Study title

It has been suggested that readers spend a great deal of time skim reading on the Web and that this type of reading can affect comprehension of text. Across 2 experiments, we utilised eye tracking methodology to explore how hyperlinks and navigating web pages affect reading behaviour. In Experiment 1, participants read static web pages either for comprehension or whilst skim reading, while in Experiment 2, participants additionally read through a navigable Web environment. Embedded target words were either hyperlinks or not and were either high-frequency or low-frequency words. Results from Experiment 1 showed readers only fully lexically process linked words when skim reading, as was evidenced by a frequency effect that was absent for the unlinked words. They did fully lexically process both linked and unlinked words when reading for comprehension. In Experiment 2, which allowed for navigating, readers only fully lexically processed linked words compared to unlinked words, regardless of whether they were skim reading or reading for comprehension. We suggest that readers engage in an efficient reading strategy where they attempt to minimise comprehension loss while maintaining a high reading speed. Readers use hyperlinks as markers to suggest important information and use them to navigate through the text in an efficient and effective way. The task of reading on the Web causes readers to engage with the text in a markedly different way from typical reading experiments. The centrality of the Web for scientific research and economic activity has not been matched by our understanding of its complex relationship with the embedding society. In part this is because of its Protean nature and ubiquity. It exists at a variety of scales, from engineering protocols to websites, small communities to giant e-government and e-commerce systems. It is engineered technology, and a network of overlapping social networks.Hence the Web's study is legitimate from many disciplinary...