Engagement via annotation (underlining, highlighting, notes) shows no significant effect on comprehension¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causalr2·q3
Currency · newest study 2011 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q3 i? Mean quiz scores did not differ significantly between the clean reading condition and the annotated reading condition. → Annette Kujawski Taylor 2011
Evidence¶
Annette Kujawski Taylor 2011¶
Annette Kujawski Taylor. (2011). Students Learn Equally Well From Digital as From Paperbound Texts. Teaching of Psychology, 38(4), 278-281. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628311421330
q3 · i? · causal · r2
Participants were randomly assigned to clean or annotated engagement conditions within each medium; annotated readers could underline, highlight, make margin notes, or use digital highlighting. The difference was nonsignificant (59.1% vs. 62.8%).
"For the engagement variable, the mean quiz scores were 59.1 % for clean reading and 62.8 % for annotated reading. This difference was also nonsignificant."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- College students show no comprehension difference between digital and paperbound textbook reading, immediately or after 1 week — related
- Learner highlighting of text gives a small memory benefit but no reliable comprehension benefit, and evidence on other forms of annotation is not yet recorded here — related
- In one experiment, students who generated their own underlining did not score significantly higher on tests than students given experimenter-generated underlining — related
- Highlighting shows low utility for improving learning outcomes — a broader claim this one bears on
- Relevancy of emphasized text directs attention and influences test performance — related
- Recall of passage details is most depressed when children receive both underlining and conceptual postquestions — related
- Ten-year-old readers predominantly underline subordinate passage details rather than superordinate conceptual material, even when conceptual postquestions focus attention on topic sentences — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
annotation-engagement-no-comprehension-effect |
title |
Engagement via annotation (underlining, highlighting, notes) shows no significant effect on comprehension |
description |
Engagement via annotation (underlining, highlighting, notes) shows no significant effect on comprehension |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2011 |
source_checked |
2026-10-20 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-16 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — annette-kujawski-taylor-2011 |
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