Eye movement patterns of captioned television viewers

Eye movement of six subjects was recorded as they watched video segments wi th and without captions. It was found that the addition of captions to a vi deo resulted in major changes in eye movement patterns, with the viewing pr ocess becoming primarily a reading process. Further, although people viewin g a specific video segment are likely to have similar eye movement patterns , there are also distinct individual differences present in these patterns. For example, someone accustomed to speechreading may spend more time looki ng at an actor's lips, while someone with poor English skills may spend mor e time reading the captions. Finally, there is some preliminary evidence to suggest that higher captioning speed results in more time spent reading ca ptions on a video segment.