Hard-to-Read Fonts Improve Learning

arkenian writes "Difficult-to-read fonts make for better learning, according to scientists. The finding is about to be published in the international journal Cognition. Researchers at Princeton University employed volunteers to learn made-up information about different types of aliens — and found that those reading harder fonts recalled more when tested 15 minutes later. The article goes on to note a second test in a real school environment: 'Keen to see if their findings actually worked in practice, the Princeton University team then tested their results on 222 students aged between 15 and 18 at a secondary school in Chesterfield, Ohio.'... 'Students given the harder-to-read materials scored higher in their classroom assessments than those in the control group. This was the case across a range of subjects — from English, to Physics to History.'"

Comments

Re:Comic Times New Roman, anyone?

[drinkypoo]

I think it's obvious (heh heh) that it forces you to think about the content in order to read it, when using a font which requires no conscious thought to process results in more flow with less processing and thus less retention. Perhaps future systems will sense the user's level of interest and change fonts dynamically to keep them learning.

Re:don't rewrite textbooks in Comic Sans just yet

[Anonymous Coward]

Arial? Verdana, my friend. Arial is a cheap whore compared to the lady Verdana. Guess why Arial was created by Microsoft originally?

It wasn't created by Microsoft. It was originally made for IBM by Monotype in the early 80s, when it was known as Sonoran Sans (similarly, Times New Roman was originally called Sonoran Serif). Microsoft then licensed these from Monotype and renamed them Arial and TNR, respectively. But don't let little facts get in the way of your hatred of Microsoft.

Re:Printed or On Screen?

[Samantha Wright]

More important than that: the font samples provided online were wrong. The test was a comparison between Comic Sans and Bodoni, which is a modernist serif typeface commonly used in the titles of fashion magazines and for the main text in (ugh) my physiology textbook. I had wondered why, since its elegance is grating after a while—I guess I know now, which means this study is already old news. Wikipedia on Bodoni.