Ali Bhimani¹, A. Caglar Tas¹; ¹The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

We previously showed that including artificial fixation points (AFPs) help readers by decreasing reading speed and increasing reading comprehension (Bhimani & Tas, VSS 2024). In our previous study, AFPs were implemented in texts based on eye data collected during normal reading: We changed the font color of the first half of highly-fixated words to red, thus ideally cueing participants to the most efficient areas to fixate during reading. Texts that were altered with AFPs resulted in faster reading times and higher reading comprehension than texts that were not altered. In the present study, we tested the effectiveness and generalizability of AFPs. Experiment 1 used font color changes as in our previous study, but instead of modifying highly-fixated words, we changed the font color of the first half of randomly chosen words. If AFPs merely increased intrinsic motivation, rather than aiding reading, we should find similar accuracy and reading speed improvements as in the previous study. Experiment 2 used a different AFP manipulation, boldness, to test its generalizability. As in the previous study, we put AFPs on highly-fixated words. In both experiments, AFPs significantly decreased accuracy and slowed down reading speed (all ps <.001), suggesting that while text altering can benefit reading speed and improve reading comprehension, the type of AFPs used and whether they align with normal reading behavior is an important factor in their effectiveness.