From reading style to cognitive style and its possible application: an eye-tracking and CFT approach

Abstract

Reading strategies and cognitive styles have been the objective of many researchers. However, the relation between these two concepts remains unclear. This paper is focusing on three goals. Firstly, we verify the reliability of the eye-tracking indicators of risky and conservative reading style. Secondly, we aim to explore an additional eye-tracking pattern that may reflect the reading style on the global level. Thirdly, we explore the relationship between reading style and the holistic/analytic cognitive style. The study is based on a combination of Compound Figure Test (CFT) as a main tool for analyzing cognitive style and eye-tracking study consisting of several text stimuli related to verify reading style patterns. Results showed stability across the reading tasks, which validates for the usefulness and reliability of original Rayner’s as well as the new additional eye-tracking metrics. The stability of the eye-tracking metrics allows us to treat them as a behavioral profile in information processing that may be viewed as a stable personality trait known as reading style. However, the eye-tracking results and the CFT global preference score did not show a detectably close relation between cognitive style and reading style. In conclusion, we also discuss the possibility of applying these eye-tracking patterns to foreign language material design.