Attention Versus Learning of Online Content: Preliminary Findings from an Eye-Tracking Study

Previous eye tracking studies have consistently associated increased eye fixations with comprehension difficulty. However, little research has probed this relationship in more complex news stories online. This exploratory within-subject experiment exposed participants (N = 20) to different text and graphic structures in health news stories. Results suggest enhanced learning, shorter viewing time, and fewer eye fixations for a linear text structure as compared to an “inverted pyramid” text commonly used in news. Graphics interacted with text, facilitating performance in the linear conditions but inhibiting them in the inverted pyramid structure. Graphics tended to also increase viewing time and eye fixations on text only and text combined with graphics for both structure conditions. Results discuss the importance of text structure in complex news and how the data are not entirely consistent with the assumption that explanatory graphics increase understanding. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-1858-9.ch009