Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 17, 2026
07:36
Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects
Published on: November 30, 2018
16.3K
Processing Written Language in Video Games: An Eye-Tracking Study on Subtitled Instructions
Haiting Lan1, Sixin Liao1,2, Jan-Louis Kruger1,3,4
1Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, Wallumattagal Campus, Macquarie Park, NSW 2109, Australia; sixin.liao@mq.edu.au (S.L.); janlouis.kruger@mq.edu.au (J.-L.K.).
Journal of Eye Movement Research
|September 24, 2025
Summary
Players focus on relevant subtitles in video games, especially action-related words without audio. This eye-tracking study explores subtitle processing and game performance.
Area of Science:
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Cognitive Psychology
- Game Studies
Background:
- Video games utilize multimodal elements, including written text, for player guidance.
- Understanding player processing of in-game text, particularly subtitles, is crucial but underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how players process subtitled instructions in video games using eye-tracking.
- To examine the impact of different instruction modalities (visual, auditory, visual-auditory) on player attention and performance.
Main Methods:
- An eye-tracking study with 64 participants playing a video game with manipulated subtitled instructions.
- Instructions were presented visually only, audibly only, or in a visual-auditory format, and were either relevant or irrelevant to the player.
Main Results:
- Participants fixated more on relevant subtitles and spent more time viewing them.
- Words with immediate action-related information received more attention (higher fixation, lower skipping) particularly when audio was absent.
- No significant differences in overall player performance were observed across the different instruction modalities.
Conclusions:
- Players prioritize relevant subtitle information, especially critical action cues.
- The findings enhance understanding of subtitle processing in gaming and multimedia contexts.
- Implications exist for digital literacy and computer-mediated text processing research.
