Contextual Meaning-Making in Reading: The Role of Affect

Abstract

<p><span>Abstract:</span><span>Emotions play a crucial role in how readers process, comprehend,</span><span>and experience texts. This chapter focuses on what we have learned about emo-</span><span>tional aspects of reading by using eye tracking, a methodology that provides de-</span><span>tailed information about the time-course of reading processes as they occur on-</span><span>line. The chapter first introduces basic emotion concepts relevant for reading</span><span>research. It then describes key measures of eye movements used in previous re-</span><span>search, focusing on sentence and text comprehension. We then briefly review</span><span>previous eye tracking research on the role of emotions in reading conducted at</span><span>three levels: word, sentence, and text. It appears that while word-level emotion</span><span>effects have received quite a lot of attention, much less empirical work has been</span><span>conducted on sentence and text-level phenomena. This lack of empirical evi-</span><span>dence is reflected in a dearth of theoretical accounts, which currently are still</span><span>under development. Thus, there is a clear need for vigorous empirical research</span><span>to help advance theoretical work on emotional aspects of reading. This chapter</span><span>highlights the importance of using naturalistic texts and the need for further de-</span><span>velopment in advanced exploratory, predictive, and explanatory computational</span><span>methods and models in order to foster understanding of the emotional aspects </span><span>of reading.</span><br></p>