Applying the Rapid Serial Visual Presentation Technique to Small Screens

This thesis describes the implementation and the evaluation of a graphical user interface (GUI) employing the Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) technique. The GUI was implemented on a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) featuring a 4.5– inch touch-sensitive colour screen. The aim of the user evaluation was two-fold: firstly, to compare self-paced RSVP with reading on paper medium, in terms of reading speed, reading comprehension, reading efficiency, experienced workload and readers’ attitude; secondly, to examine whether sonification (adding audio information) of the text is a way to heighten the reading experience when reading with RSVP. The user evaluation was conducted with ten subjects using a repeated-measurement design. The texts used were six chapters of August Strindberg’s ”Roda Rummet”. Four different conditions were administered: book, two self-paced RSVP formats, and a sonified RSVP format presented at constant speed. The evaluation showed no significant differences in reading speed, comprehension, or reading efficiency between reading from the book and the self-paced RSVP conditions. A linear speed-accuracy trade-off between comprehension and reading speed was found. For each 100-word increase in reading speed comprehension decreased by 9%. The subjects rated all six factors in a workload index, except Physical demand, significantly higher for the self-paced RSVP conditions than for paper medium. Regarding attitude, subjects found RSVP significantly more difficult, less comprehensible, and less stimulating than reading from a book.

[1]  S. Hart,et al.  Development of NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): Results of Empirical and Theoretical Research , 1988 .

[2]  Kenneth I. Forster,et al.  Visual perception of rapidly presented word sequences of varying complexity , 1970 .

[3]  Jelliffe..  THE PSYCHOLOGY AND PEDAGOGY OF READING , 1908 .

[4]  Carol Bergfeld,et al.  Reading text from computer screens , 1987, CSUR.

[5]  Lauren F. V. Scharff,et al.  Discriminability measures for predicting readability , 1999, Electronic Imaging.

[6]  E Peli,et al.  Scrolled and rapid serial visual presentation texts are read at similar rates by the visually impaired. , 1995, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision.

[7]  Gregory D. Abowd,et al.  Human-computer interaction (2nd ed.) , 1998 .

[8]  Paul Muter,et al.  Designing an Interface to Optimize Reading with Small Display Windows , 1999, Hum. Factors.

[9]  J F Juola,et al.  Reading text presented on a small display. , 1995, Applied ergonomics.

[10]  Herre van Oostendorp,et al.  Cognitive Aspects of Electronic Text Processing , 1996 .

[11]  M. Masson.  Conceptual processing of text during skimming and rapid sequential reading , 1983, Memory & cognition.

[12]  C. Wickens.  Engineering psychology and human performance, 2nd ed. , 1992 .

[13]  Meera Blattner,et al.  Earcons and Icons: Their Structure and Common Design Principles , 1989, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[14]  Stephen J. Westerman,et al.  Individual differences in human-computer interaction , 1993 .

[15]  Alan Cooper,et al.  About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design , 1995 .

[16]  B. Dahlqvist.  The Distribution of Characters, Bi- and Trigrams in the Uppsala 70 Million Words Swedish Newspaper Corpus , 1999 .

[17]  M. Masson,et al.  More than meets the eye: Context effects in word identification , 1998, Memory & cognition.

[18]  Paul Muter,et al.  Interface design and optimization of reading of continuous text , 1996 .

[19]  J. G. Hollands,et al.  Engineering Psychology and Human Performance , 1984 .

[20]  W. Buxton.  Human-Computer Interaction , 1988, Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

[21]  E. B. Huey.  The Psychology And Pedagogy Of Reading , 1908 .

[22]  J. Juola,et al.  Visual search and reading of rapid serial presentations of letter strings, words, and text. , 1982 .

[23]  Sheryl R. Young,et al.  RSVP: A task, reading aid, and research tool , 1984 .

[24]  Michael J. Wenger,et al.  An Empirical Method of Assessing Topic Familiarity in Reading Comprehension , 1991 .

[25]  M. Garrett,et al.  The interaction of perceptual processes and ambiguous sentences , 1973, Memory & cognition.

[26]  Paul Muter,et al.  Reading and skimming from computer screens and books: the paperless office revisited? , 1991 .

[27]  Paul Muter,et al.  Reading dynamically displayed text , 1989 .

[28]  M A Just,et al.  A theory of reading: from eye fixations to comprehension. , 1980, Psychological review.

[29]  J F Juola,et al.  Reading Moving Text on a CRT Screen , 1984, Human factors.

[30]  Joël Pynte,et al.  Optimal segmentation for sentences displayed on a video screen , 1980 .

[31]  Dominic W. Massaro,et al.  Letter and Word Perception , 1981 .

[32]  J F Juola,et al.  Factors influencing readability of rapidly presented text segments , 1984, Memory & cognition.

[33]  T. Carr.  Research on reading: Meaning, context effects, and comprehension. , 1981 .

[34]  J. D. Gould,et al.  Doing the Same Work with Hard Copy and with Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT) Computer Terminals , 1984 .

[35]  L. C. Gilbert.  Speed of processing visual stimuli and its relation to reading. , 1959 .

[36]  G. Harry McLaughlin,et al.  SMOG Grading - A New Readability Formula. , 1969 .

[37]  B. Bloom.  Taxonomy of educational objectives , 1956 .

[38]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Processing determinants of reading speed. , 1979, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[39]  Hsuan-Chih Chen,et al.  Reading computer-displayed moving text with and without self-control over the display rate , 1990 .