QuikScan and reading strategies

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1 UNIVERSITEIT TWENTE QuikScan and reading strategies Master s Thesis Anne Lohuis [Author: Anne Lohuis ( ) Study: Masterthesis Instructie, Leren & Ontwikkeling Universiteit Twente 1 st mentor: dr. Hans Van der Meij 2 nd mentor: dr. Jan Van der Meij

2 2 Abstract Background. QuikScan (QS) is a new and innovative text design. It facilitates information navigation and reading in documents. QuikScan uses within-document summaries to summarize the gist of each segment of the body text. The summaries are formatted as numbered list items and correspond to the segments in the body text. Aim. Empirical studies have shown that QuikScan improves reading for understanding and recall by helping readers construct a coherent text model. It is still unclear how QuikScan affects the reading strategies of the participants. The aim of the study is to investigate how readers process the QuikScan summaries and text. Method. The participants were 37 students from the University of Twente in Enschede. They were in their Bachelor of Psychology or Communication Studies programs. Eye movements were recorded while they read a QuikScanned text of seven pages. Recall was assessed with an open answer test. Results. Participants used three main kinds of strategies to study the QuikScan summaries (QSs) and body texts. The two most dominant strategies were called the Linear strategy and the Number to number strategy. These strategies show several variants. One other distinct strategy was found, Reading Summary Statement First. Overall participants spent relatively more time on the QuikScan summaries than on the body texts as measured by the ratio of the number of words in the summaries and the segments of body text. There were found significant effects of strategy on the reading time of the QuikScan summaries. No significant differences were found on the test questions between the main strategies. There were no significant correlations found between the test scores and the overall reading time. Conclusions. Readers use different strategies to process a QuikScanned text. The strategies that have been found reflect the different usage of summaries. They also seemed to have an relationship with the functions of QuikScan. There was one noteworthy finding of the effectiveness of these reading strategies. Further research is needed to understand the different functionalities and the reasons why only a significant effect on the test score between the variants of the Linear strategy was found. Keywords: QuikScan, summaries, reading strategies, text processing, recall

3 3 Samenvatting Achtergrond. QuikScan is een nieuw en innovatief design. Informatie navigatie in teksten en het lezen van teksten wordt hierdoor eenvoudiger. QuikScan maakt gebruikt van meerdere samenvattingen die zich bevinden door het hele document. De zinnen in de samenvattingen zijn voorzien van nummers en vatten de hoofdpunten van de aansluitende tekst samen. Doelen. Empirische studies hebben aangetoond dat QuikScan het begrijpen en onthouden van een tekst verbeterd doordat het lezers helpt bij het construeren van een samenhangend tekst model. Het is echter nog onduidelijk welke invloed QuikScan heeft op de leesstrategie van de lezers. Het doel van de studie is om te onderzoeken hoe lezers de QuikScan samenvattingen en teksten verwerken. Methode. 37 studenten van de Universiteit van Twente in Enschede namen deel aan de studie. De oogbewegingen werden geregistreerd terwijl de studenten een QuikScan-tekst lazen van 7 pagina s. Na het lezen van de teksten werd er door middel van open vragen getoetst hoeveel de studenten hadden onthouden van de teksten. Resultaten. In de studie werden drie hoofdstrategieën gevonden die door de studenten werden gebruikt om de teksten te lezen. De twee meest dominante strategieën die werden onderscheiden zijn de Lineaire Strategie en de Van Nummer naar Nummer Strategie. Deze strategieën lieten diverse varianten zien. Daarnaast werd er nog een andere strategie gevonden, Lees de Zin uit de Samenvatting Eerst. De studenten spendeerden relatief meer tijd aan de QuikScan samenvattingen dan aan de teksten vergeleken bij het aantal woorden die beide tekstdelen bevatten. Er werden significante resultaten verschillen gevonden op de toetsscores tussen de verschillende hoofdstrategieën. Er werd geen relatie gevonden tussen de toetsscores en de totale leestijd. Conclusies. Lezers gebruiken verschillende strategieën om een QuikScan-tekst te lezen. De strategieën die zijn gevonden, zijn een weergave van het verschil in het gebruik van samenvattingen in teksten. De leesstrategieën lijken ook verband te hebben met de functionaliteit van QuikScan. Er is een opmerkelijke bevinding over effectiviteit van de leesstrategieën. Verder onderzoek is nodig om inzicht te krijgen in de verschillende functionaliteiten van de leesstrategieën en naar de oorzaak voor het feit dat er alleen een significant effect op de toetsscore is gevonden tussen de varianten van de Lineaire strategie. Trefwoorden: QuikScan, samenvattingen, leesstrategieën, tekstverwerking, onthouden.

