• Almudena Barrientos Báez, U. de Iriarte, España

• Inmaculada Clotilde Santos Díaz, UMA, España

• Efrén Viramontes, E. N. Ricardo Flores Magón, México

• Ester Trigo Ibáñez, UCA, España

• Marek Baran, U. de Lodz, Polonia

• Gloria Santiago Méndez, UMA, España

• Marta Sanjuán Álvarez, U. de Zaragoza, España

• Xaquín Núñez Sabarís, U. do Minho, Portugal

• Ana Cea Álvarez, U. do Minho, Portugal

• Inmaculada Guisado Sánchez, UNEX, España

• María Auxiliadora Robles Bello, UJAEN, España

• Magdalena López Pérez, UNEX, España

• Milagrosa Parrado Collantes, UCA, España

• Paula Rivera Jurado, UCA, España

• Begoña Gómez Devís, UV, España

developments. Within these technological innovations, pupils live engaging and stimulating experiences that share with

others in a natural and active way, therefore it is normal for them to find the traditional didactic resources they use in their

schools as not very motivating. Aiming at finding out if textbooks are perceived as attractive materials to the participants

neuromarketing devices were placed on the participants during reading and performance process (post-reading tasks) in

both paper and digital textbooks. The data obtained reveled different physical and emotional reactions with high scores

in the case of the on-paper learning, both in frontal asymmetry, electrodermal activity and pupillary dilation. Regarding

the emotional parameters, there were participants with very high levels of stress and rejection, especially with the on-

screen learning (E-textbook), while others obtained high enjoyment scale scores, specifically with the book in paper

format.

being –conceived from different perspectives: biology,

relationship established between Neuroscience and

Education has resulted in what Mora (2007) defined as

impulsive behavior, bad behavior, learning problems and

academic performance. One example of the above is the

pioneering study carried out with three-to-five children

using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI),

where John S. Hutton (2015) and his collaborators found

that, when listening to new stories, children that have been

read aloud regularly at home, showed high activation in

brain areas related to mental imaging and semantic

processing, unlike those who lacked such experience. Juan

Mata (2016) addresses what happens in the brain while

2013). Neuroscience is not only helping to better

understand the human brain but also, as in the above-

mentioned research, trying to offer data on how the brain

learns or, as in the present article, how to improve teaching

materials that students access daily.

The neuroscientific study proposed in this article is based

on the reading process (both in digital and paper format) of

a small group of students, with the intent to know their

reactions and if there are differences between book

formats. This study originated from the fact that a large part

and publication of presentations, photographs, and videos.

This variety of multimedia resources enables students to

obtain immediate reinforcement (Ortiz, 2011, p. 153),

hence they tend to find little motivating traditional learning

resources such as textbooks. For this reason, many

educational centers are trying to use ICT resources to favor

and improve the teaching and learning processes of the

different curricular subjects. Nonetheless, as Cebrián

(2011, p.23), and Martínez & Sánchez (2011, pp.123-124)

indicate, technological innovation, per se, does not imply

pedagogical projects in which it is inserted (Vera, 1997;

innovating, organizing, stimulating, motivating, as well as

being a role model, an interlocutor, and a mediator in the

classroom (Mendoza, 2003), and a “creator of learning

opportunities” (Morales, 2006, p.49), among others. For

the training of students with the use of ICT to be successful,

Fernández, Tojar & Mena (2013) highlight teachers’ key

role helping their students to manage their emotions when

interacting with the devices (Ferré I Prats, 2014:239), as

well as promoting proper use and good practices when

dealing with ICT (Gutiérrez, 2014, p. 54), for developing

knowledge (Egüé, 1995). However, when this process

becomes compulsory and monotonous, students hardly

read for fun (Suárez, 2001), and the little they read, turns

to have a utilitarian function: studying to pass the different

curricular subjects. Currently, two types of reading appear

in this study: traditional or Gutenberian reading (one that

recognizes the pages, ink and paste of a book as a

requirement); and digital reading (which implies the use of

reading practices (Cordón, 2018). This new reality caused

that young people have begun to prefer reading on the

screen rather than in printed or plain texts (Bonvin, 2009).

Experts remain divided on the cognitive consequences of

screen reading. Some foresee that the ability to read long

texts and think deeply will decrease, while others believe

that our intellectual capacity will increase exponentially

(Bonvin, 2009). According to studies by Merga et al.

who regularly access electronic devices hardly use them for

reading, even if they are regular readers on paper, since

rather developing and transforming itself towards new

practices and modalities, and the digital one is in a process

of rediscovery in its complex virtual and hybrid scenarios,

where new and traditional forms of reading merges

(Levratto, 2017). However, reading digital texts requires

developing a new thought processes and competences such

as search criteria, selection, interpretation, reordering and

association of content; but also, the prioritization of

messages, understating multimedia language, multilingual

texts in the same message, or the selection of a reading

itinerary (Bonvin, 2009).

