Reading Pages of a Consumer Product Manual Text and Warnings: Effects of Format Salience and Visual Cues on Eye Movements

Abstract

This study evaluated whether high or low salience product manual warning formats resulted in different frequencies of both reading and warning recall accuracy. Both experimental conditions constituted an amalgamation of warning and product manual format features. The low salience condition was comprised of a capitalized signal word, paragraph prose-style warning text, warnings integrated with page content with low salience visual cues whereas the high salience condition included an icon, signal word panel, bulleted warning text, warnings placed separately at the page bottom with high salience visual cues. Eye movements were recorded while participants read pages from product manuals followed by a warning recall test. No significant difference in the number of warnings read was found but visual cues in the high salience condition shifted foveal vision to the warnings significantly more often than the cues in the low salience condition. Warning recall was higher in the low salience condition than in the high salience condition, probably because of the particular task and formatting used. Caveats and study implications are discussed.