This study examines how the type of language in a text affects how long it takes to read and how well a reader remembers what they read.
Participants will read four short passages (approximately 90 seconds each). Two of the passages describe scientific concepts using technical, abstract language. Two describe the same concepts in plain, concrete language. The passages are matched so that they are similar in word length and sentence structure.
After each passage, participants answer three multiple-choice questions about the content and rate how difficult the passage was to understand. The total time for the study is approximately 12 to 15 minutes.
The results will be used to test whether a new metric for measuring cognitive load in text - predicts reading difficulty better than existing readability scores such as Flesch-Kincaid, which measure only word length and sentence length.
Participation is anonymous. No personally identifying information is collected.