The Effects of Book Design on Beginning Reader’s Visual Attention and Reading Comprehension: An Eye-Tracking Study

Stanley, O., Boyle, K., Eng, C., and A. Fisher

Reading is a critical skill that many children struggle to acquire. This study examines how subtle changes in the layout of storybooks may benefit children learning to read. The suboptimal design of books for beginning readers may contribute to these difficulties. Specifically, extraneous illustration details (i.e., interesting but irrelevant to the story) could introduce attentional competition while reading. The current study used a within-subject design with first- and second-grade children to determine if removing extraneous illustrations would improve their reading comprehension and how their visual attention would be affected. The results of this study, indicated by an eye-tracker and post-story assessment, showed that excluding extraneous illustrations reduced attentional competition (indexed by gaze fixations to distracting illustrations) and improved reading comprehension. This suggests that book design can be optimized to promote literacy development in young children and attentional control should be taken into account when designing these educational materials.

Oceann Stanley, Psychology
Kristen Boyle, Psychology
Cassondra Eng, Psychology
Anna Fisher,  Psychology