Do Visual Signals Extend the Vertical Visual Span in Processing of Expository Text? A...

Do Visual Signals Extend the Vertical Visual Span in Processing of Expository Text?

A Gaze-Contingent Window Study

Do Visual Signals Extend the Vertical Visual Span in Processing of Expository Text?

A Gaze-Contingent Window Study

Fabrice Cauchard, Hélène Eyrolle, and Jean-Marie CellierUniversity of Toulouse

E-mail: [email protected]

ST&D Conference, July 13-14, 2006

The visual span in readingThe visual span in reading

the region around a fixation point from which useful information can be obtained (Rayner & Liversedge, 2004)


Definition:


the region around a fixation point from which useful information can be obtained (Rayner & Liversedge, 2004)

Since the Industrial Revolution, developed countries have become increasingly reliant on the production of energy to maintain their economies and standards of living. Primary sources of energy have been oil, coal, natural gas and, more recently, nuclear power. We are now faced with severe problems created by our dependence on oil, coal, natural gas and nuclear power. The fossil fuels of coal, oil and gas share several important characteristics that helped to establish them as favored sources of energy. They are all abundant resources.


Definition:


The gaze-contingent window technique (McConkie & Rayner, 1975)




Since the Industrial Revolution, developed countries have




xxnce the Industrial Rxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxx




xxxxx xxx Industrial Revolutixx, xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxx




xxxxx xxx xxxxxxxxal Revolution, devexxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxx




xxxxx xxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxlution, developed cxxxxxxxx xxxx




xxxxx xxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx, xeveloped countries xxxx


Multi-topic text processingMulti-topic text processing

To model text processing as the construction of a representation of the “topic structure” (Britton, 1994; Lorch, Lorch, & Matthews, 1985)





An empirical support: the “topic-shift effect” (Hyönä, 1995; Lorch, Lorch, & Mogan, 1987)




An empirical support: the “topic-shift effect” (Hyönä, 1995; Lorch, Lorch, & Mogan, 1987)

Effect of headings on topic structure processing (Hyönä & Lorch, 2004; Lorch, Lorch, & Inman, 1993)

HypothesisHypothesis

When the text contains visual signals, information

facilitating the processing of the topic structure

can be obtained beyond the fixated line.


MethodMethod

116 students of the University of Toulouse

Reading and recall of a text after having taken the Reading Span Test (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980)

Texts adapted and translated from previous study (Klusewitz & Lorch, 2000)

The gaze-contingent window

Participants :

Procedure :

12ème JETCSIC, Paris, 30 juin 2006

MethodMethod

116 students of the University of Toulouse

Reading and recall of a text after having taken the Reading Span Test (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980)

Texts adapted and translated from previous study (Klusewitz & Lorch, 2000)

The gaze-contingent window

Participants :

Procedure :

Material :

Design :

12ème JETCSIC, Paris, 30 juin 2006

Text With Visual Signals Text Without Visual Signal Normal Condition Normal Condition

Text With Visual Signals Text Without Visual Signal Gaze-Contingent Window Condition Gaze-Contingent Window Condition

Text With Visual Signals Text Without Visual Signal Normal Condition Normal Condition

Text With Visual Signals Text Without Visual Signal Gaze-Contingent Window Condition Gaze-Contingent Window Condition

≠ =


ResultsResults

Table 1

Means for recall and eye movements measures in the window and normal conditions, separately for texts with and without visual signals

With visual signals Without visual signals

Normal condition

Window condition

Normal condition

Window condition

Measure M M Diff. M M Diff.

Topic recall ¹ .59 .41 −.18** .43 .46 .03

Total first-pass time ² 41 40 −1 44 52 8**

First-pass time on headings ²

60 71 11* 45 53 8

¹ Percentages. ² Milliseconds per character. *p < .05. **p < .01.


ResultsResults

Table 2

Means for first-pass time on headings for good and poor recallers in the window and normal conditions, separately for texts with and without visual signals


Normal condition

Window condition

Normal condition

Window condition

M (n) M (n) Diff. M (n) M (n) Diff.

Good recallers 57 (13) 80 (16) 23** 46 (16) 56 (14) 10

Poor recallers 62 (16) 59 (13) −3 43 (13) 51 (15) 8

Note. All means are in milliseconds per characters. **p < .01.

