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Originally Posted by John F
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I think the studies are preliminary at best. The one study cited in SA:
http://www.pnas.org/content/112/4/1232
Reading the procedures and protocol, it seems designed to maximize chances of observing an effect. Yes, they are trying to eliminate possible other factors, but the device is a full size iPad “set to maximum brightness and placed in a stand that held it at a fixed angle at a 30 to 45 cm distance”. I have to assume this was black text on white. Participant is not allowed to hold it or make adjustments. It sounds like torture (they were allowed a 15 minute break in the 4h reading sessions).
For the people reading print books, they are allowed to hold the book any way they like and used their own materials. That is not a good ‘control’ group IMO.
Does that sound like a fair fight? In any case it has little to do with real world usage, and likelihood that the device is actually much smaller and much less bright. And critically, who has replicated the result (involving only 12 highly curated ‘healthy young adults’)?