Abstract
It has been shown that readers spend a great deal of time skim reading on the Web and that this type of reading can affect lexical processing of words. Across two experiments, we utilised eye tracking methodology to explore how hyperlinks and navigating webpages affect reading behaviour. In Experiment 1, participants read static Webpages either for comprehension or whilst skim reading, while in Experiment 2, participants additionally read through a navigable Web environment. Embedded target words were either hyperlinks or not and were either high-frequency or low-frequency words. Results from Experiment 1 show that while readers lexically process both linked and unlinked words when reading for comprehension, readers only fully lexically process linked words when skim reading, as was evidenced by a frequency effect that was absent for the unlinked words. They did fully lexically process both linked and unlinked words when reading for comprehension. In Experiment 2, which allowed for navigating, readers only fully lexically processed linked words compared to unlinked words, regardless of whether they were skim reading or reading for comprehension. We suggest that readers engage in an efficient reading strategy where they attempt to minimise comprehension loss while maintaining a high reading speed. Readers use hyperlinks as markers to suggest important information and use them to navigate through the text in an efficient and effective way. The task of reading on the Web causes readers to lexically process words in a markedly different way from typical reading experiments.
Highlights
When we investigate the real-world task of reading online text, we need to take into consideration the way reading on the Web differs from the reading for comprehension task that is traditionally used in reading research
Experiment 1 demonstrated that skim reading has a pronounced influence on lexical processing
We observed that fixations were shorter and skipping rates were higher, on average, for the skim reading condition compared to the reading for comprehension condition, replicating the findings of Just and Carpenter [6]
Summary
When we investigate the real-world task of reading online text (termed hypertext [1]), we need to take into consideration the way reading on the Web differs from the reading for comprehension task that is traditionally used in reading research. Reading research uses trials that contain a single, stand-alone sentence (for a review, see [2]) to explore lexical processing. The reader is asked to read the sentence for comprehension and there will often be a comprehension question following the sentence. Impact of skim reading and navigation when reading hyperlinks
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