Book Design and Attentional Competition while Reading: Parental Perspectives vs. Children’s Eye Tracking Performance

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - Attention, Learning, Memory

Abstract

Reading is a critical skill children acquire that enables future learning. Learning to read can be challenging for children whose attentional system is still developing. The design of beginning reader books may exacerbate these difficulties. Beginning reader books may unintentionally create attentional competition between text and illustrations by placing colorful and engaging illustrations in close proximity to the text. In Study 1, we survey K-2 parents about their children’s literacy experiences, strategies to scaffold literacy development, and their perceptions about the design of beginning reader books. In Study 2 we use eye tracking technology and experimentally manipulate book layout to assess whether children’s attention to text is impacted by layout and whether children’s attentional patterns align with parent perceptions.
The survey was administered via MTurk to 30 K-2 parents. Shared reading experiences were common in the home, with 47% of parents reporting reading with their child at least 4-5 times per week. Based on parent reports, the children read at or above grade-level (93%). Parents reported often or always scaffolding children’s reading by using picture clues (57%), sounding out words (77%) and dividing words into familiar parts (40%). Critically, parents indicated which of 4 book layouts (embedded, partially-separated, fully-separated, text only), presented pictorially, would best support their children’s’ attention to text, literacy development, and motivation (Table 1). Parents rated the embedded layout (text located within illustrations) as best for helping children maintain attention to text (47%), for supporting decoding (63%) and comprehension (57%), and for sustaining motivation (73%). It is an open question whether children’s pattern of attention allocation while reading books in different layouts corroborates parent perceptions.
In Study 2, 135 elementary children read a book aloud. Half of the book was presented in the embedded layout and half in a manipulated layout (partially or fully-separated). Attention was indexed with an eye tracker and analyzed in Python to determine the number of gaze shifts away from the text in each condition. In contrast to parent perceptions, layouts that increased spatial separation between illustrations and text generally benefited attention (Figure 1): primary children made fewer gaze shifts away from the text in both manipulated layouts compared to the embedded condition (ps≤.02). Upper elementary students also made fewer gaze shifts away from the text in the fully-separated condition compared to the embedded condition (p<.0001). Analysis of mean gaze shift difference scores (embedded - manipulated) indicate a significant effect of condition (p=.001) and grade (p<.0001) with larger attentional benefits observed for the fully-separated (Mdiff=6.94) vs. partially-separated (Mdiff=2.66) layout and for primary (Mdiff=7.25) vs. Upper elementary (Mdiff=2.36) students. Age was negatively correlated with mean gaze shift difference scores (rs≥-.43, ps<.0001) suggesting increasing spatial separation between text and illustrations is particularly beneficial for younger children who have an immature attentional system and are not yet fluent readers.
Despite parental beliefs that embedded layouts are beneficial for children’s attention and literacy, these results indicate placing text and illustrations in close proximity, a common design choice, reduces children’s ability to maintain attention to the text.

Authors

• Karrie E Godwin, University of Maryland - Baltimore County
  Presenting Author

• Megan A. Musso, Kent State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Cassondra Eng, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nathan J. Kanyok, Kent State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anna V Fisher, Carnegie Mellon University
  Non-Presenting Author