4 4 Introduction In school, students acquire their knowledge in various ways. Most of the knowledge comes from written prose (Meyer, Brandt, & Bluth, 1980). An important purpose of educational texts is that they are read, understood and remembered (Dwyer, Hogan, & Stewart, 2010). For many students comprehension and recall is difficult (Armbruster, Anderson, & Ostertag, 1987). Torgesen (2002) describes this as the ability to construct, or comprehend, the meaning of texts in many forms and genres. There are a many ways to facilitate text comprehension and recall. One of these aids is the use of organizational signals such as overviews, abstracts, headings and summaries (Kardash & Noel, 2000; Lorch Jr & Lorch, 1996a; Lorch, 1989; Sanchez, Lorch, & Lorch Jr, 2001; Van der Meij & Van der Meij, 2012). These organizational signals emphasize aspects of a text s content or structure without adding to the content of the text (Lorch, 1989; Meyer, 1975). Almost all types of signals produce better recall for information they cue in a text, whereas there s often no effect on memory for unsignaled information (Lorch, 1989). Meyer et al. (1980) further note that readers who are sensitive to such signals recall more information. This study focuses on one of these signals, namely the summary. More precisely we look at a specific type of summary. A summary emphasizes the topic structure of a text (Lorch Jr & Lorch, 1995). Summaries can have different positions and roles. Summaries which appear at the beginning of the text can help readers decide whether or not they want to read it. When readers do read the text a summary helps readers to organize their subsequent reading (Hartley, 2004b). They introduce the major text topics and show how these topics are related in the text (Lorch, 1989). This helps readers process the topic structure of the text (Lorch, 1989; Lorch, Lorch, Ritchey, McGovern, & Coleman, 2001) by relieving them from inferring this information from the text. A representation of the topic structure of the text can serve as an aid to retrieve information acquired from text later on (Kintsch & Van Dijk, 1978; Meyer et al., 1980). It facilitates memory for the topics and will make information about each topic more accessible at the time of recall. This is

5 5 especially effective when a text is difficult to understand or poorly organized (Cook, 1981; Lorch Jr & Lorch, 1995). Another way in which summaries may influence memory is by listing or reviewing the main points of the text. This is likely to improve recall because the reader s attention is directed toward the most important ideas. Hartley and Trueman (1982) have investigated if summaries enhance better memory for the main ideas of a text. Recall of information was 7% higher when a summary was included then when there was no summary, however there was no negative influence on memory for ideas not included in the summary. A special type of summary that is visually distinguished from the rest of the text is an abstract. An abstract is often placed in front of an scientific article. Traditional abstracts are now being replaced by the so called structured abstracts (SA). Structured abstracts contain subheadings, such as Background, Aim(s), Method(s), Results and Conclusions. Readers appreciate structured abstracts more, because they more explicitly reveal the structure of the text, both for the purpose of recall and for navigation to sections of the text (Hartley, 2003, 2004a). The quality of structured abstracts, measured by a checklist of desired features, was found to be significantly higher than unstructured ones (Sharma & Harrison, 2006). Recently, another new innovative design, QuikScan (QS), has been proposed. QS uses withindocument summaries (Zhou & Farkas, 2007, 2009, 2010). The summaries are presented throughout the document. In that way they differ from a summary before or after a document or chapter (Zhou & Farkas, 2010). QS summaries appear in a gray box, or with some other distinctive formatting, so that they stand out from the rest of the text. The box is a summary of the text that is placed directly after the box. The appearance of a new box represents the beginning of a new QS summary with accompanying text (see Figure 1). QS summaries are formatted as numbered list items. The number in the document indicates where the summarized idea is discussed in detail (Van der Meij & Van der Meij, 2012; Zhou & Farkas, 2007, 2010). In order to ensure that the numbers draw the reader s attention, they are presented

6 6 in bold in the QS summary and preceded with a left brace and a blank space (Weiss, 2012; Zhou & Farkas, 2010). QuikScan is designed to improve reading comprehension and recall of important information from the text as a whole (Van der Meij, Van der Meij, & Farkas, 2013; Zhou & Farkas, 2007). QuikScan can in fact be seen as a combination of specific signals, such as headings, enumeration, overviews/summaries (Van der Meij et al., 2013; Zhou & Farkas, 2007, 2010). Because QuikScan presents the reader with multiple summaries throughout the whole document instead of only once at the beginning or end, it should contribute to improved comprehension and recall of the main text components.

