Do audiobooks make your brain lazy? - Writing Woods with Victoria Griffin | Lyssna här

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Whenever someone argues that audiobooks "don't count" as real reading, it almost always comes down to effort. Print requires more cognitive effort and must be better for you... right?

I assumed that because audiobooks feel easier, they must be doing less for our brains. But when I looked into the research, that’s not what the science shows at all. Let's head into the woods to talk about cognitive load, how our brains judge mental effort, and whether reading that feels harder is actually better.

I've got a bunch of research for this one, y'all, and it's all linked below.

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⏱️ TIME STAMPS
00:00 - Why audiobooks feel easier
01:00 - Does effort help us learn?
03:18 - When difficulty becomes cognitive load
05:11 - Why we value effort
07:05 - Can doing hard things change us?
08:51 - How effort adds meaning
11:53 - Reading and long-term brain health
14:26 - Is print actually more effortful?
17:54 - Print and audio demand different kinds of effort
19:22 - Harder does not automatically mean better

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📖 RESOURCES

06:48 — Writing Woods community: https://writingwoods.com
00:13 — The audiobook debate was never about reading: https://youtu.be/RNnxQjtZrR0
01:48 — Bjork Learning and Forgetting Lab: https://bjorklab.psych.ucla.edu/research/
02:33 — Benefits of Accumulating Versus Diminishing Cues in Recall: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2011.01.006
03:18 — Cognitive load theory: https://doi.org/10.1016/0959-4752(94)90003-5
05:11 — The Effort Paradox: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2018.01.007
07:21 — Learned industriousness: https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.99.2.248
07:57 — Training Willpower: Reducing Costs and Valuing Effort: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.699817
Cognitive Load and Listening Effort: https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000000304
15:46 — A Potential Bias in Subjective Ratings of Mental Effort: https://doi.org/10.1044/2018JSLHR-H-17-0451
16:25 — Comparing Verbal Working Memory Load: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2020.113102
17:47 — Instructional Benefits of Spoken Words: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2011.12.002
11:59 — Reading activity prevents long-term decline in cognitive function: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1041610220000812
12:11 — Cognitive leisure activities and future risk of cognitive impairment and dementia: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1041610216001137
12:41 — Modifiable lifestyle factors and cognitive reserve: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2021.101551
Protocol: Recreational book reading for promoting cognitive functioning: https://doi.org/10.1002/cl2.1117
Hearing intervention to reduce cognitive decline: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01406-X
10:16 — An Experimental Longitudinal Intervention to Boost Well-Being

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