The impact of hyperlinks, skim reading and perceived importance when reading on the Web.

ABSTRACT: It has previously been shown that readers spend a great deal of time skim reading on the Web and that this type of reading can affect comprehension of text. Across two experiments, we examine how hyperlinks influence perceived importance of sentences and how perceived importance in turn affects reading behaviour. In Experiment 1, participants rated the importance of sentences across passages of Wikipedia text. In Experiment 2, a different set of participants read these passages while their eye movements were tracked, with the task being either reading for comprehension or skim reading. Reading times of sentences were analysed in relation to the type of task and the importance ratings from Experiment 1. Results from Experiment 1 show readers rated sentences without hyperlinks as being of le

SUBMITTER: Jayes LT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8827473 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature