Cognitive Effort in Text Processing and Reading Comprehension in Print and on Tablet: An Eye-Tracking Study

ABSTRACT

In the present article, we examined the effect of the reading medium and the reading time-frame on text processing, metacognitive monitoring of comprehension, and comprehension outcomes. The eye movements of 116 undergraduates were recorded while they read three texts in print and three texts on a tablet under self-paced reading time or under time pressure. After each text, participants predicted their performance on a subsequent text comprehension test (i.e., an indicator of metacognitive monitoring). Overall, the results showed that participant performed similarly across media in all the reading processes evaluated, regardless of the reading time-frame. The only significant difference indicated that participants fixated more on text titles when reading in print than on the tablet. Although comprehension scores were slightly higher when reading in print, the difference only approached significance. The findings adhere to recent evidence suggesting that the in-print reading superiority is negligible when reading on tablets, as compared to reading on computers.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the participants. We would also like to express our gratitude the three anonymous reviewers for all their comments and suggestions, which were extremely helpful in improving the quality and clarity of our work.

Disclosure statement

The authors do not have any interests that might be interpreted as influencing the research, and APA ethical standards were followed in the conduct of the study. APA ethical standards were followed in the conduct of the study.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study and the syntaxes used to perform the statistical analyses are available at https://osf.io/kjuvz/?view_only=92197e4e8e8f4c22b4a9834193649bc9

Notes

1. Saccades are typically defined as the rapid eye movements between fixations when we read, look at a scene, or search for an object (Rayner, 1998, p. 373). Regressions are specific saccades that occur when the reader’s eyes do right-to-left movements along the line or movements back to previously read lines (p. 375).

2. Refutational texts directly refute the reader’s prior misconceptions about the topic under consideration, fostering conceptual change (Hynd et al., 1994).

3. Participants in this study read three texts in a row. They made a prediction of performance and then completed a test after each text, so that their calibration was measured for each text.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the project “Investigación neuroeducativa sobre el efecto de superioridad del papel - AYUDAS FUNDACIÓN BBVA A EQUIPOS DE INVESTIGACIÓN CIENTÍFICA 2018”.