The Influence of a Reading Setup on Digital Reading Strategies in High School Students: Results of an Eye-Tracking Study

Abstract

The paper aims to investigate the correlation between reading setup and digital reading strategies used by Russian schoolchildren. To study the influence of the reading setup factor, we conducted an eye-tracking study of high school students (N=66), which showed the dependence of digital reading strategies on the pre-reading task by experienced readers. The study showed that the pattern of skimming digital texts does not always appear explicitly, and revealed a significant influence on reading strategies of both reader's individual differences and the rhetorical organization of the text, as well as the reading task factor. The task of searching for specific information led to a more thorough primary reading of the entire text with fewer returns and transitions between the other semantic elements of the digital educational text. In the case of the text analysis task, the first reading was more cursory, but there was more jumping back and forth between paragraphs to establish the logical linkage of the text information. The influence of the reading setup on the digital reading strategy illustrates the importance of formulating the reading task correctly in order to ensure an effective digital reading experience.