Information discernment and online reading behaviour: an experiment

Abstract

PurposeThis paper intends to explore the relationship between participants' eye fixations (a measure of attention) and durations (a measure of concentration) on areas of interest within a range of online articles and their levels of information discernment (a sub-process of information literacy characterising how participants make judgements about information).Design/methodology/approachEye-tracking equipment was used as a proxy measure for reading behaviour by recording eye-fixations, dwell times and regressions in males aged 18–24 (n = 48). Participants' level of information discernment was determined using a quantitative questionnaire.FindingsData indicates a relationship between participants' level of information discernment and their viewing behaviours within the articles' area of interest. Those who score highly on an information discernment questionnaire tended to interrogate the online article in a structured and linear way. Those with high-level information discernment are more likely to pay attention to an article's textual and graphical information than those exhibiting low-level information discernment. Conversely, participants with low-level information discernment indicated a lack of curiosity by not interrogating the entire article. They were unsystematic in their saccadic movements spending significantly longer viewing irrelevant areas.Social implicationsThe most profound consequence is that those with low-level information discernment, through a lack of curiosity in particular, could base their health, workplace, political or everyday decisions on sub-optimal engagement with and comprehension of information or misinformation (such as fake news).Originality/valueGround-breaking analysis of the relationship between a persons' self-reported level of information literacy (information discernment specifically) and objective measures of reading behaviour.

Impact of information accessibility and diagnosticity on eye movements of children searching for information

“…Pointon et al. (2022) showed that the level of information recognition is related to attention: the lower the information recognition ability, the lower the attention of the individual, the less curiosity in recognizing information, the higher the tendency to ignore factual information and the greater the lack of systematic scanning movements.…”

“…H1, H9, H11 and H16 were supported (see Figure 8). Pointon et al (2022) showed that the level of information recognition is related to attention: the lower the information recognition ability, the lower the attention of the individual, the less curiosity in recognizing information, the higher the tendency to ignore factual information and the greater the lack of systematic scanning movements. This study examines how children process accessible and diagnostic information on mobile devices and the relevance of perceptual speed, associative memory and information-searching behaviors to eye movements.…”

Exploring how message and situational factors shape people’s information processing and belief in fake news on social media: The moderating role of status-seeking motivation.

“…Zhang et al, 2020). Message attractiveness in communication contexts refers to the appeal of a message's format and style, usually reflected through message design elements and linguistic features, such as seductive text (Pointon et al, 2023). Attractive messages capture the audience's attention and interest, leading them to directly perceive the meaning and emotion conveyed by the message without the need for deliberation (Lin et al, 2021).…”