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What is the optimal position of low-frequency words across line boundaries? An eye movement investigation.

Parker, A., Räsänen, M. and Slattery, T., 2023. What is the optimal position of low-frequency words across line boundaries? An eye movement investigation. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 37 (Jan), 161-173.

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DOI: 10.1002/acp.4036

Abstract

When displaying text on a page or a screen, only a finite number of characters can be presented on a single line. If the text exceeds that finite value, then text wrapping occurs. Often this process results in longer, more difficult to process words being positioned at the start of a line. We conducted an eye movement study to examine how this artefact of text wrapping affects passage reading. This allowed us to answer the question: should word difficulty be used when determining line breaks? Thirty-nine participants read 20 passages where low-frequency target words were either line-initial or line-final. There was no statistically reliable effect of our manipulation on passage reading time or comprehension despite several effects at a local level. Regarding our primary research question, the evidence suggests that word difficulty may not need to be accounted for when determining line breaks and assigning words to new lines.

Item Type:Article
ISSN:0888-4080
Group:Faculty of Science & Technology
ID Code:38091
Deposited By: Symplectic RT2
Deposited On:27 Jan 2023 12:12
Last Modified:27 Jan 2023 12:12

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