Processing costs when reading short message service shortcuts: An eye-tracking study

Short Message Service (SMS) messaging is associated with a variety of ‘textisms’, shortened words and other nonstandard spellings. Two such shortcuts, orthographic (e.g., deleting vowels) and phonological (e.g., sound-based respellings) abbreviations, have been associated with negative effects on reading in adults. The current study used eye tracking to investigate reading of English SMS messages with and without such shortcuts. Thirty young adults read sentences containing phonological, orthographic or mixed textisms, along with standard English sentences. Reading time, average fixation duration and total fixation count were measured. Sentences in standard English were associated with significantly faster reading times compared to the three textism conditions, with no difference between the textism types. Fewer fixations were made on standard English sentences and on sentences with phonological textisms. There was no association between the reading measures and participants' use of textisms, texting frequency or keypad preference. Although the processing cost was modest, the results support the view that sentences with texting shortcuts are harder to read than standard sentences in English.