Perspective effects in repeated reading: an eye movement study

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Reading Science

Background:

• Understanding how readers process expository text is crucial for effective learning.
• Prior knowledge and reading strategies, like perspective-taking, can influence text comprehension.
• Eye-tracking offers insights into the online cognitive processes during reading.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of reading perspective instructions on the online processing of expository text.
• To examine the interplay between prior knowledge, perspective, and repeated reading on visual attention allocation.
• To analyze how perspective switching influences processing of relevant and irrelevant information.

Main Methods:

• Sixty-two participants read high or low prior knowledge (HPK vs. LPK) expository texts twice.
• Eye movements were recorded during reading to measure online processing.
• Participants switched reading perspectives before a third reading of the text.

Main Results:

• Reading perspective influenced first-pass reading times and sentence wrap-up times for relevant sentences.
• Higher prior knowledge (HPK) led to earlier recognition of information relevance and perspective effects.
• Repeated reading generally improved processing; a perspective switch caused benefits for previously relevant info and costs for irrelevant info.

Conclusions:

• Reading perspective and prior knowledge significantly modulate visual attention allocation during expository text reading.
• Repeated reading enhances processing efficiency, but perspective shifts alter the processing of text information.
• The findings highlight the dynamic nature of reading comprehension influenced by reader-specific and task-specific factors.