Eye Movements as Reflections of Comprehension Processes in Reading

TLDR

The article explores using eye‑movement data to assess moment‑to‑moment comprehension processes and considers its application as a research tool and in school settings. The authors review basic eye‑movement characteristics during reading and conduct two studies monitoring eye movements to show sensitivity to overall passage difficulty and text inconsistencies. The studies found that difficult text increases processing time and fixations, that inconsistencies lengthen fixation on the inconsistent region, and that both conditions raise the likelihood of regressive eye movements.

Abstract

Abstract In this article, we discuss the use of eye movement data to assess moment-to-moment comprehension processes. We first review some basic characteristics of eye movements during reading and then present two studies in which eye movements are monitored to confirm that eye movements are sensitive to (a) global text passage difficulty and (b) inconsistencies in text. We demonstrate that processing times increased (and especially that the number of fixations increased) when text is difficult. When there is an inconsistency, readers fixated longer on the region where the inconsistency occurred. In both studies, the probability of making a regressive eye movement increased as well. Finally, we discuss the use of eye movement recording as a research tool to further study moment-to-moment comprehension processes and the possibility of using this tool in more applied school settings.