Differences in visual stress and preference in reading between tablet and paper

Abstract

This study investigated visual stress in reading from tablet in comparison with reading from paper. The differences in preference and ease of use between the two media were also investigated. In this experiments, observers were first given a questionnaire about their familiarity with electronic media, preference for reading media and ease of use between tablet and paper. Observers then conducted visual experiments, in which they read one document on tablet and another one on paper. Three types of document were used. They were information, news and tale. Observers read all three types on both tablet and paper but different stories for each type were read by an observer on different media. All documents had the same length and reading difficulty. Each contained 7 misspelling words. The observers also answered a questionnaire about visual stress symptoms after completing the visual experiments. The number of mistake words found and time used to complete the experiments on each medium were analysed to determine the differences in visual stress between reading from tablet and paper. It was found that media affected visual stress in reading, in which tablet had a tendency to incur visual stress. The document types did not affect visual stress. The observers who were inclined to have visual stress when reading from tablet were not familiar with tablet. Most observers preferred reading on paper to tablet. When reading news and informations, tablet was easier to use. On the other hand, when reading novel, journal and magazine, observers chose paper for its ease of use.