的理论已被提出，包括数字化分心(当在屏幕上阅读时浏览或多任务处理的诱惑)，文本空间记忆的挑战，即不总是定位在页面的同一位置，甚至是屏幕上泛滥的自我错觉，即读者高估他们的阅读理解水平，因此没有放太多注意力在阅读这一动作上。关于为什么我们在纸上阅读的时候，对我们所读过的内容记住得更多，对此还没有普遍的共识。

　　A recent study at Showa University School of Medicine in Tokyo found a possible answer to the question in an unexpected, and to the casual observer purely peripheral, variable involved in the reading experience — sighing.

　　昭和大学近期的一项研究发现，这个问题的可能答案是一个意想不到的，对于纯粹是外围的，设计阅读体验的临时观察者而言的变量——是叹息。

　　Citing previous studies that linked visual environment and cognitive performance, the research team sought to find a connection between the visual input of text from an electronic screen and the decline in comprehension of the information communicated through that medium.

　　引用之前将视觉环境和认知表现联系起来的研究，研究团队设法找到一个 电子屏幕上文本的视觉输入 和 从电子媒介上传播的信息理解能力的下降 之间的联系。

　　Given the dominant influence that vison has over other senses in "sensory integration or cross-modality," they suspected that visual input might also affect brain state and physiological condition, which, in turn, "likely exist as mediating variables in the relationship between the visual environment and cognitive performance."

　　鉴于在感官统合和跨通道方面，视觉可能拥有超过其他感官显著影响，他们猜测视觉输入可能也影响大脑状态和心理状态，这反过来说就是，在视觉环境和认知表现的关系上，可能存在着间接的可变因素。

　　The physiological condition they chose to investigate as a potential mediator, along with brain activity, was respiration. To explore the relationship between visual environment, breathing, and cognitive performance, they recruited 34 university students for a study that examined the effects of electronic device use on reading comprehension by simultaneously measuring brain and respiratory activity before, during, and after reading.

　　他们选择的生理状况和大脑活动一起作为潜在的调节因素进行调查，这就是呼吸。为了探索视觉环境、呼吸和认知表现之间的关系，他们招募了34名大学生进行一项研究，通过同时测量阅读前、阅读中和阅读后的大脑和呼吸活动，检测使用电子设备对阅读理解的影响。

　　The 34 participants read novel excerpts on a smartphone and a paper book, which were exactly the same size and weight. Each participant took part in two randomly conducted trials for each of four conditions (smartphone/paper, novel A/novel B), with each trial consisting of four sessions: resting state before reading, during reading, resting state after reading, and reading test (10 questions on the content of the novel excerpts).

　　34名参与者在智能手机和纸质书上阅读小说节选，这两本书的大小和重量完全相同。每名参与者针对四种情况（智能手机/纸张、小说A/小说B）中的每一种，参加两项随机进行的试验，每个试验包括四个阶段：阅读前的静息状态、阅读中的静息状态、阅读后的静息状态和阅读测试（关于小说节选内容的10个问题）。

　　Throughout the trials, participants were connected to monitors that measured brain function (prefrontal activity) and respiration (respiratory pattern, number of sighs, and metabolic pattern).

　　在整个试验过程中，参与者被连接到测量大脑功能（前额叶活动）和呼吸（呼吸模式、叹息次数和代谢模式）的监视器上。

　　Respiration and Brain Activity

　　呼吸和大脑活动

　　As in previous studies, reading on a smartphone resulted in lower reading performance than reading on a paper medium. To try to identify the cause of this decline in performance, the researchers examined the respiration and brain activity data they collected during the reading trials.

　　与之前的研究一样，在智能手机上阅读比在纸质媒体上阅读的阅读效果更低。为了找出成绩下降的原因，研究人员检查了他们在阅读试验中收集的呼吸和大脑活动数据。

　　Some aspects of breathing and brain activity were similar in both the electronic and paper mediums. With both the smartphone and the paper text, the amount of air the participants inhaled and exhaled decreased during reading and breathing grew fast and shallow, while prefrontal brain activity increased in both mediums.

　　电子媒体和纸质媒体的呼吸和大脑活动在某些方面是相似的。在阅读智能手机和纸质文本时，参与者在阅读过程中吸入和呼出的空气量都减少了，呼吸变得又快又浅，而前额叶的大脑活动在这两种媒介中都增加了。

　　A notable distinction in breathing patterns appeared, however, in the number of times participants sighed. When reading from paper, the number of participants' sighs increased, while sighing decreased when participants read from a smartphone. Reading from an electronic medium appeared to inhibit sigh production.

　　然而，呼吸模式在参与者叹气的次数上出现了显著差异。当从纸上阅读时，参与者的叹气次数增加，而当参与者从智能手机上阅读时，叹气次数减少。通过电子媒介阅读似乎抑制了叹息的产生。

　　Along with this difference in sighing, an interesting difference was also noted in brain activity. While prefrontal activity increased during reading in both the electronic and paper medium, overactivity in the prefrontal cortex was noted in participants reading from a smartphone.

　　除了叹气的差异，大脑活动也有一个有趣的差异。虽然在电子和纸质媒体阅读过程中前额叶活动增加，但在使用智能手机阅读的参与者中，前额叶皮质过度活跃。

　　Citing reported associations between prefrontal overactivity and "poor narrative content comprehension," the researchers conducted a path analysis that suggested an "interactive relationship between sigh inhibition and overactivity in the prefrontal cortex" that may be responsible for the comprehension decline associated with reading from an electronic device.

　　引用报道的“前额过度活跃和拉跨的叙述内容掌握”之间的联系，研究人员得出一条路径分析的结论，那就是叹息抑制和前额过度活跃之间的联系，可能是用电子产品阅读时掌握能力下降的原因。

　　所以，信息时代背景下，你是否愿意回归纸质书阅读呢？欢迎评论区留言~