Source Authoritativeness, Visual Attention in Webpage Reading, and Individual Differences: Evidence from Eye Fixations

This study, adopts the methodology of eye-fixation measurement to examine students’ reading of multiple internet sources. Fine-grained objective data provided by eye tracking can show the amount of attention allocated in both a quick, automated way and in a delayed, deliberate way to different texts. Eye-tracking data, however, is not self-explanatory and needs to be interpreted to understand why an individual looks at a particular part of a text or figure for a certain amount of time. Data about students’ individual characteristics, which may influence attention allocation, can help interpret their gaze data.