A few weeks ago, while having lunch with my teenage son and younger daughter, we stumbled into a conversation about Egyptian pharaohs. I shared the fascinating tale of Hatshepsut, an ancient female pharaoh whose story I discovered through the audiobook “When Women Ruled the World.” I explained how she assumed kingship while ruling for her young stepson, not just as a queen regent, but as a king herself. She even had grand statues made to depict her as a man, complete with a bare chest and the iconic pharaoh’s beard, likely to affirm her authority to her subjects.
Even as I recounted this, I insisted that I had read the book. Yet, the truth is I didn’t read it; I listened to it during a long road trip last fall. I not only remembered the details vividly—perhaps even more so than if I had read them—but I also constructed false memories of reading a physical book.
It’s not unusual for me to confuse my formats when recalling the books I’ve engaged with. I’ve often gone to my shelf looking for a book to lend, only to realize that I don’t own a physical copy, as I had listened to the audiobook. My brain seems to treat both formats interchangeably.
Encouraging Audiobooks in Education
Lara Johnson, a college composition instructor in Florida, says many people are taken aback when she tells them she encourages her students to listen to their assignments or use audio materials to enhance their learning. “People can be quite rigid about what they believe education should look like,” she tells Home Insemination Kit. “They’ll claim we’re dumbing things down.”
I’ve experienced a similar reaction. For some, listening to a book isn’t seen as requiring the same intellectual effort as pouring over physical pages. I refer to these individuals as “visual reading purists.”
However, Johnson reassures her students that enjoying audiobooks and listening to reading assignments is indeed a valid form of reading. “Reading doesn’t have to be confined to paper,” she asserts. “For my students, who are balancing busy lives with work and study, audiobooks provide a way to complete their reading while on the go.”
She also notes that students of all ages can struggle with reading comprehension, and many are primarily auditory learners. Listening can help them grasp elements like tone and inflection, which could be missed when reading silently. “One strategy I recommend is for students to listen to an audiobook or a YouTube video of someone reading an assigned text while following along with a print or e-book version,” Johnson explains.
The Science Behind Listening and Reading
Johnson’s approach is supported by science. A 2019 study published in the Journal of Neuroscience by researchers at the Gallant Lab at UC Berkeley explored how our brains respond to reading versus listening. Participants read and listened to stories from “The Moth Radio Hour,” while their brains were scanned. The findings revealed nearly identical reactions in the brain, regardless of whether the input was visual or auditory. The researchers concluded, “Results suggest that the representation of language semantics is independent of the sensory modality through which the semantic information is received.”
In essence, our brains extract meaning from words, and the format is less important than the words themselves. This explains why I often can’t remember if I read or listened to a book. To my brain, they’re one and the same. As Johnson has observed, her students often benefit from using auditory supplements, enhancing their learning experience rather than dumbing it down.
Conclusion
So, if you prefer audiobooks or podcasts over traditional reading, know that your method of absorbing information is equally valid and valuable. It might even be the smarter way to learn. After all, when was the last time a visual reading purist could finish a novel while navigating rush-hour traffic?
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Summary:
This article discusses the equivalence of audiobooks and physical books from a cognitive perspective. It highlights a personal anecdote illustrating how easily one can confuse the two formats. It also features insights from a college instructor who advocates for audiobooks as a valid learning tool, backed by scientific research that shows the brain processes language similarly, regardless of whether it is read or listened to.