Paul Muter

Extended Reading of Continuous Text on Television Screens

Thirty-two subjects read continuous text for 2 h. Half read from a television screen (video condition) and half read from a book. Subjects experienced little nausea or headache in either condition. A small amount of dizziness, fatigue, and eyestrain was produced by reading, but there no significant differences between the book condition and the video condition on these measures, nor was there a difference in comprehension scores. Video subjects read 28.5% more slowly than book subjects. Possible reasons for this difference are discussed. In the video condition, the presence of proportional horizontal spacing had no effect on reading speed or comprehension. The results suggest that extended reading of continuous text on television screens is certainly feasible.

Reading and skimming from computer screens and books: the paperless office revisited?

Abstract Past research has demonstrated that reading efficiency is lower from the standard computer displays of the 1980s than from paper. In the present experiments, subjects read or skimmed stories, sometimes from a high-quality CRT (cathode ray tube) and sometimes from a book. Skimming was 41% slower from the CRTs than from the book. Possible reasons for this finding are discussed. Reading speed and comprehension were equivalent for the high-quality CRTs and the book. The paperless office may be imminent after all.

Reading of Continuous Text on Video Screens

In three experiments, the finding of slower reading of text from a video screen than from a book was replicated, and several possible reasons for this effect were explored. Extra time (9 s) taken to fill the screen had no significant effect on reading time in the video condition. Similarly, varying the contrast ratio of the video image and the distance between the screen and the reader had no effect on reading speed. The format used in the video condition (39 characters per line and 20 lines per page) produced slower reading than did a format typical for books (60 characters per line and 40 lines per page), but this effect alone (9.5%) could not account for the difference in reading speed between the book and video conditions (24.1%). The reduced reading speed was partly overcome by avoiding single spacing, which produced 10.9% slower reading than did double spacing in the video condition.

Reading dynamically displayed text

Abstract Two experiments were carried out to find an optimal electronic text display method given limited display space. The display formats tested fell into two categories: Times Square, in which text is scrolled from right to left; and rapid, serial, visual presentation (RSVP), in which text is presented one or several words at a time to a fixed location in the display. Previous studies have indicated that Times Square format is not as efficient as page format display or, by extrapolation, as RSVP. These studies, unlike the present experiments, did not include a smooth-scrolling (pixel-by-pixel) condition. In Experiment 1, a comparison was made between multiple-word RSVP and three versions of Times Square format, differing only in the size of steps by which the display was scrolled. Except for the largest step-size, comprehension was as high in the Times Square conditions as in the RSVP condition. The subjects expressed a significant preference for smooth scrolling Times Square over any other condition....

Designing an Interface to Optimize Reading with Small Display Windows

The extent of electronic presentation of text in small display windows is mushrooming. In the present paper, 4 ways of presenting text in a small display window were examined and compared with a normal page condition: rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), RSVP with a completion meter, sentence-by-sentence presentation, and sentence-by-sentence presentation with a completion meter. Dependent measures were reading efficiency (speed and comprehension) and preference. For designers of hardware or software with small display windows, the results suggest the following: (a) Though RSVP is disliked by readers, the present methods of allowing self-pacing and regressions in RSVP are efficient and feasible, unlike earlier tested methods; (b) slower reading in RSVP should be achieved by increasing pauses between sentences or by repeating sentences, not by decreasing the presentation rate within a sentence; (c) completion meters do not interfere with performance and are usually preferred; (d) the space-saving sentence-by-sentence format is as efficient and as preferred as the normal page format.

Very rapid forgetting.

Human forgetting can be much more rapid than previous experiments have indicated. Subjects who do not expect a test after a filled retention interval can rarely recall three consonants correctly after 2 sec of distraction. If there are two kinds of memory, primary and secondary, the present technique provides a purer method of studying forgetting from primary memory.

Optimizing the reading of electronic text using rapid serial visual presentation

The focus on communications technology in recent years has led to the question of how to best display electronic text onto small-screened devices. Past studies have shown that the compact method of rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) is efficient but not well liked. Two experiments were conducted to explore ways of improving the preference for and feasibility of RSVP. In experiment 1, the effects of a completion meter, punctuation pauses, and variable word duration were studied. Although the sentence-by-sentence and normal page formats were still superior, post-experiment ratings indicated that punctuation pauses improved user preference for RSVP, and its preference increased in general with practice. In experiment 2, a modified RSVP condition included a completion meter, punctuation pauses, interruption pauses and pauses at clause boundaries. This condition was significantly preferred to a normal RSVP condition. The present enhancements may increase the feasibility of using RSVP with small displays.

Recognition failure of recallable words in semantic memory

In an experiment in which there was no study phase, 54 subjects were tested for recognition of famous surnames and then were tested for cued recall of the same surnames. Subjects failed to recognize 53.4% of names that they subsequently recalled. Recall was significantly higher than recognition. The relationship between overall recognition rate and recognition rate of recallable words closely resembled that reported by Tulving and Wiseman (1975) for episodic memory experiments. The present data therefore extend the generality of this relationship, and of the principle that the probability of retrieval from memory depends critically on the cues provided. It is argued that the similarity between results for episodic memory experiments and the present semantic memory experiment can be more parsimoniously accommodated by tagging theory than by episodic theory.

Size-distance paradox with accommodative micropsia

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that the paradoxical relative distance judgment associated with the size-distance paradox is due to the visual system’s assuming equal linear size and perceiving a smaller angular size for the closer stimulus equal in visual angle. In Experiment I, two different sized coins were presented successively, and 16 Ss were asked to give ordinal judgments of apparent distance and apparent size. When the two coins depicted the same figures, the closer stimulus was judged to be farther and smaller, more frequently, than when two coins depicted different figures. In Experiment II, 48 Ss were asked to give ratio judgments of apparent distance, apparent linear size, and apparent angular size for two stimuli which were presented successively. When the stimuli were of equal shape, the mean ratios of the far stimulus to the near stimulus were smaller for the apparent distance but larger for the apparent linear size and angular size than when the stimuli were of different shape. The obtained distance judgments were consistent with the hypothesis but the obtained judgments of linear size and angular size were not.

The role of graphics in item selection from menus

Abstract The present experiment addressed the question of whether the addition of graphics to the alternatives on computer choice pages facilitates user performance. Twenty-one subjects made choices from pages that resembled videotex choice pages. One third of the time the alternatives were displayed in the usual way (Text-Only condition); one third of the time the alternatives were arranged in a nonlinear fashion and each alternative was accompanied by an illustration (Graphics condition); and one third of the time the alternatives were arranged in a nonlinear fashion but there were no illustrations (Control condition). Graphics had no effect on response time, but a reliable effect on accuracy: the error rate in the Graphics condition was half that in the Text-Only condition. Apparently, videotex information providers and other software designers would be well advised to consider adding simple graphics to alternatives on choice pages.