7 7 Figure 1. A QuikScan summary 1} Veel meesters van de beeldende kunst hebben een noodlottig leven geleid. 2} Een beeldende kunstenaar maakt twee- of drie dimensionale objecten. 3} Een beeldende kunstenaar moet beschikken over verbeeldend vermogen en grondige kennis van materialen. 4} Het commerciële deel van het werk van een beeldende kunstenaar wordt vaak door anderen gedaan. 5} Beeldende kunstenaars worden vaak geplaatst in een kunststroming. Het is misschien wel een raar advies. Maar iemand die beeldend kunstenaar wil worden, doet er goed aan vooral niet te kijken naar de levensloop van beroemde voorgangers. {1 Veel grote meesters, van bijvoorbeeld de schilderkunst, zijn ongelukkig aan het einde van hun leven geraakt. Rembrandt van Rijn overleed eenzaam en achtervolgd door schuldeisers. Graffitiartiest Keith Haring werd noodlottig getroffen door het HIV-virus, en Vincent van Gogh stierf met ernstige gehoorproblemen. {2 Onder de algemene benaming van beeldend kunstenaar worden een heleboel verschillende beroepen geschaard, zoals beeldhouwer, decorontwerper, pottenbakker, meubelontwerper en kunstschilder. Al deze beeldende kunstenaars hebben gemeen dat ze afbeeldingen maken die een platte of ruimtelijke vorm kunnen aannemen. {3 Van een beeldend kunstenaar wordt verwacht dat hij over de gave beschikt om mensen of dingen in beelden te vangen, te verbeelden. Behalve talent, ruimtelijk inzicht en gevoel voor kleuren is ook een gedegen kennis van materialen vereist. Een beeldend kunstenaar zal, meestal vanuit een atelier, werken met verschillende soorten materialen zoals diverse verfsoorten, boetseerklei, ijzer, of hout. Dat lijkt simpel, maar is het niet. Bijvoorbeeld het gebruik van olieverf vereist een volstrekt andere schildertechniek dan het gebruik van acrylverf. {4 Een kunstenaar moet ook ondernemer zijn. Hij moet actief op zoek gaan naar publiciteit en opdrachtgevers. Daarom wordt in de huidige opleiding tot beeldend kunstenaar ook aandacht besteed aan deze commerciële kanten van het beroep. Veel kunstenaars hebben desalniettemin moeite met het aan de man brengen van hun werk. Vaak wordt dit dan ook uitbesteed aan een PR-manager of galeriehouder. Deze ontvangt daarvoor een percentage dat kan oplopen tot wel zestig procent van de verkoopopbrengst. {5 Het werk van een beeldende kunstenaar wordt meestal binnen een bepaalde kunststroming geplaatst. Een bekend voorbeeld is het impressionisme met vertegenwoordigers zoals de schilder Monet en de beeldhouwer Rodin. Een ander voorbeeld is het expressionisme, waartoe Van Gogh en Mondriaan worden gerekend. Uniek is ook het surrealisme, met Dali als bekendste vertegenwoordiger. Soms zie je zelfs dat een beeldende kunstenaar zich een plaats heeft verworven in een aantal kunststromingen. Zo wordt in het werk van Picasso wel onderscheid gemaakt in een kubistische, een klassieke, een surrealistische, en een abstracte periode. Empirical studies on QuikScan have shown that QuikScan is effective. Numerous studies show that QuikScan leads to better comprehension and recall of information. Zhou (2008) compared participants who read a QuikScan version of a text with participants who read a non-quikscan version. Those who read the QuikScan version performed better on text recall and were able to grasp more relations about the content items. Van der Meij and Van der Meij (2012) found similar results. They examined the influence of QuikScan summaries on participants perception of text recall. They compared a control group, which received a structured abstract text, with the experimental group, which received a QuikScan text. Participants who studied the QuikScan text recalled significantly more from the text. No difference was found on perception of text quality.

8 8 To investigate what accounts for the effectiveness of QuikScan, Weiss (2012) examined two hypotheses, the text model hypothesis and the repetition hypothesis. The results showed, as in Van der Meij and Van der Meij (2012) that QuikScan significantly improves text recall. In addition the study found that QuikScan owes its effectiveness to the fact that it supports readers in constructing a coherent text model, and the hypothesis that QuikScan worked better because it repeats main ideas, was disconfirmed. Processing of QuikScan It is probable that improved recall for QS traces back to the reading strategies of the participants, but this has not yet been investigated. In their study, Van der Meij and Van der Meij (2012) speculate about five distinct scenarios of use: From top to bottom. In this scenario readers process the text linearly. They first read the QS summary and then proceed the main body text below that presents the information in detail. The QS summary then serves as a local preview (Zhou, 2008; Zhou & Farkas, 2007, 2010). Processing all QS summaries first. In this scenario readers first process all the QuikScan summaries, before reading the main body text. This strategy of reading allows the reader to discriminate between the main ideas and the details of the text by building a coherent text model of the content when readers are beginning with the summaries. This can facilitate the integration of upcoming information from the main body text (Kintsch & Van Dijk, 1978; Nevid & Lampmann, 2003; Van der Meij & Van der Meij, 2012; Weiss, 2012). Verifying understanding. Readers start by processing the text linearly. While reading the text readers frequently return to the QuikScan summaries (Van der Meij & Van der Meij, 2012) which they are likely to do when they are faced with difficult text segments. After reading a segment they return to the corresponding part in the summary which help them in understanding the segment, i.e. capture the main ideas. Reviewing by relying on QS. In this scenario readers review the QSs twice. The first time they read the text, they process the QuikScan summaries and body text, for example, linear or with

9 9 backtracking. The second time they rely mainly on the summaries so they can quickly scan the main points of the previously read text. The QuikScan summaries are mostly used to review and to test knowledge. The review helps readers to better retain the main points so they are more able to recall them during testing. QS summaries are enough. This scenario is probable with readers who are already familiar with QuikScan and the way it works. In this scenario readers are processing the QuikScan summaries only. They frequently rely on summaries to get to know the gist of a text and therefore this scenario is likely when study time is limited. Research design and questions The current study will focuses on the following research questions: 1.) How do readers process a QuikScanned text? We start the study with an open mind towards strategies that readers will use to process the QuickScan summaries and body text. It might be possible that readers employ one of the scenarios of use as described in Van der Meij and Van der Meij (2012). To investigate how readers process a QuikScanned text this study uses the eye-tracking or gaze-tracking method. Registration of eye movements has the advantage that it doesn t disturb the normal reading pattern or process and readers are not faced with an additional task (Cozijn, 2006). Another reason why eye-tracking is effective is that it provides insight into the temporal properties of the reading process and, in some cases, encoding (Cozijn, 2006) or attentional processes (Hyönä, 2010). That is, eye move movements can show how long it takes to process a piece of the text and when it is encountered for the first time. Eye movements also show when readers reread a part of the text and how often readers switch attention between different text components, i.e. QS summaries and main body text. Eye movements can be recorded with an eye-tracker that measures a person s eye positions and eye movements (van Amelsvoort, van der Meij, Anjewierden, & van der Meij, 2012). This process is also called gaze movement or gaze tracking (Risto, 2010).

