1. Reading, Processing and Interacting with Hypertext on the Web
Gemma Fitzsimmons, Mark J Weal and Denis Drieghe
The Influence of Hyperlinks on Reading on the Web: An Empirical Approach.

2. Why is it important to study reading on the Web?
In the first quarter of 2016, 87.9% of adults in the UK (45.9 million) had, in the last 3 months, used the internet
In 2015, the internet was accessed almost every day, by 78% of adults (39.3 million)
Users of the Web engage in a wide variety of different activities:
searching for information
reading the news/reading for comprehension
sending and receiving
social networking
Within all of these activities, the primary task that users engage in is reading text

3. What is the difference between reading on the Web and traditional reading?
Hyperlinks
Salient (shown in blue, or at least highlighted compared to the rest of the text)
Navigation

4. Eye movement example
Rayner and Pollatsek (1989) found that the more difficult the text the longer the fixations and the shorter the saccades and more backward-directed eye movements (regressions) are made to re-read information
Eye movements are a measure of online cognitive processing (Liversedge & Findlay, 2000)

5. Experiment 1A
Does Displaying a Word in a Different Colour to the Rest of the Text Change Reading Behaviour?

6. Experiment 1A Results
All colours skipped less often

7. Experiment 1B
Does a Hyperlinked Word Change Reading Behaviour? Does Hyperlinking Interact with Lexical Processing?
32 participants - 4 conditions
2 (Word Type) x 2 (Word Frequency)
Word Frequency
Why did we use a frequency manipulation? To see if high level information of hyperlinks interacts from lexical processing
High Log HAL frequency – 9.91
Low Log HAL frequency – 5.75
Word
Type

8. Experimental Stimuli
Demand/rigour
Phone/scarf
Salt/grit
Sleep/inert

9. Experiment 1B results Did not show reduction in skipping
Increased re-reading of previous content for low frequency, linked words

10. Experiment 1C
Does Displaying Multiple Words in a Different Colour to the Rest of the Text Change Reading Behaviour?

11. Experiment 1C Results
Replicates Experiment 1A, reduction in skipping for single coloured words
Disappears when there are multiple coloured words
Reduced saliency/ oversignalling

12. Experiment 2
How Do the Properties of the Text on a Webpage Affect the Importance Rating of the Content?
We asked participants to rate each sentence for its importance in the text on a scale of 1(not important) - 5(very important)
Two versions of the experiment– one with links and one with the links removed

14. Experiment 2 Results
How does the Presence of Links Affect the Importance of Unlinked Text?
Yes, unlinked sentences in a linked context are rated lower
The sentences containing links are rated as more important and are therefore, by comparison, taking importance away from the sentences without links

15. Experiment 2 Results
Are Sentences with Links Rated as More Important than Sentences Without Links?
Yes, sentences with links are rated higher
This effect was more apparent towards the bottom of the page, because having a link present serves as a boost to importance
This has less of an impact at the top of the page, where sentences are rated as very important in general

16. Experiment 2 Results
Does Having More Links Increase Importance Rating of the Sentences?
Yes, sentences with more links are rated higher
Short sentences with more links that were at the top of page were rated higher, but this drops off as the reader moves down the page
Long sentences with many links were rated higher, no matter the position of the sentence on the page
This suggests that links do make a sentence more important, especially for long sentences

17. Experiment 3 How does skim reading affect the way we read hypertext?
32 participants - 8 conditions
2 (Task Type) x 2 (Word Type) x 2 (Word Frequency)
Word Frequency
Why did we use a frequency manipulation? To see if high level information of hyperlinks interacts from lexical processing
High Log HAL frequency – 9.91
Low Log HAL frequency – 5.75
Task Type
Read normally
Word
Type
Skim read

18. Experiment 3 Results
Unlinked words skipped more when skim reading

19. Experiment 3 Results
Unlinked words when skim reading are not fully processed (lack of frequency effect)

20. Experiment 3 Results
Accuracy was lower when the text was being skim read
Marginal effect of Importance, higher accuracy for questions relating to the most important information
Task
High importance
Low importance
Reading for comprehension
91%
90%
Skim reading
87%
84%

21. Experiment 4
How Does Clicking and Navigating Hypertext Affect Reading Behaviour and Comprehension and How Does Skim Reading Interact with this?
32 participants - 8 conditions
2 (Task Type) x 2 (Word Type) x 2 (Word Frequency)
Word Frequency
Why did we use a frequency manipulation? To see if high level information of hyperlinks interacts from lexical processing
High Log HAL frequency – 9.91
Low Log HAL frequency – 5.75
Task Type
Read normally
Word
Type
Skim read

22. Experiment 4 Results: Early effects
Replicates Experiment 3
Unlinked words are not processed to the same degree when skim reading

23. Experiment 4 Results: Late effects
Replicates Experiment 1B
Low frequency, linked words show increased rereading of the previous content

24. Experiment 4 Results: Comprehension accuracy
The main difference between Experiment 3 and 4 is the ability to click links and navigate the environment
This resulted in a reduction in comprehension, could be due to:
Increased cognitive load
A difference in the stimulus set
Task
Experiment 3
Experiment 4
Reading for comprehension
91%
66%
Skim reading
86%
60%

25. Conclusions
This thesis has provided a novel approach to understanding how people read on the Web
It has taken the theories from eye movements and reading research and takes a stepwise approach to move from the controlled experiments to a more ecologically valid approach
We have created new methodologies and laid the foundations for future research to continue to understand how we read, process and interact with hypertext on the Web
Creation of knowledge bases in hypertext environments
Differing levels of comprehension – simple vs complex inferences
Searching for information in a non-linear space

26. Thank you for your attention!