Assessment of stimuli for supporting speed reading on electronic devices

Abstract

Technology has introduced multimedia to tailor information more broadly to our various senses, but by no means has the ability to consume information through reading lost its importance. To cope with the ever-growing amount of textual information to consume, different techniques have been proposed to increase reading efficiency: rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) has been suggested to increase reading speed by effectively reducing the number of eye movements. Further, moving a pen, finger or the entire hand across text is a common technique among speed readers to help guide eye movements. We adopted these techniques for electronic devices by introducing stimuli on text that guide users' eye movements. In a series of two user studies we sped up users' reading speed to 150% of their normal rate and evaluated effects on text comprehension, mental load, eye movements and subjective perception. Results show that reading speed can be effectively increased by using such stimuli while keeping comprehension rates nearly stable. We observed initial strain on mental load which significantly decreased after a short while. Subjective feedback conveys that kinetic stimuli are better suited for long, complex text on larger displays, whereas RSVP was preferred for short text on small displays.