10 10 To examine how readers process the QuikScanned text, we collected two types of eye-tracking data. 1.) The qualitative data is related to the five scenario s of use. We analyzed the videos of the participants to determine how they have been processing the QuikScanned text. Therefore we look at the way participants switched between the QuikScan summaries and body texts. 2.) The quantative data focuses on the total reading time derived from the eye-tracker. This is determined for the QuikScan summaries, the body text and the whole text. 2.) Is there a relationship between the scores on the post test and the way readers process a QuikScanned text? We investigated whether the strategy participants have used to process the QuikScanned text affected their text recall. To answer this question a post test was conducted to measure the recall of information. 3.) Are readers aware of their reading strategy? We wonder if readers are aware of their strategy during reading. Therefore participants were be asked which strategy they used to read the text and why and whether they were aware of this. We determine whether the given answers by the participants were supported by way the processed the text, which will be reflected on the videos. Method Participants Thirty-eight students from the University of Twente in the Netherlands participated in the study. In one case the computer did not save eye-tracking data, leaving the data of thirty-seven participants for further analyses. Eleven participants were boys and 26 were girls. Of those 37 students, 21 had a Dutch and 16 a German nationality. The students were in their bachelor of psychology or communication. The age of the participants ranged from to 32.3 years. Their mean age was years ( SD = 2.78 ). The students received course credits for participation in the study.

11 11 Instruments The text The original text was derived from a career choice book (Swinkels & Schoen, 1999). The text contained 2880 words. It describes seven professions from the arts sector: artist, writer, photographer, comedian, actor, fashion designer and interior designer. Weiss (2012) edited the original text and created a QS version. In this version, a 12-point font was used with 1.15 point spacing between the lines. The summaries contained 369 words and the body texts contained 2844 words. All texts contained 7.5 pages. For this study, the text was optimized for presentation on a 19-inch monitor. Two major adjustments were made. First, the text was a bit shortened so the text about each profession could be displayed on a single page to keep the QuikScan summary and the body text together (see Figure 2). The length of the main body text was different per page. The QuikScan summary contained four or five summary sentences. There were seven pages, one after the other. The total body texts contained 2689 words. All summaries totaled 337 words. The lines were approximately 70 characters wide. A 12-point character font was used with 1.15 point spacing between the lines. Second, the space between the QuikScan summary and the body text was enlarged. Between the summary and the beginning of the text there was left a space of approximately two lines, so that, when analyzing the data, the transition from summary to the text clearly could be seen (see Figure 2). Furthermore, each page was divided into two sections: the QuikScan summary and the body text (see figure 2). The QuikScan summary was presented in a gray box. The background color of the main body text was white. Both sides of the two boxes were black so the attention was directly focused on the QuikScan and the main body text in order to keep the processing load low.

12 12 Figure 2. The presentation of the text on screen The QuikScan Summary (QSs) Space of approximately two lines The body text The eye-tracker The eye-tracker is an infra-red video-based tracking system. It consists of two Plea camera s with one infra-red sensor. The cameras employ software that enables hyperacuity image processing. The video based eye-tracker was placed under the 19-inch monitor of the computer to record the gaze data simultaneously for both eyes at a sample frequency of 60 Hz. There were used two computers for gaze tracking. The first computer was connected to a set of camera s that recorded head movements and corneal reflections. The data was processed using FaceLab version 4.5. With Gazetracker version 7 for FaceLab (Eye Response Technologies Inc., Charlottesville, Virginia, USA), installed on the second computer, the text was presented and the gaze coordinates were saved. These recorded gaze coordinates were sent via local area network to the second computer. The set-up of the experiment is shown in Figure 3.

13 13 Figure 3. The set-up of the experiment The eye tracker Seat of the participant Seat of the researcher Post-test Participants knew that they would be examined after they had read the texts. The post-test contained 14 questions about the text. The questions were divided into different types of questions, according to their processing demands and appearance in the summaries. The post test covered all 7 professions. Six questions were asked about details from the text. An example of a detail-question is: How many books did Konsalik write? For every right answer participants could receive one point, so the total score for those questions was 6 points. Furthermore there were 5 questions about conceptual information that was presented in the text. An example of a concept-question is: What s a new trend for interior designers? For every right answer participants could receive one point, so the total score for the concept-questions was five points. Another conceptual questions was to give a set of keywords that represent the main divisions in the text. For this question participants could receive three points. There were also two questions that required the participants to make connections between pieces of important information. An example is: What s the connection between Vincent van Gogh and Keith Haring? The total score for the whole test was 18 points. Interview The interview consisted of two or three questions. The first question the researcher asked was: Can you please tell me how you studied the text, i.e. which strategy you have applied? The second

