The web-based reading behavior of the students in the 5th and 6th grade: Evidence from eye-movement data

Abstract

Components which had never appeared in the linear text-such as search engine, hyperlink, and multiple media- are now brought into reading materials as the Internet developed (Coiro, 2004). However, little empirical research has been done on the hypertext reading (Coiro & Dobler, 2007). This study aims to explore whether the hypertext reading behavior differs from that of reading the linear text by tracking participants' eye movement during their reading process. Forty-six students in the 5th and 6th grade were divided into two groups (23 poor readers, 23 good readers) based on their reading abilities. Each group was presented with two linear texts and two hypertexts, with a free-viewing and an answer-finding tasks for each text (N=4). The eye movement data were collected by Tobii x120, and the data on the headings, topic sentences, hyperlink, figure, and paragraphs were analyzed using ANOVAs. The result shows that when reading the hypertexts, both groups showed more fixation times but shorter fixation duration in the answer-finding task, compared to the results of the free-viewing task. When reading the linear text, the participants still showed shorter fixation duration in the answer-finding task but no significant difference was found in the fixation times. In conclusion, participants had a rapid and flexible information integrating process when reading hypertext, which suggests that self-regulated reading occurs more frequently while reading the hypertext. The present study provides significant empirical evidence in support of the behavioral differences between hypertext and linear text reading.