For many people these days they have the perception that to listen to an audiobook is cheating in some way. It is the shared notion that if you do not put the hard work in to read the book then somehow you are considered a cheater. This is a question that Daniel Willingham, psychologist at the University of Virginia, gets asked a lot and is one that frustrates every time. Willingham does not agree with this theory at all and says if you are doing a comparison in terms of the mental processes involved in both reading a book and listening to it, there is no real difference.
The argument that listening is cheating seems to stem from the fact that people feel the listener gets the reward (the story of the book) without putting in the hard work (the reading). It is this mindset that is then telling the brain that listening is less work and so is therefore cheating. But, this is not the case at all. When we read, there are two processes at work – decoding and comprehension. Studies have shown that those who read books would also listen to them well. In 1977, a study was carried out whereby some college students would read a book while others were to listen to it. The results were that those that listened to it were able to summarize the book just as well as those that read it.
Although decoding is specific to reading, as soon as we become proficient in reading it becomes second nature and so there is no extra work involved for your brain. Also, with listening, it is just as easy for our brains to wander off and miss something as it is with reading. So, when you are listening to an audiobook, do not consider it to be cheating. Your brain is working just as hard to process the new information that is being thrown at it and rather than question it, relax and enjoy it.
More News To Read