14 14 question was: For what reason did you process the text the way you did? The answer to this question wasn t included in the analysis. An optional third question was to provide further information (see Appendix 6). Demographic questionnaire In this questionnaire participants were asked to give some personal background information, such as gender, age and education (see Appendix 4). Procedure The experiment was conducted in individual sessions lasting a maximum of 90 minutes. When the participants arrived they were asked to sign an informed consent form (see Appendix 1). after signing the informed consent form, the participants received instructions about the task (Appendix 2) and were calibrated with the eye-tracking equipment. This required 5 to 10 minutes. The eye-tracker was calibrated for each participant. For calibration, participants had to look at nine calibration dots that automatically appeared at the screen for three seconds each. This was done to be able to adjust the gaze data if necessary. After this, the text was presented on screen. There was no introducing of QuikScan and none of the participants were familiar with QuikScan so the first page was a surprise. Most participants were able to finish reading in about 20 minutes. The presentation ended with a screen instructing participants to raise their hand. Then participants filled in a demographic questionnaire (Appendix 4) and completed the post test. For completing the questions they had 15 minutes. After completion, the interview took place. Data-analysis Eye-tracking data Quantitative analyses The text was divided into two look zones, namely the QuikScan Summary and the body text. For each look zone and for the whole text the total reading time was determined. The total reading time for the QuikScan summaries was determined by adding the time of all seven QuikScan summaries together. Likewise the time for the body text was determined. The overall reading time

15 15 was as defined as the time (in min.) that participants needed to read the text. This was determined by adding the times of the QuikScan summaries and body texts together. Eyetracking data Qualitative analyses To discover the reading strategy of the participants, we analyzed their video. First, we determined the reading sequence. Then we looked at how participants processed the QuikScan summaries and body texts, i.e. in which order they read the text. Finally, we looked at the switches between the QuikScan summaries and body text. A switch 1 was considered meaningful if one of the following scenarios occurred: 1.) After reading one or more lines in the QuikScan summary a switch was made to the body text. Subsequently the participant read one or more lines in the body text. Or: 2.) After reading one or more lines in the body text a switch was made to the QuikScan summary. Subsequently the participant read one or more lines in the QuikScan summary. In the analysis, the processing of the first page of the text was viewed with reservation 2, but was included in analysis 3. Participants were assigned to the strategy with which they agreed with at least four of the seven pages. 1 Exceptional (non-meaningful) switches are defined as a quick switch between the QuikScan summary and body text and vice versa. These exceptional switches were randomly found in every strategy. 2 Participants had no prior knowledge about QuikScan. Therefore this page was viewed with reservation, because it was assumed that the participant would still be getting accustomed to QuikScan. 3 If the first page had not been included in analysis, one participant should would have been assigned to the Linear Strategy instead of the Linear Strategy variant 1.

16 16 Results Frequency of reading strategies The video analysis revealed the presence of three main kind of reading strategies that participants used to read the QuikScan summaries (QSs) and body texts. Two clearly distinguished strategies are called the Linear strategy and the Number to Number Strategy. The most dominant of these two is the is the Linear Strategy. 20 participants made use of this strategy. The Number to Number Strategy was employed by 10 participants. Besides those two strategies, one other distinct reading strategy was found, namely Reading Summary Statement First 4. Three participants made use of this strategy. Table 1a provides an overview of the frequencies of the reading strategies and their variants. Table 1a. The Frequencies of the Reading Strategies and their Variants. Main Strategies Number of participants The Linear Strategy 20 Number to Number Strategy 10 Reading Summary Statement First 3 Fuzzy Strategy Total 4 37 The video analysis further showed several variants within the two strategies with the highest frequency. Table 1b provides an overview of all reading strategies. 4 Participants whose reading strategies did not conform to the three main variants were said to have followed a Fuzzy Strategy. The reading of four participants showed no distinct or consistent pattern.

17 17 Table 1b. The Frequency of all Reading Strategies Variants Number of participants The Linear Strategy 12 Variant 1 7 Variant 2 1 Number to Number Strategy 6 Variant 1 1 Variant 2 3 Reading Summary Statement First 3 Fuzzy Strategy Total 4 37 The variants, as well as the main reading strategies, are discussed below. The description includes the following components: (a) Name, (b) Operational definition, (c) Visual illustration, and (d) a case description based on the combined input from the quantitative and qualitative eye-movement analyses, and the participants responses to the interview questions. Description of the reading strategies and their variants Strategy name Operational definition The Linear Strategy (LR) The student starts reading the top of the page, the QuikScan Summary (QSs). After completing the QSs, the main body text is processed next. Again reading proceeds in a linear fashion, one sentence after another. There is no switching to and from the QSs and the body text during the first complete read of the text. Occasionally, the student may reread a QS segment or the main body text during the first read,

18 18 but this is exceptional. Figure 4 illustrates the reading pattern of the Linear strategy. Figure 4. A visual illustration of the reading pattern of the Linear Strategy (LR) Case description - Marieke Marieke s reading shows that she closely follows the Linear strategy. Her reading sequence is dictated by the QSs and the main body text, meaning from top to bottom and one page after another. She begins with the fist statement in the QSs and then reads to the next statement and so on. On average, Marieke spends 2.38 minutes on these QSs. This is close to the whole group average ( M = 2.61). After completing each QSs she processes the corresponding body text. On average, Marieke spends minutes on the 7 body texts, which again, is close to the whole group average ( M = ). The video-analysis of Mariekes reading is consistent with the way she describes it herself: I just read first the upper headings and after that I start reading the text. She also adds to this description: Sometimes, uh, when I arrived at a new segment, I quickly checked what it was about, but actually I read everything in a row from top to bottom. In total, Marieke read the entire text in minutes. This is close to the average of the whole group ( M = 15.58).

