How do undergraduates read mathematical texts? An eye-movement study

This paper reports on an eye-movement study of undergraduate mathematical reading behaviours. The eye movements of 38 undergraduate students were recorded as they read a multi-page textbook section on graph theory; participants then took a short comprehension test. This abstract reports basic results showing that neither reading time nor processing effort – measured via mean fixation durations – predicted comprehension test performance: students who read for longer or tried harder did not necessarily learn more. The conference report will include more detailed analysis of participants’ eye movements: it will explore their relative attention to different parts of the text and the extent to which they shift their attention back and forth during learning, and will analyse the extent to which these behaviours differ across more and less effective learners.