DiscussionDiscussion

Results consistent with the hypothesis:

“When the text contains visual signals, information facilitating the processing of the topic structure can be obtained beyond the fixated line.”

Perspectives of future work:

Are the facilitating information obtained above, below, or both above and below the fixated line?


Normal Condition Above Only Condition

Window Condition Below Only Condition

Fabrice Cauchard, Hélène Eyrolle, and Jean-Marie Cellier


Thanks for your attention!


AppendixAppendix

Accuracy in question

Full results Definition of the eye movements measures Recall results Eye movements results

Textual material Topic structure of the Energy and Fire texts Original French texts with visual signals Extract of the English Energy text without visual signals


Table 3

Means for recall measures in the window and normal conditions,

separately for texts with and without visual signals


Normal condition

Window condition

Normal condition

Window condition


Topic recall ¹ .59 .41 −.18** .43 .46 .03

Conditional recall ¹ .21 .18 −.03 .19 .16 −.03

Total recall ¹ .13 .08 −.05* .09 .08 −.01

Topic order ² .49 .44 −.05 .66 .52 −.14

¹ Percentages. ² Spearman correlation. *p < .05. **p < .01.


Table 4

Means for eye movements measures in the window and normal conditions,



Normal condition

Window condition

Normal condition

Window condition


Total first-pass time 41.20 39.80 −1.40 44.36 52.36 8**First-pass time on headings

59.61 70.52 10.91* 44.53 53.06 8.53

First-pass forward time on headings

49.93 56.88 6.95* 39.69 46.37 6.68

First-pass rereading time on headings

9.68 13.64 3.96* 4.84 6.69 1.85

Total look-back time .89 .31 −.58* .89 .53 −.36

Look-back time on headings

1.21 .38 −.83 .34 .25 −.09

Note. All means are in milliseconds per character. *p < .05. **p < .01.

Table 5

Means for the number of fixations in the window and normal conditions,



Normal condition

Window condition

Normal condition

Window condition


Total first-pass fixations

.1314 .1249 −.0065 .1431 .1630 .0199**

First-pass fixations on headings

.1861 .2005 .0144 .1425 .1626 .0201

First-pass forward fixations on headings

.1556 .1625 .0069 .1263 .1404 .0141

First-pass rereading fixations on headings

.0305 .0380 .0075(*) .1620 .0222 −.1398

Total look-back fixations

.0029 .0011 −.0018* .0030 .0017 −.0013

Look-back fixations on headings

.0041 .0013 −.0028 .0013 .0008 −.0005

Note. All means are in number of fixations per character. (*)p < .06. *p < .05. **p < .01.


Table 2



Normal condition

Window condition

Normal condition

Window condition


Good recallers 57 (13) 80 (16) 23** 46 (16) 56 (14) 10

Poor recallers 62 (16) 59 (13) −3 43 (13) 51 (15) 8


Energy problems and solutionsI. Energy problems A. Dwindling fuel resources 1. Hazardous production methods 2. Increasing costs B. Environmental damages 1. Oil spills 2. Global warming 3. Acid rain C. Health problems 1. Respiratory and heart problems 2. Cancer and genetic effectsII. Energy: what solutions? A. Energy conservation 1. Planting trees 2. User taxes 3. Using power electronics B. Development of alternative energy sources 1. Ocean thermal power 2. Geothermal energy

Fire fighting and preventionI. Fire fighting A. Development of an operation 1. Size up 2. Overhaul B. Specific vehicles 1. The water bomber airplane 2. The aerial ladder truck 3. The fireboat C. The firefighters’ assignments 1. Natural disasters 2. Road accidentsII. Fire prevention A. Public education 1. Domestic risk 2. Industrial risk 3. Forest risk B. Safety standards 1. Concert halls 2. Blocks of flats