19 19 Strategy name Operational definition The Linear Strategy Variant 1 (LR1) The students reads the text as described by the linear strategy, but after processing the body text the QuikScan Summary is reread. Figure 5 illustrates the reading pattern of variant 1 of the Linear Strategy. Figure 5. A visual illustration of the Linear Strategy Variant 1 (LR1) Case description - Michelle Michelle s eye-tracking data shows that she reads the text using the Linear strategy with an addition. After she processes the QSs and body text, she returns to the QSs to reread the statements. After processing the QSs the second time, she switches to the following page. On some pages it seems like she didn t read all the statements as carefully as during the first read of the QSs. On average she spends 2.72 minutes on these QSs. This is close to the whole group average ( M = 2.61), Michelle s description of her reading closely follows her reading pattern from the video-analyes. She relates: Each time I read the upper part above the text. After that, I read the whole text and at the end, I again read the upper part because that was actually a bit of a summary. When I didn t understand a word that I had faced before and I knew it was important, I reread it to get some clarity, but this was exceptional. I actually didn t reread sentences or segments of the body text. Michelle read the whole text in minutes, which is far below the average of the whole group ( M = 15.58).

20 20 Strategy name Operational definition The Linear Strategy Variant 2 (LR2) The student reads the text as described with the Linear Strategy, but after finishing the first read, the student rereads the page in the same way. Figure 6 illustrates the reading pattern of variant 2 of the Linear Strategy. Figure 6. A visual illustration of the Linear Strategy Variant 2 Case description - Linda Linda s reading shows that she followed this strategy on five out of the seven pages. She read the text from top to bottom twice. During the first read of the third and sixth page, she followed the Number to Number Strategy, which means reading a statement in the QSs after processing a segment in the body text that corresponds with this number. The second time, the video-analysis shows that Linda reads the text much faster. This corresponds with her own description of her reading strategy: At the top, I think, there were key phrases. I think they told me something about the segments in the text. I read those first. After finishing those phrases, I read the whole text. At the end of the text I read the key phrases for the second time. I read the text for the second time also, but more broadly. On average she spent 4.15 minutes on the QSs. This is far above the average of the whole group ( M = 2.61 ). The

21 21 time Linda spent on the body texts is minutes which is, again, above the whole group average ( M = ). Linda completed the whole text in minutes which is far above the whole group average ( M = 15.58). Strategy name Operational definition The Number to Number Strategy (NtN) The student starts reading the top of the page, the QuikScan Summary (QSs). After completing the QSs, the main body text is processed next. During the first read, the student switches between the QSs and the body text. Switching takes place after processing segment in the body text. The student returns to the QSs and reads the sentence corresponding with the segment. This is done for each segment in the body text. Figure 6 illustrates the reading pattern of the Number to Number Strategy. Figure 7. A visual illustration of the Number to Number Strategy (NtN)

22 22 Case description - Stefanie Stefanie s reading shows that she frequently uses the QSs. On each page she begins by reading the whole QSs. After completing the QSs she starts reading the body text. Stefanie processes the body text by, after reading a segment, switching to the corresponding statement in the QSs. She describes it as follows: When I had read a segment and faced a number, I went to the top of the page to see what it was about. After that I continued reading the text. By following this strategy, she reads the statements in the QSs two times. The time she spends on these QSs is 4.81 minutes. This is almost two times as many as the whole group average ( M = 2.61 ). The total time she spends on the body texts is closer to the whole group average. On average she spent minutes in the body texts ( M = ). This seems reasonable. All participants read the body texts once, with the exception of the student who used the second variant of the Linear Strategy and read it twice. Stefanie read the entire text in minutes. This is above the average of the whole group ( M = ). Strategy name The Number to Number Strategy Variant 1 (NtN 1) Operational definition The student reads the text as described in the operational definition of the Number to Number Strategy, but after finishing the first read of the page, the student rereads the statements in the QSs. Figure 8 illustrates the reading pattern of variant 1 of the Number to Number Strategy.

23 23 Figure 8. A visual illustration of the Number to Number Strategy Variant 1 (NtN1) Case description - Ineke The video analysis of Ineke s reading shows that she frequent uses the statements in the QSs. She first read all the statements in the QSs. After she finishes the statements she switches to the body text and starts reading. After processing a segment in the body text, Ineke switches to the QSs and reads the corresponding statement. She returns to the QSs after every segment in the body text. This corresponds with her description of her reading pattern: First, I looked at the numbers with sentences at the top of the page, because it was a summary of the text. Then, I went over to the text and start reading. If I encountered a number, I went over to the summary to read the corresponding number. After processing the body text, she rereads all the statements in the QSs again. She didn t mention this in her description. She spends 3.97 minutes on these QSs, which is above the average of the whole group ( M = 2.61). The total time she spends on the body texts is minutes, which is below the average of the whole group ( M = ). This is also the case with her total reading time. She read the entire text in minutes compared to the average of the whole group ( M = ).

