The Relation between Reading Performance and Eye Movement Parameters of High-Skilled and Low-Skilled Readers

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the relations between reading performance and eye movements obtained during reading in fourth-grade high-skilled and low-skilled readers. We examined the relations among students’ reading speed and reading comprehension scores along with their eye movement parameters, as indicated by total reading time, gaze duration, first fixation duration, number of fixations, and number of regressions into areas of interest (AOI) obtained from two text types: Narrative and expository. Correlation analyses were conducted to determine the strength of the relationships among eye movement parameters and reading speed and reading comprehension scores of high-skilled and low-skilled readers. The participants in this study were 38 high-skilled readers (24 girls and 14 boys; mean age = 9.4 years) and 26 low-skilled readers (11 girls and 15 boys; mean age = 9.4 years) who were fourth-grade students. The data obtained from two text types were used to examine the correlations between students’ reading speeds and eye movement parameters and findings showed that as the reading speed of real words increased, fixation durations and fixation numbers decreased, yet as the reading speed of real words decreased, fixation durations increased. These results indicated significant correlations among the reading speed of real words, total reading time, and gaze duration in both text types. We also found similar correlations between the reading speed of high-skilled readers in pseudowords and their total reading time, gaze duration, and the number of fixations in both text types. On the other hand, a correlation between the reading speed of pseudowords and the gaze duration only in narrative text was found in low-skilled readers.