Gotcha! Catching Kids During Mindless Reading

The purpose of the current study was to examine the mindless reading behavior of children. Across two studies, 2nd-grade students read passages while their eye movements were monitored. Trained raters then identified mindless reading behaviors from the eye movement records. Several important findings emerged. We were able to reliably identify mindless reading behavior in children using eye-tracking methodology, which was characterized by shorter gaze durations and total time, more skipping, and in general a more erratic reading pattern than on-task reading behavior. On the other hand, on-task reading behavior was characterized by an increase in fixations and regressions, especially intraword regressions. Word frequency effects were attenuated during mindless reading. In addition, the children who engaged in mindless reading had weaker reading achievement profiles compared to children who read the entire passage.