An Eye-Tracking Study Into Multiscreening: Viewing Behavior, Reporting, and Effects

• In Event: Attention and Divided Attention

Abstract

Multiscreening, the simultaneous use of multiple screens, is relatively understudied phenomenon that may have a large impact on communication effects. First, we explored people’s viewing behavior while multiscreening by means of an eye-tracker. Second, we examined people’s reporting of attention, by comparing eye-tracker and self-reported measures of attention. Third, we assessed the effects of multiscreening on people’s memory, by comparing people’s memory for editorial and advertising content when multiscreening (TV/tablet) versus single screening. The results of the experiment (N = 177) show that 1) people switched between screens 2.5 times per minute, with longer average and total gaze durations on TV, 2) people were well capable of reporting their own attention, and 3) multiscreeners remembered content just as well as single screeners, when they devoted sufficient attention to the content. Additionally, the outcomes of different instructions in the multiscreening conditions were compared to assess the ecological validity of the results.

Authors

• Claire Monique Segijn, University of Amsterdam

• Hilde Voorveld, U of Amsterdam - ASCoR

• Lisa Vandeberg, ASCOR, U of Amsterdam

• Edith Gloria Smit, U of Amsterdam