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Animated adverts impair children’s online reading and text comprehension

Holmberg, Nils LU orcid ; Holmqvist, Kenneth LU and Sandberg, Helena LU (2015) European Conference on Eye Movements, ECEM, 2015 In Journal of Eye Movement Research 8(4). p.98-98
Abstract
In this study we examined the effects of animated adverts on children’s online reading. We conducted an eye-tracking experiment with authentic web pages to assess whether (1) advert animation primarily affects overt visual attention, or (2) animated adverts primarily affect text comprehension, or (3) both eye movements and comprehension are affected. 59 children in third grade (9-year-olds) participated in the study. The stimulus material con- sisted of 6 factual texts that were presented on a news website. Online banner adverts were presented in a column on the right side of the texts. The adverts were presented in two conditions: static and animated. After reading each text the children provided answers to multiple choice comprehension... (More)
In this study we examined the effects of animated adverts on children’s online reading. We conducted an eye-tracking experiment with authentic web pages to assess whether (1) advert animation primarily affects overt visual attention, or (2) animated adverts primarily affect text comprehension, or (3) both eye movements and comprehension are affected. 59 children in third grade (9-year-olds) participated in the study. The stimulus material con- sisted of 6 factual texts that were presented on a news website. Online banner adverts were presented in a column on the right side of the texts. The adverts were presented in two conditions: static and animated. After reading each text the children provided answers to multiple choice comprehension questions. The results showed that advert animation af- fected several text processing measures, such as fixation duration and regressive saccades. This effect was stronger among children with poor gaze control (as measured with an anti- saccade task). More importantly, however, the present study showed that animated adverts had a significant negative effect on children’s text comprehension. The study discusses how these findings could be used to regulate commercial content on children’s websites. Also, suggestions for using individual differences in eye movement measures to predict reading comprehension are explored. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
online advertising, eye-tracking, children
in
Journal of Eye Movement Research
volume
8
issue
4
pages
1 pages
publisher
European Group for Eye Movement Research
conference name
European Conference on Eye Movements, ECEM, 2015
conference location
Vienna, Austria
conference dates
2015-08-16 - 2015-08-21
ISSN
1995-8692
DOI
10.16910/jemr.8.4.1
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Ansorge, U., Ditye, T., Florack, A., & Leder, H. (2015). Abstracts of the 18th European Conference on Eye Movements 2015. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 8(4). https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.8.4.1
id
2f0d7956-77f6-416c-9359-e62b8d845df9
date added to LUP
2019-03-21 10:12:15
date last changed
2020-11-12 02:18:05
@misc{2f0d7956-77f6-416c-9359-e62b8d845df9,
  abstract     = {{In this study we examined the effects of animated adverts on children’s online reading. We conducted an eye-tracking experiment with authentic web pages to assess whether (1) advert animation primarily affects overt visual attention, or (2) animated adverts primarily affect text comprehension, or (3) both eye movements and comprehension are affected. 59 children in third grade (9-year-olds) participated in the study. The stimulus material con- sisted of 6 factual texts that were presented on a news website. Online banner adverts were presented in a column on the right side of the texts. The adverts were presented in two conditions:  static and animated.  After reading each text the children provided answers to multiple choice comprehension questions. The results showed that advert animation af- fected several text processing measures, such as fixation duration and regressive saccades. This effect was stronger among children with poor gaze control (as measured with an anti- saccade task). More importantly, however, the present study showed that animated adverts had a significant negative effect on children’s text comprehension. The study discusses how these findings could be used to regulate commercial content on children’s websites.  Also, suggestions for using individual differences in eye movement measures to predict reading comprehension are explored.}},
  author       = {{Holmberg, Nils and Holmqvist, Kenneth and Sandberg, Helena}},
  issn         = {{1995-8692}},
  keywords     = {{online advertising; eye-tracking; children}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Conference Abstract}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{98--98}},
  publisher    = {{European Group for Eye Movement Research}},
  series       = {{Journal of Eye Movement Research}},
  title        = {{Animated adverts impair children’s online reading and text comprehension}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.16910/jemr.8.4.1}},
  doi          = {{10.16910/jemr.8.4.1}},
  volume       = {{8}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}