Differences in reading between word search and information relevance decisions: Evidence from eye-tracking

Abstract

We investigated differences in reading strategies in relation to information search task goals and perceived text relevance. Our findings demonstrate that some aspects of reading when looking for a specific target word are similar to reading relevant texts to find information, while other aspects are similar to reading irrelevant texts to find information. We also show significant differences in pupil dilation on final fixations on relevant words and on relevance decisions. Our results show feasibility of using eye-tracking data to infer timing of decisions made on information search tasks in relation to the required depth of information processing and the relevance level.