Problèmes d’énergie et solutionsI. Problèmes d’énergie A. Des ressources de combustibles en diminution 1. Des méthodes de production dangereuses 2. Des coûts de plus en plus élevés B. Les dégâts causés à l’environnement 1. Les marées noires 2. Le réchauffement de la planète 3. Les pluies acides C. Les problèmes de santé 1. Les problèmes respiratoires et cardiaques 2. Le cancer et les effets génétiquesII. Energie: quelles solutions? A. L’économie de l’énergie 1. La plantation d’arbres 2. Les taxes à la consommation 3. L’utilisation de l’électronique B. Le développement de sources énergétiques alternatives 1. L’énergie océano-thermique 2. L’énergie géo-thermique

Lutte contre les incendies et préventionI. La lutte contre les incendies A. Le déroulement d’une intervention 1. La reconnaissance 2. L’inspection B. Des véhicules spécifiques 1. Le bombardier d’eau 2. La grande échelle 3. Le bateau pompe C. Les missions du sapeur-pompier 1. Les catastrophes naturelles 2. Les accidents de la routeII. La prévention des incendies A. La sensibilisation du public 1. Les risques domestiques 2. Les risques industriels 3. Les risques forestiers B. Les normes de sécurité 1. Les salles de spectacle 2. Les immeubles d’habitation

This article discusses energy problems and solutions. Since the Industrial Revolution, developed countries have become increasingly reliant on the production of energy to maintain their economies and standards of living. Primary sources of energy have been oil, coal, natural gas and, more recently, nuclear power. We are now faced with severe problems created by our dependence on oil, coal, natural gas and nuclear power. In the first half of this article we discuss these energy problems. The fossil fuels of coal, oil and gas share several important characteristics that helped to establish them as favored sources of energy. They are all relatively abundant natural resources. They are transportable. The technology to convert them is widely available and relatively inexpensive. Since its development beginning in the 1950s, nuclear power has become an important energy source for the same basic reasons that fossil fuels are so prominent. In recent years, however, we have witnessed some of the limitations of fossil fuels and nuclear power. We now come to the first section, which looks at dwindling fuel resources. Coal, oil, gas and radioactive minerals are certainly abundant natural resources. However, they are not renewable resources and therefore their supplies are limited. Given the increasing demands for energy worldwide, we are rapidly approaching the time when these fuel sources will be exhausted. We are already beginning to experience the effects of the decreasing availability of fossil fuels. The first effect discussed here is the advent of hazardous production methods. One implication of our dwindling fossil fuel reserves is that methods of production are becoming increasingly hazardous. Coal, oil and gas reserves are not as accessible as they once …


Definition of the eye movements measuresDefinition of the eye movements measures

• First-pass time: summed duration of fixations landing on a segment of text during the initial reading of this segment.

• First-pass rereading time: summed duration of fixations landing on an already read portion of the current text segment during its initial reading.

• First-pass forward time: summed duration of fixations landing on an unread portion of the current text segment during its initial reading.

• Look-back time: summed duration of fixations which returned to a previously read segment from the segment that was currently being read.


Accuracy in questionAccuracy in question

• A good reason for single-spacing: containing a small number of line, the text layout would have been dramatically disturbed, reducing the potential role played by the visual signals.

• A coarse-grained text segmentation: Each heading constituted one text segment and the whole following subsection, including all the constitutive sentences, constituted a single text segment too.

• A larger space around the headings: Headings, which were the text segments of main interest, were more largely inter-spaced.

• Reliability of the results: Despite the greater variability to be expected the results concerning the signalled texts are not ambiguous.


ResultsResults

Table 1

Means for recall and eye movements measures in the window and normal conditions, separately for texts with and without visual signals


Normal condition

Window condition

Normal condition

Window condition


Topic recall ¹ .59 .41 −.18** .43 .46 .03

Total first-pass time ² 41 40 −1 44 52 8**

First-pass time on headings ²

60 71 11* 45 53 8

¹ Percentages. ² Milliseconds per character. *p < .05. **p < .01.


ResultsResults

Table 2



Normal condition

Window condition

Normal condition

Window condition


Good recallers 57 (13) 80 (16) 23** 46 (16) 56 (14) 10

Poor recallers 62 (16) 59 (13) −3 43 (13) 51 (15) 8


Do Visual Signals Extend the Vertical Visual Span in Processing of Expository Text? A...

Documents

Transcript of Do Visual Signals Extend the Vertical Visual Span in Processing of Expository Text? A...