One Half or 50? An Eye-Tracking Study of Number Representation Readability

摘要

Are numbers expressed as digits easier to read and understand than written with letters? What about fractions and percentages? Exact or rounded values? We present an eye-tracking study that attempts to answer these questions for Spanish, using fixation and reading time to measure readability as well as comprehension questions to score understandability. We find that digits are faster to read but do not help comprehension. Fractions help understandability while percentages help readability. No significant results were found concerning the influence of rounding. Our experiments were performed by 72 persons, half of them with dyslexia. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that addresses the cognitive load of number representation in any language, even more for people with dyslexia.