This meta-analysis examines the inconsistent findings across experimental studies that compared children’s learning outcomes with digital and paper books. We quantitatively reviewed 39 studies reported in 30 articles (n = 1,812 children) and compared children’s story comprehension and vocabulary learning in relation to medium (reading on paper versus on-screen), design enhancements in digital books, the presence of a dictionary, and adult support for children aged between 1 and 8 years. The comparison of digital versus paper books that only differed by digitization showed lower comprehension scores for digital books. Adults’ mediation during print books’ reading was more effective than the enhancements in digital books read by children independently. However, with story-congruent enhancements, digital books outperformed paper books. An embedded dictionary had no or negative effect on children’s story comprehension but positively affected children’s vocabulary learning. Findings are discussed in relation to the cognitive load theory and practical design implications.

这项荟萃分析检查了实验研究中不一致的发现，这些研究将儿童的学习成果与数字和纸质书进行了比较。我们定量回顾了30篇文章中的39项研究（n = 1,812名儿童），并比较了儿童的故事理解和词汇学习与媒介（在纸上阅读还是在屏幕上阅读），数字书籍的设计增强，字典的存在以及1至8岁儿童的成人支持。数字书籍和纸质书籍的比较仅因数字化而不同，显示出数字书籍的理解分数较低。成年人在印刷书籍阅读期间的调解比增强儿童独立阅读数字书籍的效果更有效。但是，通过与故事一致的增强功能，数字书籍的表现优于纸质书籍。嵌入式词典对儿童的故事理解没有影响，但对儿童的词汇学习有积极影响。讨论了有关认知负荷理论和实际设计意义的发现。