Reading, Processing and Interacting with Hypertext on the Web

We increasingly spend a vast amount of time on the Web and much of that time is spent reading. One of the main differences between reading non-Web based text and reading on the Web is the presence of hyperlinks within the text, linking various related Web content and Web pages together. Some researchers and commentators have claimed that hyperlinks hinder reading because they are a distraction that may have a negative effect on the reader’s ability to process the text. However, very few controlled experiments have been conducted to verify these claims. In the experiments documented here we utilise eye tracking as a new methodology for examining how we read hyperlinked text. There is a well-documented tight link between when and where we look and what we process. Eye movements have been used extensively to help us to understand the cognitive processing that occurs during reading, but there has been very little research into how our reading differs when we read information on the Web.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Gemma Fitzsimmons

Mark J Weal

Denis Drieghe

Conference

Publication date: July 2016

Publication date (Print): July 2016

Pages: 1-8

Affiliations

[0001]University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/HCI2016.14

SO-VID: 27247718-9c17-43e3-8ae0-e986d9425cb4

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of the 30th International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference

Conference acronym: HCI

Conference number: 30

Conference location: Bournemouth University, Poole, UK

Conference date: 11 - 15 July 2016

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Fusion

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2016.14

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] W. H. DuttonG. Blank Next generation users: The Internet in Britain. Oxford Internet Survey 2011 Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford 2011

[2] K. Rayner Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research Psychol. Bull 124 3 372 422 Nov 1998

[3] K. Rayner Eye movements and attention in reading, scene perception, and visual search Q. J. Exp. Psychol 62 8 1457 1506 Aug 2009

[4] T. H. Nelson A file structure for the complex, the changing, and the indeterminate ACM 20th National Conference 1965 84 100

[5] K. Rayner Eye movements in reading and information processing Psychol. Bull 85 3 618 60 May 1978

[6] S. P. LiversedgeJ. M. Findlay Saccadic eye movements and cognition Trends Cogn. Sci. 4 1 6 14 Jan 2000

[7] I. D. GilchristV. BrownJ. M. Findlay Saccades without eye movements Nature 390 6656 130 131 1997

[8] A. L. Yarbus Eye movements and vision New York Plenum Press 1967

[9] R. K. MorrisK. RaynerA. Pollatsek Eye movement guidance in reading: The role of parafoveal letter and space information J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform 16 2 268 281 1990

[10] D. F. FisherW. L. Shebilske There is more that meets the eye than the eyemind assumption in Eye movements and human information processing R. GronerG. McConkieC. Menz Amsterdam North-Holland 1985 149 158

[11] M. BrysbaertD. DriegheF. Vitu Word skipping: Implications for theories of eye movement control in reading Cognitive processes in eye G. Underwood Oxford, UK Oxford University Press 2005 53 78

[12] K. RaynerG. McConkie What guides a reader’s eye movements? Vision Res 16 8 829 837 1976

[13] D. BalotaA. PollatsekK. Rayner The interaction of contextual constraints and parafoveal visual information in reading Cogn. Psychol 17 3 364 90 Jul 1985

[14] J. HendersonF. Ferreira Effects of foveal processing difficulty on the perceptual span in reading: implications for attention and eye movement control J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn 16 3 417 29 May 1990

[15] A. W. InhoffK. Rayner Parafoveal word processing during eye fixations in reading: Effects of word frequency Percept.Psychophys 40 6 431 439 1986

[16] K. RaynerM. H. Fischer Mindless reading revisited: Eye movements during reading and scanning are different Percept. Psychophys 58 5 734 747 1996

[17] V. CashenK. Leicht Role of the isolation effect in a formal educational setting J. Educ. Psychol 61 6 484 486 1970

[18] J. CrouseP. Idstein Effects of encoding cues on prose learning J. Educ. Psychol 83 4 309 313 1972

[19] R. L. FowlerA. S. Barker Effectiveness of highlighting for retention of text material J. Appl. Psychol 59 3 358 364 1974

[20] R. F. LorchE. P. LorchM. Klusewitz Effects of typographical cues on reading and recall of text Contemp. Educ. Psychol 20 51 64 1995

[21] J. GoldingS. Fowler The limited facilitative effect of typographical signals Contemp. Educ. Psychol 13 99 113 1992

[22] J. Nielsen When bad design elements become the standard 1999

[23] W. O. Galitz The essential guide to user interface design: An introduction to GUI design principles and techniques New York, NY John Wiley & Sons 1997

[24] W. SchneiderR. M. Shiffrin Controlled and automatic human information processing: I. Detection, search, and attention Psychol. Rev 84 1 1 66 1977

[25] R. M. ShiffrinW. Schneider Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending and a general theory Psychol. Rev 84 2 127 190 1977

[26] C. S. CampbellP. P. Maglio Facilitating navigation in information spaces : Road-signs on the World Wide Web Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud 50 4 309 327 1999

[27] Z. Liu Reading behavior in the digital environment: Changes in reading behavior over the past ten years J. Doc 61 6 700 712 2005

[28] J. MorkesJ. Nielsen Concise, SCANNABLE, and Objective: How to write for the Web 1997

[29] M. A. JustP. A. Carpenter The Psychology of Reading and Language Comprehension Newton, MA Allyn and Bacon 1987

[30] R. P. Carver Rauding theory predictions of amount comprehended under different purposes and speed reading conditions Read. Res. Q 19 2 205 218 1984

[31] M. E. J. Masson Cognitive processes in skimming stories J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn 8 5 400 417 1982

[32] G. B. DugganS. J. Payne Text skimming: The process and effectiveness of foraging through text under time pressure J. Exp. Psychol. Appl 15 3 228 242 2009

[33] J. M. Slatin Reading hypertext: Order and coherence in a new medium Coll. English 52 8 870 883 1990

[34] N. G. Carr The Shallows New York W. W. Norton 2010

[35] D. DeStefanoJ. LeFevre Cognitive load in hypertext reading: A review Comput. Human Behav 23 1616 1641 May 2007

[36] C. ScharingerY. KammererP. Gerjets Pupil dilation and EEG alpha frequency band power reveal load on executive functions for link-selection processes during text reading PLoS One 10 6 1 24 2015

[37] W. Kintsch The role of knowledge in discourse comprehension: A construction-integration model Psychol. Rev 95 2 163 182 Apr 1988

[38] D. Dee-LucasJ. H. Larkin Learning from electronic texts: effects of interactive overviews for information access Cogn. Instr 13 3 431 468 1995

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