Study title

This dataset is an extensive eye tracking dataset of 102 participants reading three Dutch literary short stories each (7790 words per participant). The preprocessed data set includes (1) Fixation report (fixation-level), (2) Saccade report, (3) Interest Area report (word-level), (4) Trial report (aggregated data for each page; stories were split up into 30 pages each), (5) Sample report (the data were sampled at 500 Hz, this report includes data on all individual samples), (6) Questionnaire data on reading experiences and other participant characteristics, and (7) word characteristics for all words in the stories (with the potential of calculating additional word characteristics).

The study for which this data set was collected explored the effect of simulation on reading behavior by means of eye tracking. We hypothesized (A) that simulation would lead to longer fixation times for parts of the text high in simulation-eliciting content. Additionally, we hypothesized (B) that we would find personal preferences in the reaction to different types of simulation-eliciting content. We expected (C) that the findings from the eye tracking data would be related to self-report of simulation. Finally, we expected (D) that the amount of simulation would be predictive of self-report of appreciation. We found (A) longer reading times for perceptual and mental event simulation, but shorter reading times for motor simulation. The strength of the relationship between simulation and reading times varied between participants, but was positively correlated across the different types of simulation-eliciting content (B). Regarding (C) and (D), we found that this variation in the strength of the relationship between simulation and reading times was indeed related to aspects of self-reported simulation, absorption and appreciation.

The findings from this study are described in detail in Mak & Willems (2019). https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2018.1552007