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TXT -- The Book Issue (Cover).

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TXT -- The Book Issue (Frontispiece).

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TXT -- The Book Issue (Article's first page).

 
The Landscape of the Physical Book
Posted May 1, 2018
TXT -- The Book Issue, Amsterdam University Press, 2018

Trogu, Pino. "The Landscape of the Physical Book: Space and Memory in the Printed Page", TXT -- The Book Issue, Amsterdam University Press, 2018, pp. 90-99.

Abstract: Although useful, digital screens have not yet replaced physical books. The printed book offers three concurrent psychological advantages that explain its puzzling resilience: (1) Better learning and remembering are associated with the physical act of moving through the space of printed pages, which stimulates the visuo-spatial sketchpad component of working memory; (2) since reading is based on temporal, sequential processing, the fixed frame of reference of printed pages and their fixed shape are great aids to memory; (3) the properties of paper and the standard design of a printed book guarantee that it will always function properly: one day, a year, or many centuries later. One reads the same words on screen or in print, but the context in which the symbols are read is very different. The digital book appears and vanishes. The physical book -- where kinesthetic experience is more vivid -- remains as an actual, remembered space.

Keywords: e-reader; memory; printed book; reading; space