Eye movement data provide valuable insight into written language comprehension. It helps understand language processing at various levels of analysis within the sentence: character, syllable, word, phrase, or sentence.
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Reading and language
Understanding how we read and acquire language
Eye tracking has become an established tool to objectively measure human language processing with important applications in linguistics and education research.
Discover the unseen in reading and language research
Eye tracking reveals the moment-to-moment dynamics of how we process text and language — offering a clearer view into attention, comprehension, and the variability often hidden in traditional measures.
- 67%
of reading assessments
rely on comprehension tests
that miss real-time processing. - 62%
of language development studies
struggle to measure attention
during spoken or written tasks. - 58%
of educators and researchers
find it difficult to identify
early reading difficulties.
Measurement
What you can measure with eye tracking
The eye tracking solution with a dedicated application, like our software Tobii Pro Lab, can further process the eye tracking data to draw valuable conclusions on reading and language, including:
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Reading behavior
Get insights into text processing, the duration of visual attention assigned to specific text parts at the phrase, word, or even character level.
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Language processing
Understand language processing at various levels of analysis within the sentence: character, syllable, word, phrase, or sentence.
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Comprehension strategies
Long regressions (more than ten letter spaces back along the line or to another line) may indicate difficulty understanding or incorporating a unit into the previous context.
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Second language acquisition
Study how language learners process written text in their non-native language.
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Digital reading
Study how readers interact with various text formats, interfaces, and content delivery platforms.
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Atypical learning patterns
Eye tracking can reveal fixation duration, saccades, and regressions, helping identify atypical patterns like dyslexia or ADHD.
Configurations
Research setups for reading & language studies
Wearable for the real world
Tobii Pro Glasses 3 wearable eye tracker allows complete freedom of movement, which is crucial for behavioral insights in the real world. The lightweight design of the glasses, coupled with a wireless connection, allows participants to perform their tasks as usual.
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Screen-based for the lab
For lab environments, our screen-based eye trackers, Tobii Pro Spark and Tobii Pro Spectrum, can be combined with Tobii Pro Lab to study perceptual-cognitive processes.
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Screen-based for the field
In the field, you can connect the plug-and-play Tobii Pro Fusion eye tracker to a screen in, say, a classroom, where study participants are readily available. Works together with Tobii Pro Lab to gather insights on gaze behavior.
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Domains
Fields of research
Educational psychology
Psycholinguistics
Cognitive psychology
Neurolinguistics
Educational research
Developmental psychology
Eye tracking insights
In educational psychology, eye tracking can prove to be a great tool to gain insights into learning behavior, cognitive load, and engagement. The results help effectively design, evaluate, and improve educational materials and learning situations.
Moreover, eye tracking methodology can be used to reveal atypical reading patterns. It provides a robust source of insight into conditions, therefore opening the possibility of an objective, unobtrusive diagnostic tool for learning difficulties such as dyslexia.
Use cases
Delve deeper into reading and linguistic exploration
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Screen based
Reading and language — Use cases
Eye tracking offers valuable insights into the cognitive processes involved in language comprehension, production, and learning.
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blog
Closing the literacy gap with AI and eye tracking
In this success story, we cover how Lexplore have leveraged years of scientific research about reading to create a PC-based AI solution that will help to close the literacy gap.
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Customer stories
Eye tracking used to compare tactile and visual reading strategies
Researchers from the Netherlands used Tobii Pro Glasses and an infrared motion-capturing system to understand the reading strategies of both sighted and braille-dependent students when reading algebraic expressions.
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Customer stories
Assessing reading habits with eye tracking
The German Reading Foundation uses eye tracking to conduct research into the behaviors and reading habits of young people and adults.
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Customer stories
Understanding how children learn language
New York University’s Learn Lab uses eye tracking to study the learning mechanisms underlying language acquisition in children who are typically developing as well as children on the autism spectrum.
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Research Spotlight Interview
Language acquisition: A dance between the child and its environment
Prof. Dr. Nivedita Mani sheds light on the complex mechanisms behind language acquisition and how eye tracking empowers research in her baby lab.
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Scientific publication
How curiosity boosts language learning in childhood
To further explore how language acquisition relates to emotional state, Dr. Vivien Outters, with her colleagues in Göttingen and Oxford University, conducted a word-learning recognition experiment with 3-year-old children.
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Scientific publications
Did you know that over 15,000 scientific publications
feature Tobii eye tracking technology?
Discover the latest trends in eye tracking for Reading and language research
by exploring our scientific publication library.
Resources & community
Everything you need to get started
Free training, open-source tools, and direct support, designed to get you from unboxing to publishable results as fast as possible.
Tobii Academy
Free online learning platform with structured courses covering every stage of eye tracking research, from fundamental concepts to advanced analysis techniques.
→ Eye tracking fundamentals and methodology
→ Experiment design best practices
→ Tobii Pro Lab software training
→ Data analysis and interpretation
→ Certification tracks
Open-source research tools
50+ community-curated tools, experiment scripts, and integration libraries across the full eye tracking workflow. PsychoPy, MATLAB, Python, LSL, and more.
Tobii Connect support portal
Knowledge base, firmware updates, troubleshooting guides, and direct support from Tobii's technical team. Your first stop for any hardware or software question.
→ Product setup and troubleshooting guides
→ Firmware and software downloads
→ Data quality methodology documentation
→ Direct ticket support for registered products
→ Sample projects and demo recordings