2007), such as textbooks, guides, cards, didactic videos, or

educational software (Area, 1999). Also, it is characterized

by being “the expression of certain choice(s) and the

conception of cultural knowledge for teaching different

curricular subjects” (Lomas & Vera, 2004, p.7). Textbooks,

in their different formats (paper or digital) are the most

widely used curricular material in schools (Díaz, 2007), to

the point of being used as the main educational resource by

90% of schools (Travé, Pozuelos and Canal de León,

[…] A textbook is understood to be the printed

material, non-expendable, self-sufficient,

intended to be used by students and that

develops, in accordance with the

methodological guidelines and corresponding

evaluation criteria, the contents established by

textbooks are not challenging and do not contribute to the

critical awareness of the reader, because they are entirely

focused on the text. Textbooks have been considered as one

of the most powerful control instruments of centralized

school models (Peirats, 2016), with didactic approaches

unrelated to teachers (Atienza, 1994), and that uses

practical and current challenges of the students’ daily lives

(López-Hernández, 2007).

acquisition of the digital competence (Silva, 2011) that

uses a format that is fully accessible on the Internet and

permanently connected to the Internet. It represents an

important change in the relationship with the reader, “given

that while the printed text enhances introspection, the

secondary communication between its recipients by

changing the reception space to tablets or computers” (San

characteristics include multimodal elements (texts,

hypertexts, hypermedia, and audiovisuals), which favor the

literacy of students in different channels (Jewit, 2005;

López-Andrada, 2013). Its didactic contents are flexible

(López-Andrada, 2013) and the activities are characterized

by being interactive and self-correcting, which allows the

grading of the difficulty and the performance of

reinforcement, extension, and evaluation activities (Silva,

2011). Sometimes, E-textbooks also encourage Internet

searches for high culture coming from museums, libraries,

exhibitions, images, videos, or dictionaries (Esteban,

to the biased selection of the publisher, then it is not

like paper textbooks; nonetheless, given that the first ones

can be viewed on electronic devices, online distractions are

a risk, or that E-textbooks are more expensive than the

paper ones considering that for accessing its information

there is the need for acquiring a tablet or a computer. On

the contrary, the publishers Planeta and Vicens Vives have

connected to the internet, its contents can be updated

immediately; they represent a saving for families of €88 on

average per student per year (according to Idealo.es

For López-Aranda (2013), not all are advantages of E-

edit, modify or sharing information, neither promote the

interaction between users. Although younger pupils may

find some motivation in the use of this digital and

educational material, the self-correcting activities proposed

by the publishers only highlight the result (correct or

incorrect) without offering feedback on the errors (type,

frequency, or severity). Once the exercises are completed,

the digital book also does not help to identify if the student

has truly acquired the knowledge, how long has taken to

achieve it, or the exact number of attempts has taken to

complete those exercises. Other disadvantages of the

teachers have the necessary training or digital skills

forever […], with digital books, on many occasions, what

is purchased is the user license, equivalent to renting the

book for a limited time” (Sotomayor, 2015, p. 4).

the respective legal guardians for their participation in the

research, as well as for the recording of all the sessions and

the photographing of the minors.

• GSR measures electrodermal activity, collects

• Mobile eye tracking system. It extracts visual

Louvoere, Kahn & Townsend (2013), from the Australian

University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and the

University of Pennsylvania and University of Miami

(USA); also, by Sourina & Liu’s studies (2011), from the

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU).

first was a Spanish paper textbook entitled “Project: The

legend of the legacy. Spanish Language and Literature 6”,

from the first school term, and published by Edelvives

publishing house (Martín-Sánchez et al., 2019).

The second stimulus was a digital textbook (or E-textbook)

with the same characteristics as the previous paper book

(same publishing house, subjects, course, and exercises).

Participants 1 and 2 individually performed exercises 2 to

6 on reading comprehension (pages 69-71) in front of a

computer screen, while participant 3 completed exercises 1

employing five neuromarketing devices during the

completion exercises with textbooks in digital and paper

format. The order of exposure for those results is as

follows: emotional parameters and frontal asymmetry,

electrodermal activity, pupillary dilation, eye fixations and

facial expressions.

For obtaining the data related to the emotional parameters,

a Neurosensory-EEG headband (with its fourteen-channel

electroencephalograph) was employed, which collects the

emotional parameters –commitment and interest– are the

most important and significant, because thanks to them, the

rest of the emotional parameters were assessed. Those are

considered relevant only when above the 0.00-0.20 range.

For the three participants of this study, the parameters of

commitment (conscious attention of the participant towards

relevant stimulus) and interest (degree of attraction or

aversion to stimulus) were very similar, when carrying out

the readings and the exercises in the digital book (Figure

1). On the contrary, the results of the parameters of

attention (feeling of physiological arousal) and stress

(almost negative), together with the stress value that was

very high. These two parameters are related to relaxation,

concentration and continue with the task. For participant 1,

the emotional experience while reading and completing