Eye Movements of Deaf Students in Expository Versus Narrative Texts

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Audiology

Background:

• Text comprehension is crucial for academic success in primary and secondary education.
• Deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) students face significant challenges in text comprehension compared to typically hearing (TH) peers.
• Understanding how text genre influences reading processes in DHH students is vital for developing targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of text genre (narrative vs. expository) on text comprehension accuracy and eye-movement patterns in DHH students.
• To compare the reading performance and eye-movement behaviors of DHH students with a chronologically matched typically hearing (TH) control group.
• To explore potential differences in self-regulation strategies between DHH and TH readers across different text genres.

Main Methods:

• Participants included DHH students and a typically hearing (TH) control group, aged 9-15 years.
• Text comprehension was assessed for both narrative and expository genres.
• Eye-movement patterns, including fixation duration, saccade amplitude, and regressive fixations, were recorded during reading.

Main Results:

• Comprehension accuracy was comparable across text genres for both groups, but TH participants demonstrated higher overall accuracy than DHH participants.
• Both DHH and TH readers exhibited longer fixation durations and more regressive fixations in expository texts compared to narrative texts.
• DHH participants displayed longer saccade amplitudes in expository texts relative to narrative texts, suggesting adaptive reading strategies.

Conclusions:

• While DHH students may exhibit lower overall comprehension accuracy, their reading patterns indicate potential compensatory mechanisms, particularly in familiar narrative structures.
• The findings highlight the importance of considering text genre when assessing reading comprehension in DHH learners.
• Further research into the self-regulation strategies of DHH readers can inform the development of effective educational support and reading interventions.