UC Merced

As social media scrolling feeds become a major source of information for the American public, understanding how individuals process this information will become essential. The present study assesses how the format of different visual formats and media impact how people process and remember this information. Across two studies, we recorded participant eye movements and pupil sizes while reading sections of a climate change report in the form of 1) a digital PDF and 2) a simulated social media scrolling feed. This report was presented on a computer screen or as a physical paper. At the end of each block, participants answered multiple-choice questions and completed the NASA Task Load index as a measure of perceived effort. We found that participants reported greater mental demand for the PDF compared to the scrolling feed and for the digital version compared to the physical version. However, we could not conclude a difference in accuracy between the two formats or the two media.