“WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?” AN EYE MOVEMENT EXPLORATION IN SCIENCE TEXT READING

Abstract

The main purpose of this research was to investigate how Taiwanese grade 6 readers selected and used information from different print (main text, headings, captions) and visual elements (decorational, representational, interpretational) to comprehend a science text through tracking their eye movement behaviors. Six grade 6 students read a double page of science text written in Chinese during which their eye movements were documented and analyzed using an EyeLink 1000 eye tracker. The results suggest that illustrations received less attention than print; however, readers who had more fixations on illustrations had better comprehension. While both headings and captions were in the print category, the headings received much less attention than did the captions. The article concludes with implications for teaching science reading and suggestions for future research beyond this exploratory case study.