Revealing the Implications of Reading Strategy for Reading Behaviour and Comprehension, 2018-2023

Experimental data, effects of reading task on eye movement behaviour during reading. The hypotheses for possible interactions between effects of reading goal and word length are more tentative as there is only very limited existing data that addresses this question. Word skipping: Previous studies have not examined effects of reading goal (reading vs. skimming) and word length on the likelihood of skipping words on first-pass. One possibility is that when skimming for gist longer words are targeted, while short words may be much more likely to be skipped. This may result in an interaction, such that the effect of word length on first-pass skipping may be larger during skimming compared to reading for comprehension. Refixation probability: The current study is also the first to examine effects of reading goal (reading vs. skimming) and word length on refixation probability. One possibility is that refixation probability is especially high for long words read carefully for comprehension, with much lower refixation probabilities for short words. Refixation probability may be low for both short and long words that are skimmed for gist. This may result in an interactive pattern of results for refixation probability. Gaze duration: Strukelj and Niehorster (2018) reported no significant interaction between reading task and word length for first-pass reading time (gaze duration). However the present study employs tight control of other variables and may reveal more subtle effects. Given the tentative hypothesis for an interactive pattern for refixation probability, a similar interaction may also be observed for gaze duration, such that the effect of reading goal may be larger for long compared to short words. This study has a 2 (word length: short vs. long) x 2 (reading goal: skimming vs. reading for comprehension) within-subject and within-item design. Reading goals are manipulated via instructions given, as well as by the frequency and difficulty of comprehension questions. Each participant completes a reading for comprehension block and a skimming block. For the reading block, participants are instructed to read all of the text carefully and they respond to detailed comprehension questions after most of the sentences. For the skimming block, participants are instructed to skim the text quickly to understand the general content of the text, and they respond to easy questions about the general content (gist) after a small proportion of the sentences. There are 96 experimental sentence items in total. A critical word is embedded into each sentence frame. Critical words are either short, 3-4 characters long (M = 3.80; SD = 0.40) or long, 8-9 characters long (M = 8.38; SD = 0.49). Critical words were always preceded by a 5-6 letter long word.