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With personal computing devices getting smaller, reading is called into question.Rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) seems to be one of the main alternatives.We studied the effects of a RSVP app (i.e. Spritz) on comprehension and visual fatigue.We found that Spritz impairs literal comprehension and increases visual fatigue.Findings might have practical implications for implementing alternative solutions. In the era of small screens, traditional reading (i.e. left-to-right, top-to-bottom) is called into question and rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) represents one of the main alternatives. RSVP consists of displaying in sequential order one or more words at a time, thus minimizing saccades and eye blinks. Recently, a RSVP application has received a lot of media attention: it is the case of Spritz. According to Spritz's developers, the elimination of saccades should reduce visual fatigue and improve comprehension. In this study, we had people read on a computer screen a selected part of a book either with Spritz or in the traditional way. Results seem to contradict these claims. The fact that Spritz suppresses parafoveal processing and regressions (i.e. rereadings of words) negatively affected literal comprehension. Furthermore, the important reduction of eye blinks observed for Spritz might contribute to the increase of visual fatigue.

We studied the effect of luminance and illuminance on visual fatigue and arousal.We employed an approach based on eye, performance and subjective measures.Higher levels of screen luminance increase visual fatigue.Higher levels of either screen luminance or ambient illuminance increase arousal.Findings might have practical implications for adaptive brightness solutions. We investigated the conjoint effect of screen luminance and ambient illuminance on visual fatigue and arousal during prolonged digital reading (one hour) by means of a multidimensional approach based on eye, performance and subjective measures. Two levels of screen luminance (low, high) and two levels of ambient illuminance (low, high) were tested in a 2×2 between-subjects design in which participants were arbitrarily allocated to four groups, one for each combined level of luminance and illuminance. Results showed that reading under high levels of screen luminance increases visual fatigue, as reflected by a decrease of eye blinks. Concerning arousal, exposure to higher levels of either luminance or illuminance increased alertness and performance. Faster saccades, increased reading speed and less microsaccades were found under high screen luminance. Fewer regressive saccades and shorter reaction times were observed under high ambient illuminance. However, the reason why some of these measures are sensitive to screen luminance while other to ambient illuminance remains unknown. These findings might have practical implications for the implementation of adaptive brightness solutions and for the online detection of both visual fatigue and arousal levels during digital reading.

We studied the impact of a tilt of the head or of a tablet on reading behavior.Subjects read several texts while their eye movements were recorded.No effect of a 10? tilt was shown, the readers adapted to this postural situation.Cyclotorsional eye movements were measured with and without tilt.Cyclotorsion could lessen the difference of rotation between the head and the tablet, whichever one is tilted. Electronic devices such as tablets often imply new postural behavior in our everyday life and little is known about the influence of these postures on cognitive processes. In this study, postural aspects of reading on digital tablets are investigated to test whether reading speed or comprehension may be affected by different positions of the head or of the device. The first aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of a lateral tilt of the head and/or a tablet on reading performance. We found that a small amount of tilt did not impact reading, subjects were able to adapt to this situation. For each eye tracking metric, there was a strong correlation between every condition of head and tablet tilt (for each one, r>0.73). Tilting the head or some particular visual stimuli can also lead to a specific movement of the eyes called cycloversion. A second experiment was designed to ascertain the presence of such eye movements when reading on tablet. It emerged that reading on a tablet induced this movement, which could explain, to a certain extent, the adaptation we observed in the first experiment.