The effect of visual cues in e-books on pre-K children’s visual attention, word recognition, and comprehension: An eye tracking study

Abstract

This study explored how pre-K children process an e-book with narration through eye movements, and also the effects of visual cues on preschoolers’ visual attention to text, word recognition, and comprehension. Data were collected from eight children attending a university-associated daycare center. Eye tracker was used to record the participants’ eye movements while interacting with the e-book. Although the participants understood the story, only two of them showed an increase in the word recognition test. The obtained eye movement data demonstrated that the children focused more on the pictures (82.31%) than on the text (15.56%), which is a result that is higher than found in previous studies (e.g., Evans & Saint-Aubin, 2005; Justice et al., 2005; Takacs & Bus, 2018). Overall, 51.71% of their fixations on text matched with the visual cues synchronized with the narration. This study was limited to a single reading session of a short storybook, and employed a small sample size.

Keywords:

• Signaling
• e-book
• eye tracking
• multimedia
• visual attention
• reading

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the contribution of the BH@USC, its children, teachers, and families. Also, we thank Dr. Lucy Green for her support on the development of the instructional material.

Declaration of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ismahan Arslan-Ari

Ismahan Arslan-Ari is an assistant professor in the Learning Design and Technologies program at the University of South Carolina. Her research mainly focuses on multimedia learning, human computer interaction, the use of assistive technologies and web-based learning systems.

Fatih Ari is an assistant professor in the Learning Design and Technologies program at the University of South Carolina. His research interests include feedback design and delivery, adaptive web-based systems, multimedia learning, and computer science education.