24 24 Strategy name The Number to Number Strategy Variant 2 (NtN 2) Operational definition The student starts reading the QSs. After processing the sentences in the QSs, the student switches to the body text and starts reading until he faces a number. The student then directly returns to the QSs and reads the statement that corresponds with the number. After processing the statement he reads the corresponding segment in the body text until he faces the following number, etc. Figure 9 illustrates the reading pattern of the Number to Number Strategy variant 2. Figure 9. A visual illustration of the Number to Number Strategy Variant 2 (NtN 2) Case description - Sander Sander s readings shows that he follows the strategy, as described above, five out of seven pages. This means that he, after reading a statement in the QSs, switches to the body text to read the corresponding segment. The video analysis further shows that, on the first page, Sanders reading closely follows the linear strategy, meaning from top to bottom. There is, with one exceptional switch, no switching to and from the QSs and the body text during the first complete read of the text. Sanders description of his reading strategy is very similar. He says: First, I read the short summary sentences

25 25 at the top of the page and then I read the whole text. From page two to seven, I first read the sentences at the top and each time I read them again when I faced the corresponding segment in the text. For example, when I encountered number two, I first read the summary sentences so I knew where the text behind that number was about. The total time Sander spent on the QSs is 2.60 minutes. This is very close to the whole group average ( M = 2.61). The time he spent on the body texts ( M = 11.75) is close to the whole group average ( M = 12.97). Sander finished the whole text in minutes which is below the average of the whole group ( M = ). Strategy name Operational definition Reading Summary Statement First (RssF) The student starts reading the top of the page, the QSs. After processing a statement in the QSs, the student switches to the corresponding number in the body text and reads the text behind it. After processing that segment of text, the student switches back to the QSs and starts reading the second statement. Again, after processing this statement, a switch is made to the corresponding segment in the body text. This is done for all statements in the QSs. Figure 10 illustrates the reading pattern of Reading Summary Statement First. Figure 10. A visual illustration of Reading Summary Statement First.

26 26 Case description Loes Loes reading shows that, from page 2 to 7, she closely follows the strategy as described above. She starts reading the first statement in the QSs. After processing this statement, she switches to the body text and reads the corresponding segment. Then she switches back to the QSs and reads the following statement, etc. In some segments in the text, Loes video analysis shows that, she switches more often between a statement in the QSs and body text. She also rereads some sentences in the body text. On average she spends 2.49 minutes on these QSs. This is close to the whole group average ( M = 2.61). Processing the body texts takes minutes. Loes description of her reading strategy is very similar to the video analysis. She describes: At the top were sentences who contained a number. Each time I first looked at these statements, because the statements were summaries of the text who was yet to come. Even when I didn t understand a segment or relations in the text, I looked at those statements. Loes read the entire text in minutes. This is above the average of the whole group ( M = ). Main strategies and reading times Table 2 provides an overview of the Means (Standard Deviations) of the reading times of the main strategies. All QuikScan summaries together totaled 337 words and the body texts totaled 2689 words, therefore the ratio is about 1:8. The ratio between the time participants spent in the QSs ( M = ) and the body texts ( M = ) is about 1:5. Participants spent relatively more time on the QuikScan Summaries than the body texts compared to the ratio of the number of words between those two look zones.

27 27 Table 2. Means (Standard Deviation) for the Reading Times (in min) of the Main Strategies Reading Times Strategy QuikScan summaries Body Texts Overall Linear Strategy (n=20) 2.37 (0.97) (3.70) (4.25) Number to Number Strategy (n=10) 3.40 (0.91) (3.62) (2.60) Reading Summary Statement First (n=3) 2.22 (0.90) (3.53) (4.40) Fuzzy Strategy (n=4) 2.14 (0.92) 9.75 (1.97) (2.35) Total 2.61 (1.03) (3.40) (3.92) There s a difference in the reading times for the QuikScan Summaries, the body texts and the whole text between the different strategies. A Kruskal Wallis revealed an effect of strategy for the reading time in the QSs, F(3) = 8.259, p =.041. To evaluate which strategies differed from each other in the time they needed to read the summaries, a Mann-Whitney U test was conducted. Participants who used the Number to Number Strategy spent more time on the QSs then participants who used the Linear Strategy, z = -2.60, p =.009, and the Fuzzy Strategy, z = -1.98, p =.048. There were no significant differences between the time participants spent on the body texts, F(3) = 5.664, p =.129 and the overall reading time between the participants, F (3) = 7.032, p =.063. Sub strategies and reading times The Means and Standard Deviations of the reading times for the variants of the Linear Strategy are shown in Table 3a. The reading times of Variant 2 of the Linear Strategy were the highest, but a test couldn t be conducted because of the absence of a standard deviation.

