All articles tagged with #reading
A new review in Psychological Medicine by University of Cambridge researchers finds that reading for pleasure is associated with improved cognitive function, reduced stress, and lower dementia risk across all ages. The study highlights that while reading benefits brain structure and mental well-being, participation rates among children and adolescents have dropped to historic lows.
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An editorial in Psychological Medicine synthesizes decades of surveys, brain scans, and longitudinal studies to link reading for pleasure with lower stress (one 2015 survey tied six minutes of reading to a 68% stress drop), greater empathy, and less loneliness, plus a lower dementia risk and slower cognitive decline in older adults. Early and regular reading is also associated with better attention and mental health in youth, with brain differences supporting these findings, though most results are associative rather than causal. The authors note reading declines among children—especially boys aged 11–16—and caution that reading should complement, not replace, medical care.
A Cambridge-led review published in Psychological Medicine finds reading for pleasure boosts mental well-being, enhances memory and academic performance, and is associated with a reduced risk of dementia across ages. The benefits extend from childhood into older age, with social reading groups also helping combat loneliness and support cognitive health.
Cambridge researchers say reading for pleasure boosts health and wellbeing at any age, improves cognitive performance and may lower dementia risk; benefits arise regardless of the material read and can start in childhood, per a Psychological Medicine review supported by The Queen's Reading Room and the National Year of Reading.
OECD's PISA results show a global decline in 15-year-olds' maths and reading skills, with AI, smartphones and social media cited as contributing factors. The article invites readers to try a sample of PISA questions across maths, science and reading, notes adult literacy gaps, and provides a link to the full test for those curious to compare their own performance.
U.S. students posted their lowest PISA scores in more than 20 years, with reading down 14 points since 2022 and math also declining, while a Walton Family Foundation–Gallup poll shows American satisfaction with K-12 education at a new low.
The OECD's PISA 2025 results show 15-year-olds’ reading and maths skills slipping across OECD countries, with reading down about 28 points since 2015 and maths down roughly 22 points over the past decade, while science is less affected. The declines are linked to increased screen time and fewer recreational readers as digitalisation grows. The inequality gap narrowed mainly because advantaged students posted larger declines, not because disadvantaged students improved. EU performance is mixed, with some countries above the OECD average and others well below; experts urge deeper learning, stronger teaching, targeted support, and purposeful use of technology and AI.
A hierarchical resource-rational model of reading treats eye movements and memory as optimally chosen actions under bounded resources, using word-, sentence-, and text-level POMDP controllers trained with deep reinforcement learning. The model reproduces classic reading effects, accounts for skips, regressions and rereading under time pressure, and aligns with new dataset results, showing that higher-level goals guide lower-level eye movements and that hierarchy is essential for human-like reading.
The New York Times gathered input from librarians, booksellers, editors, bookstagrammers, and crime writers to compile a 50-book list of the best thrillers published since 2000. The collection spans countries and eras, highlighting titles that became cultural moments alongside bestsellers, with Book Riot citing favorites such as Mexican Gothic (Silvia Moreno-Garcia), Bluebird, Bluebird (Attica Locke), All the Sinners Bleed (S.A. Cosby), The God of the Woods (Liz Moore), In the Woods (Tana French), My Sister, the Serial Killer (Oyinkan Braithwaite), and The Sympathizer (Viet Thanh Nguyen). The piece also mentions a reader poll for the NYT list and affiliates disclosure on linked content.
A 43-year-old Reading, PA man, Federico Perez Polanco, was arrested at a New Jersey airport while attempting to fly to the Dominican Republic after a morning shooting on North Fifth Street left a 32-year-old man dead. Investigators say Polanco fled to New Jersey after the killing; a multi-agency task force arrested him as he prepared to board a flight home. He awaits extradition to Pennsylvania to face first-degree murder charges; the investigation remains active and police are seeking tips.
Karoline Leavitt posted about riding aboard Trump’s new Air Force One during its rollout, sharing images of herself with the president. One photo shows shelves of hardback books labeled “Library,” prompting lighthearted scrutiny of the jet’s display as Leavitt — who had just returned from maternity leave — documented the moment on social media.
A Tokyo study using fMRI and manga found that reading on paper strengthens a reader’s mental map of a story and requires less brain effort than reading on a tablet, which triggered more activity in language and cognitive areas and slowed performance on questions requiring integration of the narrative. The results suggest print may support more efficient narrative comprehension, though researchers used manga to illustrate a general effect; earlier work also links print reading with closer parent-child bonding.
A PLOS ONE study with 25 native Japanese speakers found reading manga on paper led to lower cognitive effort and different brain activation than reading on a tablet: paper readers showed reduced activity in left-hemisphere language areas during integration of the story’s second half, while tablet readers exhibited higher activity in those regions and in right frontal areas. Behaviorally, both groups answered complex questions with similar accuracy, but tablet readers were slower, suggesting that physical paper provides stable sensory anchors that ease narrative processing and memory. Limitations include focusing on manga and device differences like backlighting and page-turn dynamics; researchers plan to explore broader media formats and the effects of writing with pen vs. keyboard.
Marilyn Monroe was an avid reader whose personal library grew to more than 400 books, accompanying her through dozens of moves and influencing her self-improvement efforts. The collection featured works from Joyce, Camus, Proust, Freud, and many others, reflecting her literary ambitions and sharp opinions. After her death in 1962, the books were stored, passed through estate heirs, and finally sold by Christie’s in 1999; the full list of titles reveals a lifelong engagement with classic literature, poetry, philosophy, drama, and biographies.