When I listen to audiobooks, I find I need to do something mundane with my eyes and the part of my brain which isn't listening, to help me listen and retain what I'm listening to. Some part of my brain gets distracted when 'just listening' and before I know it, a chapter has passed as background noise.
Playing a very simple game like Tetris or Bejewelled helps. Doomscrolling certainly doesn't.
However, I've read a couple of books this year that I've had access to in both text and audio, and I've been reading along with the audiobook. This has been really enjoyable, and, more importantly, helped me retain what I've been reading. Relatedly, reading a book aloud appears to have a similar effect, where I retain the knowledge for longer.
It reminds me of school, where other students would read from a book, and I'd follow along until my turn to read aloud.
I imagine it's the reinforcement of occupying more parts of my brain with the same material which makes me be able to concentrate better, but I haven't done any research into this (yet).
To research
- Does Modality Matter? The Effects of Reading, Listening, and Dual Modality on Comprehension, by Beth A. Rogowsky, Barbara M. Calhoun, and Paula Tallal
- Listening, Reading, or Both? Rethinking the Comprehension Benefits of Reading-While-Listening, by Bronson Hui and Aline Godfroid
- Listening while reading promotes word learning from stories, by Alessandra Valentini, Jessie Ricketts, Rachel E. Pye, and Carmel Houston-Price
- The relationship between reading and listening comprehension: shared and modality-specific components, by M. C. Wolf, M. M. L. Muijselaar, A. M. Boonstra, and E. H. de Bree