Date of Graduation

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Psychological Science

Advisor/Mentor

Bill Levine

Committee Member

Laurie Brady

Second Committee Member

Mitch Brown

Third Committee Member

Spencer Allen

Abstract

There are a variety of opinions regarding whether listening to audiobooks counts as real reading, but very limited research examining the topic in depth. The current study investigates the differences between audiobooks and reading, specifically examining how the two modes of story experiences effect mind-wandering, enjoyment, absorption, and comprehension. We predicted that listening to the story would lead to increased mind-wandering and decreased comprehension and raised the research question of how the modes would affect enjoyment and transportation. Undergraduate students (n = 76) were divided into a reading or a listening condition, where they experienced a short story. During the story they were asked if they were mind-wandering, and afterwards answered questions on an enjoyment scale, a transportation scale, and on comprehension. The results of our analysis partially supported our hypotheses and demonstrated that enjoyment and transportation are higher in the reading condition then in the listening condition. There was also a significant effect of mind-wandering as a mediation variable between presentation modality and enjoyment. Additional research with a larger sample size is suggested.

Keywords

story enjoyment, reading, listening, mind-wandering

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