Do eye movements reflect readers' thoughts during reading? Evidence from multidimensional experience sampling and eye...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Reading Science
• Neuroscience of Reading

Background:

• Reader attention fluctuates between text immersion and mind-wandering during narrative reading.
• Mind-wandering and immersion differentially impact the reading process.
• Understanding reader thought processes is crucial for effective reading comprehension research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the types of thoughts readers experience while engaging with literary texts.
• To examine the specific effects of immersion and mind-wandering on eye-movement behavior during reading.
• To analyze the relationship between different thought categories and observable reading patterns.

Main Methods:

• Fifty-six participants read novel excerpts while eye-movements were continuously monitored.
• Multidimensional experience sampling was employed to probe participants' thoughts during reading.
• General Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs) were utilized to analyze the relationship between thought types and eye-movement data.

Main Results:

• Four distinct thought types were identified: Immersion, Mind-wandering, Sub-Vocalization, and Social Episodic Thoughts.
• Reader eye movements were significantly influenced by the specific types of thoughts experienced during reading.
• The findings highlight the complex interplay between cognitive states and reading behavior.

Conclusions:

• The study demonstrates that reader thoughts directly impact eye-movement patterns during literary text engagement.
• These findings necessitate a re-evaluation of how mind-wandering is typically studied, especially within reading research.
• Future research should consider the nuanced categories of reader thoughts for a comprehensive understanding of reading processes.