This study used eye-tracking to examine whether extraneous illustration details—a common design in beginning reader storybooks—promote attentional competition and hinder learning. The study used a within-subject design with first- and second-grade children. Children (n = 60) read a story in a commercially available Standard condition and in a Streamlined condition, in which extraneous illustrations were removed while an eye-tracker recorded children’s gaze shifts away from the text, fixations to extraneous illustrations, and fixations to relevant illustrations. Extraneous illustrations promoted attentional competition and hindered reading comprehension: children made more gaze shifts away from text in the Standard compared to the Streamlined condition, and reading comprehension was significantly higher in the Streamlined condition compared to the Standard condition. Importantly, fixations toward extraneous details accounted for the unique variance in reading comprehension controlling for reading proficiency and attending to relevant illustrations. Furthermore, a follow-up control experiment (n = 60) revealed that these effects did not solely stem from enhanced text saliency in the Streamlined condition and reproduced the finding of a negative relationship between fixations to extraneous details and reading comprehension. This study provides evidence that the design of reading materials can be optimized to promote literacy development in young children.

这项研究使用眼动追踪来检查无关的插图细节（初级读者故事书中的常见设计）是否会促进注意力竞争并阻碍学习。该研究采用了针对一年级和二年级儿童的受试者内设计。儿童（ n = 60）在市售标准条件和精简条件下阅读故事，其中无关的插图被删除，同时眼动仪记录了儿童的视线从文本上移开、对无关插图的注视以及对相关插图的注视插图。无关的插图促进了注意力竞争并阻碍了阅读理解：与 Streamlined 条件相比，孩子们更多地将目光从 Standard 条件下的文本上转移开，并且 Streamlined 条件下的阅读理解能力明显高于 Standard 条件。重要的是，对无关细节的关注导致了阅读理解能力在控制阅读能力和关注相关插图方面的独特差异。此外，后续对照实验（ n = 60）表明，这些效果不仅仅源于精简条件下文本显着性的增强，并且再现了对无关细节的注视与阅读理解之间存在负相关关系的发现。这项研究提供了证据，表明可以优化阅读材料的设计以促进幼儿的识字能力发展。