Revealing the Implications of Reading Strategy for Reading Behaviour and Comprehension

Accurate comprehension of text is vital in everyday life, ranging from educational and professional contexts to social and leisure activities. Our reading goals are affected by factors such as time pressures and the quantity of text available to us, such that often we skim rather than read everything carefully. Now that so much textual information is available on our electronic devices, quantities of text and time constraints are likely affecting our reading goals more than ever before. However skim reading is detrimental for comprehension, for example, resulting in failure to identify all words within the text and limiting integration of new information with previous text and existing knowledge. In educational contexts students may fail to grasp and remember key concepts. In professional contexts readers may have limited time to process new information before making key decisions. Misconceptions may ultimately lead to critical errors in real world situations. For example, misdiagnosis or poor treatment plans in medical contexts.

The aim of this project is to reveal much more about how reading goals modulate the mechanisms underlying reading, with implications for how reading goals affect comprehension. Eye-movement recording methods will provide detailed insights into how reading goals modulate what is processed when during reading. Many previous studies have examined the processes underlying relatively careful reading for comprehension, and there are now sophisticated computational models accounting for these processes. The project is very timely because it extends this work, examining how different aspects of the process, and their co-ordination, is modulated by reading goals. The project examines a broad range of different aspects of the reading process including word recognition, processing of text away from central eye fixation and text integration. The research team have strong track records in undertaking both empirical and theoretical work across these research areas (including collaborative projects) and therefore are ideally placed to undertake this work.

A series of detailed studies will be undertaken, examining fundamental research questions to reveal how reading goals can modulate the level and time course of text processing. These studies are especially valuable in providing a baseline for understanding how reading goals modulate basic aspects of the reading process. The research also has key implications for revealing how reading goals modulate the extent and depth of text processing, with vital implications for comprehension. Studies will examine both how words are processed in visually detailed vision (words directly fixated by the eyes) and how words are processed outside of central vision such that the input is visually degraded. Crucially this work will be central to the development of theoretical models, with implications for how reading goals affect component processes, and how they are co-ordinated together.

A further focus of the project is to undertake research with key applied implications. These studies will reveal possible effects of individual differences, as well as providing clearer insights into how text is integrated and linked to existing knowledge. Crucially studies will also focus on how reading goals modulate the acquisition of new information, with implications for learning in a broad range of contexts.

The project will include dissemination of the work to the public and engagement with professional organisations, especially highlighting how reading behaviours can affect comprehension. For example, reading under time pressure may result in omission of words and limited integration with prior knowledge, resulting in misconceptions or limited acquisition of new information. In some contexts (such as medical diagnosis) awareness of the potential for errors could be critical.

Optimising reading comprehension under time pressure is crucial across a very broad range of educational, professional and other contexts. For example, skim reading is likely to affect students' learning in educational contexts, and may affect vital behaviours and decisions in everyday situations (e.g. skimming medical information leaflets) or professional contexts (e.g. medical professionals skimming medical notes before consultations). The proposed research will reveal how reading goals can affect the level and time course of text processing, and how reading goals can affect integration of text and acquisition of new information. Ultimately, raising awareness about how reading goals can affect comprehension may result in: reading conditions being adjusted (e.g. allowing more time for reading in critical situations); readers becoming better aware of the potential for omissions or misconceptions (e.g. more caution in decisions made on the basis of information acquired during skim reading); and the development/promotion of text formats that optimise comprehension of key points when reading under time pressure.

The project specifically focuses on engaging researchers and professionals in the fields of medicine and study skills. There will be three aspects to this engagement: (1) Communicating the implications of the results for applied situations; (2) Promoting further high quality scientific examination of issues within these areas, for example, by developing cross-disciplinary collaborations; (3) Receiving valuable feedback on the interpretation and implications of our project, working together to identify further key research questions, applications, and possible methods for optimising comprehension under time pressure.

In both fields this work is very timely. In medical contexts, reading errors are thought to contribute to errors in medical decision making, yet there is little understanding of how these errors occur or how they might be alleviated. The results of this project will provide a solid basis for engaging medical professionals, raising their awareness of the potential for skim reading to result in omissions and misconceptions. Within the context of higher education study skills, institutions persist in providing sessions on "speed reading" that have no scientific basis. Again, the results of the empirical work will be disseminated to study skills professionals, in particular highlighting the importance of having scientific justification in the promotion of reading strategies. We have already undertaken some research with medical students reading medical texts. Our aim is to develop collaborations with researchers in both medical education and study skills in order to help bring gold standard methods in Cognitive Science to studying these issues in applied contexts. The outcome of the proposed studies will provide a key basis for selecting pertinent research questions and methods for such applied further work. Ultimately, undertaking research within these specific contexts will be crucial in boosting the dissemination and credibility of the findings and applied implications to professionals within these fields. Dissemination of our work to these users will also provide valuable opportunities for us to receive feedback, enabling us to identify further important academic research questions and real world applications that we would not otherwise have envisaged.

In addition to engaging individuals and developing cross-disciplinary collaborations, we will also engage users more broadly. Activities will include presenting the research at a national study skills conference, producing a report for distribution to university student learning centres, public engagement activities, and the development of a project website.