28 28 A Kruskal Wallis revealed no significant effects between the reading time of the QuikScan summaries, F (2) = 5.782, p =.056 and between the reading time of the body texts, F (2) = 2.083, p =.353. Likewise there was no significant difference between the overall reading time, F (2) = 1.597, p =.450 Table 3a. Means (Standard Deviations) of the Reading Times (in min) of the Linear Strategy and Variants. Reading Times Reading Strategy QuikScan Summary Body Text Overall Linear Strategy (n=12) 1.93 (0.52) (4.09) (4.46) Variant 1 (n=7) 2.86 (1.15) (2.96) (4.05) Variant 2 (n=1) Total (n=20) 2.37 (0.97) (3.70) (4.25) The Means and Standard Deviations of the reading times for the variants of the Number to number strategy are shown in Table 3b. There were differences between the reading times of the different strategies, but a Kruskal Wallis revealed no significant effects between the reading time of the QuikScan summaries, F (2) = 4,691, p =.096 and between the reading time of the body texts, F (2) = 1.491, p =.475. Likewise there was no significant difference found between the overall reading time, F (2) = 4.418, p =.110. Table 3b. Means (Standard Deviations) of the Reading Times (in min) of the Number to Number Strategy and Variants Reading Times Reading Strategy Number to Number Strategy (n=6) QuikScan Summary Body Text Overall 3.50 (1.11) (2.41) (2.15) Variant 1 (n=1) Variant 2 (n=3) 3.01 (0.42) (1.00) (1.41)

29 29 Total (n=10) 3.40 (0.91) (2.63) (2.60) Reading strategies and Test scores Table 4a provides an overview of the main strategies and their test scores. Overall, participants answered about half of the post-test questions correctly, with a mean of 8.56 (SD = 2.46) out of 18 points. A Kruskal Wallis showed no differences on the test scores between participants, F(3) = 3.037, p =.386. Table 4a. Means and Standard Deviations of the Main Strategies and their Test Scores Test Scores Reading Strategy M SD The Linear Strategy (n=20) Number to Number Strategy (n=10) Reading Summary Statement First (n=3) Fuzzy Strategy (n=4) Total (n=37) Table 4b provides an overview of the Variants of the Linear Strategy and their test scores. A Kruskal Wallis revealed significant differences between the test scores of the variants of the Linear Strategy, F(2) = 9.532, p =.009. Subsequently, a Mann-Whitney U test showed significant differences between the Linear Strategy and its Variant 1, z = -2.87, p =.004. The test score of Variant 2 seems the highest, but this test couldn t be conducted because the absence of a standard deviation. Tabel 4b. Means and Standard Deviations of the Test Scores of the Variants of the Linear Strategy (n=20) Test Scores

30 30 Reading Strategy M SD The Linear Strategy (n=12) Variant 1 (n=7) Variant 2 (n=1) Total (n=20) A Kruskal Wallis further revealed no significant differences between the test scores of the variants of the Number to Number Strategy, F(2) = 2.673, p =.263 (see Table 4c.). Tabel 4c. Means and Standard Deviations of the Test Scores of the Variants of the Number to Number strategy (n=10). Test Score Reading Strategy Number to Number Strategy (n=6) M SD Variant 1 (n=1) Variant 2 (n=3) Total (n=10) Correlational Analysis Pearson correlation coefficient between the test scores and the reading times of the QuikScan summaries, Body texts and the whole text are shown in Table 5a. No significant correlation was found between the overall test score and the overall reading time, r = -.08, p =.648. Likewise there were no significant correlations found between the test score and the reading time of the QSs and body text (see Table 5a). There were strong, significant correlations found between the reading time of the QSs and the overall reading time, r =.61, p =.000 and between the reading time of the body text and the overall reading time, r =.97, p =.000. The more time participants spend on the QuikScan summaries or the

31 31 body texts, the higher the overall reading time. Significant correlations were also found between the reading time of the QuikScan summaries and the reading time of the body texts, r =.40, p =.015. Table 5a. Correlations between the Overall Test Score and the Reading Times of the QuikScan Summaries, the Body Texts and the Whole Text. Overall Test score Reading Time QSs Reading Time Body Text Overall Reading Time Overall Test score 1 r =.26 P =.116 r = -.17 P =.316 r = -.08 P =.648 QS summary Reading Time r =.26 P = r =.40 P =.015 r =.61 P =.000 Body Text Reading Time r = -.17 P =.316 r =.40 P = r =.97 P =.000 Overall Reading Time r = -.08 P =.648 r =.61 P =.000 r =.97 P = No significant correlations were found between the test score of the participants who used the Linear Strategy and their overall reading time, r = -.22, p =.343. Likewise there were no significant correlations found between the test scores and the reading time of the QuikScan summaries and the body texts (see Table 5b). There were strong, significant correlations found between the reading time of the QSs and overall reading time, r =.64, p =.002 and between the reading time of the body texts and the overall reading time, r =.98, p =.000. A significant correlation was also found between the reading time of the QuikScan summaries and the reading time of the body texts, r =.47, p =.035. Table 5b. Correlations between the Test Score and Reading Times of the Linear Strategy (n = 20) Test Score Reading Time QSs Test Score 1 r =.37 P =.106 Reading Time Body Text r = -.35 P =.125 Overall Reading Time r = -.22 P =.343 Reading Time r =.37 1 r =.474 r =.64