Tibor Beres. DAIRSACC - Do Acronyms Influence Reading Speed and Content
Comprehension? A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in I.S degree. December, 2007. 105
pages. Advisor: Stephanie W. Haas
Acronyms, initialisms and other types of abbreviations are frequently used in scientific,
academic, governmental and administrative setting to shorten lengthy terminology and
nomenclature. While they can make a text easier to read for people familiar with the
abbreviations, they can add to the text’s inherent difficulty and impede comprehension
for those who are not familiar with their meaning. The phenomenon of acronym
polynymy (multiple definitions associated with the same acronym) can create confusion
and add to the cognitive load associated with understanding the text. The current practice
of defining acronyms only once, when introduced can result in readers scrolling back and
forth in the text looking for acronym definitions, increasing the cognitive load and
negatively affect reading speed and content comprehension. The purpose of this research
was to study if the presence of a large number of acronyms in a text impedes reading
performance. The current study also investigated if providing easy access to acronym
definitions via hover text would alleviate comprehension problems caused by unknown
acronyms in the text. The hypothesis was that by enabling fast acronym disambiguation,
and eliminating the need to scroll for acronym definitions, the hover functionality would
enhance reading speed and content comprehension. The results of the experiment are
analyzed and recommendations for future investigations of the acronym problem are
formulated.
Headings:
Acronyms
Acronym disambiguation
Reading performance
Content comprehension

DAIRSACC – DO ACRONYMS INFLUENCE READING SPEED AND CONTENT
COMPREHENSION?
by
Tibor Beres
A Master’s paper submitted to the faculty
of the School of Information and Library Science
of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Science in
Information Science.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
December 2007
Approved by
_______________________________________
Stephanie W. Haas