Subjective Impressions Do Not Mirror Online Reading Effort: Concurrent EEG-Eyetracking Evidence from the Reading of Books and Digital Media

摘要: In the rapidly changing circumstances of our increasingly digital world, reading is also becoming an experience: electronic books (e-books) are now outselling print in United States and Kingdom. Nevertheless, many readers still view e-books as less readable than books. The present study thus used combined EEG eyetracking measures order to test whether from media requires higher cognitive effort conventional Young elderly adults read short texts on three different devices: a paper page, e-reader tablet computer answered comprehension questions about them while their eye movements were recorded. results debriefing questionnaire replicated previous findings that participants overwhelmingly chose page over two devices preferred medium. Online measures, by contrast, showed shorter mean fixation durations lower theta band voltage density – known covary with memory encoding retrieval for older when comparison other devices. comparable activity all Comprehension accuracy did not differ across either group. We argue these can be explained terms better text discriminability (higher contrast) produced backlit display computer. Contrast sensitivity decreases age degraded contrast conditions lead longer times, supporting conclusion may benefit particularly enhanced tablet. Our indicate people's subjective evaluation must dissociated neural expended online information processing such