| Increasing amounts of textual information are generated, exchanged and interfaced electronically in our progression towards a paperless world. The human-level method of processing this information must progress in tandem to address the reading efficiency bottlenecks experienced when trying to traverse this growing information space. Dynamic text presentation techniques such as Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) offer the potential to induce high rates of reading through the temporal display of text, but at a significant cost of comprehension. This study explores the effectiveness of projecting prosody or the expressive properties of speech as visual effects on dynamic text as a means to sustain comprehension at higher-than-average rates of reading. The developed solution, a prosody-enriched dynamic text presentation technique, produces notable increases in comprehension in spite of low reading rates when compared to the traditional page format on electronic displays. Further, the majority of subjects that used the prosody-enriched technique indicated improved readability due to the visual projections of prosody on text.Keywords: dynamic text presentation, Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, prosody, reading efficiency, reading rate, comprehension. |
