A new study suggests that reading books is more effective than watching images and stories unfold on screen at stimulating the imagination.
Screen time has long been thought to have an impact on the brain’s imaginative powers, with stories being interpreted and delivered through images for the viewer to consume rather than created in the mind. There has been limited research, however, looking at both the imaginative impacts of screen time versus alternative activities, such as reading, to support this theory.
In an experiment conducted with over 200 young adults, Dr. Sebastian Suggate from the University of York tested the idea that screen usage could negatively impact one’s capacity for imagination. The participants were shown both slow and fast-paced video clips along with text to read.
Impaired Visual Imagery
The participants were then asked to imagine and then mentally compare the characteristics of objects familiar to them that were not featured in the film or text they had seen, and the speed and accuracy of their responses were timed.
Participants were asked to visualize the objects, elicit mental images, and then draw similarities between them depending on how they felt or appeared. One possible question for a participant would be, “Which instrument is shinier, a trumpet or a flute?”
After viewing the films, participants were slower at these mental comparisons than after they had read texts.
“We found that those who had been watching film clips had slightly impaired imagery for 25 seconds compared to those who had just been reading and that this did not change depending on whether they had seen fast-moving or slow-moving images on screen,”
said Dr. Suggate, of the University of York’s Department of Education.
“In reality, this is a very small time delay, but if you look at what this means over a longer period of time—days or years of consistently consuming images on screen—then we can see that this is actually a significant impact on the brain’s ability to mentally visualize and feel,”
Suggate added.
Multi-sensory Function
The study builds on a previous study in which researchers explored the long-term effects on children aged 3 to 9 years who watched television for one to four hours every day for ten months. The findings revealed that children’s ability to mentally visualize was ‘dulled’ with time, which could have a negative impact on picturing in general.
“In order to produce images in the brain or mind, we rely on a number of sensory systems, and not just our ability to see. It takes the experiences of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch to produce a response to the world around us, and our study in children suggests that passively consuming images for hours and over a long period of time without routinely stopping to do something else that tests our other sensory functions, or to simply pause their viewing to discuss what they had just seen on the television, dulls the imaginative capabilities,”
Dr. Suggate explained.
The researchers observed a similar effect in their study with adults in a short period of time, and by comparing it to reading, they can see that the brain needs to actively create mental imagery, and we appear to be able to do this better when the images are not already provided to us via film clips.
Balance Is Key
It is thought that imagination plays an important role in human development and can impact many abilities, such as how to plan, be creative, and empathize.
“More work is needed to understand how our new digital world impacts imagination, but like most things, balance seems to be the key. Some screen time is fine, but balancing this out with things like reading, interacting with other people, and exercising outdoors seems to be the best way to protect our imaginative capabilities,”
Dr. Suggate said.
It is critical that we protect it because it has a significant impact, particularly on young children as their brains develop, and the concern is that we do not want generations of people who struggle to see themselves in the shoes of others and imagine alternative ways of addressing both big and small challenges. Many social and environmental issues are ideal instances of this; in many respects, we need to be able to visualize what our world was like and what it will be like if we don’t change our ways.
Reference:
- Sebastian Suggate et al, Does It Kill the Imagination Dead? The Effect of Film Versus Reading on Mental Imagery. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts. doi.org/10.1037/aca0000651