inc.com Neuroscience Says Listening to Audiobooks Is Just as Good as Reading—Especially If You Do This Justin Bariso 4–5 minutes

“Do audiobooks count as reading?”

That’s the question Alex Wieckowski recently posed to hundreds of thousands of social media followers. Wieckowski is the creator of Alex and Books, a popular website, newsletter, and podcast which shares Wieckowski’s book recommendations and reading tips.

Book fans everywhere passionately shared their thoughts. And while there were a fair share of audiobook detractors, most seemed to be in favor of audiobooks as a learning medium.

“I am more likely to get through a book that I listen to on a 3-hour bike ride than I am reading in the evening,” wrote one commenter.

“I strongly believe there isn’t a single answer: it depends entirely on the individual,” wrote another.

“I’m both an extensive reader and an extensive audiobook listener and yes, of course audiobooks count,” chimed in another.

In recent years, neuroscientists have been coming out in support of audiobooks, too.

For example, in 2019 researchers used brain scans to map how the brain responded when participants listened to and read the same narrative stories. They found that the brain processed meaning in much the same way, whether it received the message through the eyes by reading or by listening through the ears.

“It’s not the case that someone learns better by listening or by reading,” said Nadine Gaab, cognitive neuroscientist and a professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, in a recent interview with The Harvard Gazette. “You may have a preference, but learning is sort of the same regardless of the modality.”

Reagardless of whether you’re reading or listening, though, there’s a separate habit that will go a long way in helping you get the most from what you read:

The habit of taking notes.

“The value of reading, and writing things down that we read, or hear, cannot be overstated,” writes Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, host of The Huberman Lab podcast. Huberman drew this conclusion after interviewing experts who specialize in speech and memory, and discussing how writing key aspects or takeaways by hand engages motor control centers of the brain “in ways that deeply embed that information to our memory.”

“Taking notes, however cursory, turns out to be the best way to remember and implement information later,” says Huberman.

There’s more neuroscience research to support this.

A 2013 meta-analysis titled “The handwriting brain” reviewed 18 neuroimaging studies and provided insights into the cognitive processes involved when writing by hand.

A famous 2014 study entitled “The pen is mightier than the keyboard” found students who took longhand notes performed even better than students who took notes on their laptops when it came to answering conceptual questions.

A 2024 meta-analysis took this further, concluding that college students who took handwritten lecture notes and reviewed them later achieved better results than those who typed their notes.

Which brings us to the inevitable question: What kind of notes should you take?

Wieckowski recommends a simple note taking strategy. (While geared towards physical books, it can easily be adapted to audiobooks, too.) Wieckowski’s technique includes taking note of any insights, quotes, or actionable advice that grab your attention, along with the page numbers on which they’re found. Most important, though, is to then write down ways you can apply those lessons. Doing so helps you synthesize the information and make it your own.

The conclusion?

Whether you prefer to read or listen, go for it. But if you want to remember and make the most of what you’ve learned, make sure to take notes, too.