Applying writing guidelines to Web pages
CHI 98 Cconference Summary on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Reading patterns and usability in visualizations of electronic documents
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI)
Eye tracking to identify strategies used by readers seeking information from on-line texts
Proceedings of the 13th Eurpoean conference on Cognitive ergonomics: trust and control in complex socio-technical systems
Skim reading by satisficing: evidence from eye tracking
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Adaptive browsing: Sensitivity to time pressure and task difficulty
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
Interleaving tasks to improve performance: Users maximise the marginal rate of return
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
Goal attainment on long tail web sites: An information foraging approach
Decision Support Systems
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We report two studies investigating readers' ability to allocate limited time adaptively across online texts of varying difficulty. In both studies participants were asked to learn about the human heart and were free to allocate time to 4 separate on-line texts about the heart but did not have enough time to read them all thoroughly. Of particular interest was whether readers attempted to select the best text for them (by sampling the texts before reading) or to monitor texts while reading them and continue reading any text judged good enough (a satisficing strategy). We argue that both strategies can be considered adaptive, depending on properties of readers, texts, and tasks. Experiment 1 tested readers with a range of background knowledge and allowed them either 7 or 15 min study time. It showed that participants were adaptive in how they allocated their time in that more knowledgeable readers spent more time reading more difficult texts. Satisficing was a much more common strategy than sampling. Experiment 2 showed that providing outline overviews of each text dramatically increased the number of participants using a sampling strategy so that it became the modal strategy. However, this change in strategy had no effect on learning. Outline overviews presumably changed readers' perception of the ease with which relevant dimensions of text quality can be judged.