Medium Effects on Processing and Understanding When Reading Illustrated Text

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Examining Approaches to Supporting Student Reading and Writing Fluency

Abstract

This study investigated whether the effect of reading medium (print vs. digital) on understanding was mediated by students’ processing during the reading of an illustrated text. As such, it focused on students’ integrative processing of textual and pictorial information as evidenced by their eye movements and the relationship between such processing and their understanding of the content of the illustrated text. Results were consistent with the shallowing hypothesis in that participants who read the illustrated text on a computer screen displayed less integrative processing during reading than did participants who read it in print. In turn, such differences in processing led to poorer comprehension performance in the digital than in the print reading context.

Authors

• Natalia Latini, University of Oslo

• Ivar Braten, University of Oslo

• Ladislao Salmerón, University of Valencia