26.10.2026

The History Behind Eye Tracking

by Mirta Mikac, Product Manager

How Skilled and Struggling Readers Look at Text Differently

Reading may feel effortless for skilled readers, but beneath the surface it is a complex cognitive process involving visual attention, language processing, and memory. For struggling readers, this process can become difficult in ways that are not always visible through traditional assessments.

This blog post explores how skilled and struggling readers differ in the way they process written text, drawing on findings from eye-tracking research. Eye tracking allows researchers to observe reading as it unfolds by measuring where readers look, how long they fixate on words, and when they move backward to reread. These eye-movement patterns provide fine-grained behavioural indicators of the cognitive processes involved in reading.

The Eye–Mind Link in Reading

Reading is not simply a matter of moving the eyes across words. It is a sophisticated cognitive process in which vision, attention, language, and memory work together.

This relationship is often described using the eye–mind theory, introduced by Just and Carpenter as part of their influential theory of reading. [1] According to this theory, the location and duration of fixations are closely related to the information being processed during reading.

In simpler terms, where readers look and how long they remain there can provide evidence about which information is likely demanding attention or processing. A fixation may reflect processes such as recognising a word, resolving ambiguity, or integrating meaning across a sentence. However, eye movements do not provide a direct record of a reader’s thoughts and must always be interpreted in relation to the text, task, and individual reader.

Eye-tracking research uses several important measures:

Fixation duration: Longer fixations can indicate increased processing demand. However, fixation duration is also affected by factors such as word frequency, length, predictability, task requirements, and individual differences. [2,3]
Forward saccade length: Shorter forward saccades may be associated with a smaller perceptual span or more effortful reading. Saccade length can also be influenced by typography, language, age, and word structure. [4,5]
Regressions: Backward eye movements can occur when readers reread information or resolve comprehension difficulties. However, regressions are also a normal part of skilled reading. [6]

The eye–mind theory therefore provides a useful framework for connecting observable eye movements with otherwise invisible cognitive processes. It enables researchers to investigate not only what readers look at, but also how processing demands change as reading unfolds.

How Skilled Readers Process Text

Skilled readers generally display efficient eye-movement patterns. Compared with less proficient readers, they tend to:

Make fewer and shorter fixations [2]
Execute longer forward saccades [2]
Be more likely to skip short or contextually predictable words [7]
Make fewer regressions [2,3]

These patterns reflect efficient word recognition and well-developed language-processing skills. Because decoding requires less effort, skilled readers can devote more cognitive resources to comprehension and the integration of meaning.

Nevertheless, skilled reading is not visually smooth or perfectly linear. The eyes alternate between fixations and rapid saccades, and even highly skilled readers occasionally refixate words or move backward through a text.

How Struggling Readers Differ

Struggling readers, including many readers with dyslexia or other reading difficulties, often show different eye-movement patterns. Studies commonly report that they:

Fixate longer on individual words [2,3]
Make more fixations during reading
Make shorter forward saccades, covering less text with each movement [8]
Show more regressions and reread words or phrases more frequently [3]
Experience greater difficulty with unfamiliar or complex words [8]

These patterns are associated with increased processing demands and difficulties in decoding and integrating written information. [1] However, they should not automatically be interpreted as the cause of a reading difficulty. In many cases, altered eye-movement patterns may be a consequence of the additional effort required for word recognition and language processing.

Eye-tracking results should therefore be interpreted together with information about reading accuracy, fluency, comprehension, language ability, the properties of the text, and the experimental task.

What Eye Tracking Adds to Conventional Reading Assessments

Standard reading assessments can measure important outcomes such as reading speed, accuracy, decoding, and comprehension. Eye tracking adds another layer of information by showing how reading behaviour develops over time and where processing demands arise within a text.

When combined with established reading assessments, eye-tracking data can help researchers examine whether reading difficulties are associated with patterns such as:

Slow or effortful word recognition
Differences in the allocation of visual attention
Difficulties integrating information across words or sentences
Increased processing effort despite correct responses
Repeated rereading of particular words or passages

Eye tracking does not independently identify the cause of a reading difficulty. Instead, it provides complementary, process-sensitive measures that can help researchers investigate why readers with similar test scores may have arrived at those results in different ways.

Implications for Education and Intervention

Understanding how eye-movement behaviour differs between skilled and struggling readers has several potential applications in research and validated educational settings:

Supporting research into the early identification of atypical reading patterns
Informing the development and evaluation of targeted interventions
Improving instructional design to reduce unnecessary visual and cognitive demands
Evaluating learning materials for readability and accessibility
Measuring changes in reading behaviour over the course of an intervention

Eye tracking may therefore contribute to more individualised and evidence-based approaches to reading research and education. However, it should generally complement rather than replace established educational, psychological, or clinical assessments.

Advancing Reading Research with Eye Tracking

Eye tracking has become an important tool in reading research because it captures behaviour as it unfolds, moment by moment. By making aspects of the reading process observable, it deepens our understanding of how readers recognise words, allocate attention, integrate information, and respond to difficulty.

Grounded in the eye–mind theory, eye tracking provides valuable evidence about how processing demands change during reading. These insights can help researchers, educators, and designers develop and evaluate interventions, materials, and strategies that better reflect how people read and learn.

EyeLogic Solutions for Reading Research

EyeLogic’s screen-based eye trackers are well suited for investigating reading behaviour and reading difficulties. The portable EyeLogic Lite 120 supports a wide range of reading and educational studies, while the LogicOne 250 provides higher temporal resolution for more detailed fixation and saccade analysis. Both systems can be combined with InsightLab, our software for experiment presentation, recording, visualization, AOI-based analysis, and data export.

Just, M. A., & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). A theory of reading: From eye fixations to comprehension. Psychological Review, 87(4), 329–354.

Rayner, K. (1998). Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research. Psychological Bulletin, 124(3), 372–422.

Rayner, K., & Duffy, S. A. (1986). Lexical complexity and fixation times in reading: Effects of word frequency, verb complexity, and lexical ambiguity. Memory & Cognition, 14(3), 191–201.

Huestegge, L., Radach, R., Corbic, D., & Huestegge, S. M. (2009). Oculomotor and linguistic determinants of reading development: A longitudinal study. Vision Research, 49(24), 2948–2959.

Blythe, H. I., & Joseph, H. S. S. L. (2011). Children’s eye movements during reading. In S. P. Liversedge, I. D. Gilchrist, & S. Everling (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of eye movements (pp. 643–662). Oxford University Press.

Rayner, K. (2009). Eye movements and attention in reading, scene perception, and visual search. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62(8), 1457–1506.

Rayner, K., Slattery, T. J., Drieghe, D., & Liversedge, S. P. (2011). Eye movements and word skipping during reading: Effects of word length and predictability. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 37(2), 514–528.

Hawelka, S., & Wimmer, H. (2005). Impaired visual processing of multi-element arrays is associated with an increased number of eye movements in dyslexic reading. Vision Research, 45(7), 855–863.