Abstract
Research shows that simplifying short textual passages to lower reading levels (e.g., lower than 10th grade reading level) can improve the viewing behavior of younger users. However, little work has been done to examine the viewing behavior of younger users for simplified text that are longer in length and are more difficult than specific reading levels such as 10th grade reading level. Similarly, little work has been done to examine whether and how older and younger users differ in viewing such long and complex textual content. In this study, we used eye-tracking to examine older and younger users’ viewing behavior for two relatively long and complex text passages with the same content but varying reading difficulty. Our results supported previous research that suggests age-related cognitive difficulties are likely to be mitigated by task experience. Our results also supported previous research that shows text simplification can improve users’ viewing behavior. Our results extended the previous research by showing that the positive effects of text simplification continue to hold even when the simplified text is relatively long and still considered to be hard to read.
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Varzgani, F., Norouzi Nia, J., Alrefaei, D., Shojaeizadeh, M., Djamasbi, S. (2021). Effects of Text Simplification on Reading Behavior of Older and Younger Users. In: Gao, Q., Zhou, J. (eds) Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Technology Design and Acceptance. HCII 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12786. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78108-8_18
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