Mitigating distractions during online reading: An explorative study

Leana Copeland, Tom Gedeon, Sabrina Caldwell

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Reading online can be difficult due to the distractions of digital environments. In this paper we present a user study in which participants' eye gaze was recorded as they read text in a visually distracting environment. We explore two distraction mitigation signals using real-time eye gaze data to investigate whether the effects help reduce distraction rate as well as aid recovery from distractions. These signals involved adding a signal to the last word read before a distraction occurred to show the reader where they were up to. We compared these experimental conditions on both first (L1) and second (L2) English language readers and for easy and difficult to read texts. The results demonstrate that the mitigation signals helped recovery from a distraction by drawing participants' attention back to the text as well as indicating from where to recommence reading. We conclude with recommendations on implementing distraction mitigation signals in text.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publication2016 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC 2016 - Conference Proceedings
    PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
    Pages4830-4835
    Number of pages6
    ISBN (Electronic)9781509018970
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 6 Feb 2017
    Event2016 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC 2016 - Budapest, Hungary
    Duration: 9 Oct 201612 Oct 2016

    Publication series

    Name2016 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC 2016 - Conference Proceedings

    Conference

    Conference2016 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC 2016
    Country/TerritoryHungary
    CityBudapest
    Period9/10/1612/10/16

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