Borano Llana¹ (), Alisa Baron¹, Kushas Khadka¹, Yusra Suhail¹, Shaun Wallace¹; ¹University of Rhode Island

Readers constantly balance their ability to read and comprehend vast amounts of information quickly while maintaining concentration over time. Our in-lab study investigates the correlation between these variables using eye trackers and pupillometry, replicating results from our remote readability studies. Recent research shows that increased pupil size and dilation indicate higher concentration. Participants read passages in four versions of Roboto (regular, slab, monotype, and serif) in three sizes (14px, 16px, and 18px). They read one passage and answered five comprehension questions per text design. To measure reading speed, we split each passage into two screens. Our preliminary results feature three participants; we aim to recruit a mix of adult readers with and without ESL and ADHD to discover new relationships between these diverse participants and our variables. Our preliminary findings reveal positive relationships between all variables: reading speed, comprehension, and pupil size across all text designs. Reading speed and mean pupil size per screen were moderately correlated (r(22) = 0.47, p < .03). We found moderate correlations and borderline significant effects for reading comprehension and mean pupil size (r(10) = 0.56, p = .058); and reading comprehension and reading speed, (r(10) = .561, p = .058). We found no relationship between font size and pupil size, indicating initially that small manipulations in size might not affect concentration. We also found no relationship between the font style variations within a typeface and concentration. Thus, pupil size and reading performance might remain stable across everyday font variations and size manipulations. Adding to our prior remote readability studies, participants' pupil size decreased on average 14% throughout the study. Their pupil size also decreased 83% of the time during the second screen per text design. Our research suggests that the reader's concentration is essential to aid future personalization of text designs across populations.