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Abstract

Digital reading has become integral in our education, recreational reading, and professional lives. The papers in this special issue explore individual differences in how readers understand, process, and learn from digital texts across different age groups and tasks. This commentary summarises study findings about the similarities in processing information presented on paper and on screen, and the unique challenges that arise through the content and activities that are a focus of digital reading, such as internet-based search and learning. I conclude with recommendations for future research to elucidate how reader characteristics and experience interact with digital reading tasks and texts to influence comprehension and learning.

Introduction

Digital reading is now ubiquitous in our education, leisure time, and professional lives. The majority of adults (87%) report using the internet on a daily basis (OECD, 2024a) and it is estimated that 90% of jobs in Europe require digital literacy skills (Mancino, 2023). According to recent international surveys, 56% of 15-year-olds spend more than one hour per day on learning activities at school (OECD, 2024b), up to 90% of 15-year-olds browse the internet and social media for fun (OECD, 2024b), and approximately 70% of 10-year-olds own a smartphone (OECD, 2025). Against this backdrop, the papers in this special issue provide new insights into how different aspects of reader, task, and text interact to influence comprehension of and learning from digital texts, and indicate future research directions that will guide us to better understand and support digital reading proficiency.

Section snippets

What do we mean by digital reading?

Digital reading means different things to different people; as noted by Skovdahl, Salmerón, and Anmarkrud (2025) in this special issue, ‘there is still no clear consensus regarding its definition’ (p. 2). Digital reading can involve a range of delivery devices: smartphones, tablets, laptops, as well as e-readers, and the devices, formats, and interactional opportunities change and develop at pace. A particular focus of digital reading noted by the editors is the range of literacy practices

Reading and learning on the internet: challenges that arise from text, task, and reader

While the basic reading and cognitive skills that influence paper-based reading and learning also support digital experiences, digital technologies provide greater opportunities and new experiences for leisure and learning. Successful digital readers need to be able to navigate the internet and to understand, evaluate, and integrate information across multiple websites that range in terms of credibility and quality (Coiro, 2021). The importance of these skills is recognized by their inclusion

Digital reading: (how) does reader experience interact with task and text?

There is a well-established beneficial relationship between paper-based reading experience and reading comprehension. The general thesis is that reading experience is associated with better proficiency and knowledge, because reading affords opportunities to practice skills and access a greater variety of knowledge than everyday conversation (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1998). In contrast, a negative relationship between digital experience and digital comprehension and learning has been proposed,

Conclusions: What do we know and where do we go from here?

The papers in this special issue demonstrate how the digital environment brings new challenges, but also opportunities, for reading and learning. Digital reading for learning presents new challenges due to ease of access to a volume of information. Our broader digital experience may also influence the quality of our learning and cognitive processing. And digital technologies afford new opportunities that we can and should exploit to enhance digital reading proficiency and learning. The model

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