How Prior Knowledge and Text Coherence Affect Eye Fixations in Hypertext Overviews

Graphical overviews are text devices aimed to foster learning by conveying in a schematic way the text structure. Despite its importance in current learning systems such hypertext, psychological research does not agree on how overviews affect comprehension. Little is known about how hypertext readers process graphical overviews, and how this processing influence comprehension. In the present paper we report an experiment using the eye-movements technique aimed to explore the role of prior knowledge and coherence on the visual processing of graphic overviews. Results reveal that both variables influence visual processing of graphical overviews and that this processing systematically affected what was learned from