What can the eyes and the brain tell us about learning? The role of information density in the comprehension and retrieval of complex concepts

Abstract

The role of text characteristics like information density for the comprehension and future retrieval of academic texts is far from understood. For instance, complex concepts can be summarized in a concise but ambiguous way using complex nominal compounds or explained in more detail using propositions detailing the precise relationship between the concepts. Moreover, reader characteristics like expertise, language proficiency, and working memory capacity as well as specific reading goals presumably play a critical but currently underestimated role in understanding and promoting efficient academic learning. We propose to use online measures of cognitive processing like eye tracking and registering neuronal activity via EEG to uncover the mechanisms underlying the comprehension and encoding of dense information in academic texts.