TY - CHAP

T1 - Power-law fluctuations in eye movements predict text comprehension during connected text reading

AU - Wallot, Sebastian

AU - O'Brien, Beth A.

AU - Coey, Charles A.

AU - Kelty-Stephen, Damian

N1 - Conference code: 37

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - The present study investigates the relation between the reading process and text comprehension during naturalistic text reading. To that end, participants read easy and difficult texts while their eye movements were recorded. After each reading, participants filled-in comprehension questionnaires. We investigated classical measures of the reading process related to comprehension (fixation duration, regressive eye movements), as well as power-law scaling in eye movements that are indicative of degree of cognitive coordination during reading. The results show that text difficulty led to longer fixation durations and stronger power-law scaling in eye movements. Moreover, the degree of power-law scaling in eye movements was predictive of text comprehension. In line with previous research on natural text reading that utilized the self-paced reading method, power-law scaling turned out to be a superior predictor of reading comprehension compared to standard measures, suggesting that it is an effective measure of cognitive performance in complex reading tasks.

AB - The present study investigates the relation between the reading process and text comprehension during naturalistic text reading. To that end, participants read easy and difficult texts while their eye movements were recorded. After each reading, participants filled-in comprehension questionnaires. We investigated classical measures of the reading process related to comprehension (fixation duration, regressive eye movements), as well as power-law scaling in eye movements that are indicative of degree of cognitive coordination during reading. The results show that text difficulty led to longer fixation durations and stronger power-law scaling in eye movements. Moreover, the degree of power-law scaling in eye movements was predictive of text comprehension. In line with previous research on natural text reading that utilized the self-paced reading method, power-law scaling turned out to be a superior predictor of reading comprehension compared to standard measures, suggesting that it is an effective measure of cognitive performance in complex reading tasks.

KW - comprehension

KW - connected text reading

KW - eye movements

KW - naturalistic text reading

KW - power-law scaling

KW - Psychology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85048512762&partnerID=8YFLogxK

M3 - Article in conference proceedings

AN - SCOPUS:85048512762

SP - 2583

EP - 2588

BT - Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2015

A2 - Noelle, David C.

A2 - Dale, Rick

A2 - Warlaumont, Anne

A2 - Yoshimi, Jeff

A2 - Matlock, Teenie

A2 - Jennings, Carolyn D.

A2 - Maglio, Paul P.

PB - The Cognitive Science Society

CY - Austin, Texas

T2 - Conference - 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 2015

Y2 - 23 July 2015 through 25 July 2015

ER -