This whitepaper examines whether the framing of text and its saliency affect task-unrelated thought during a reading task.
Participants read a text about lifespan expectancy consisting of 18 paragraphs. Nine paragraphs had a positive framing and nine paragraphs had a negative framing. The saliency of the framing was manipulated between participants, with the two types of framing being either neutral or salient across four conditions. Participants were probed for task-unrelated thought, valence, and arousal every three to six paragraphs, while eye movements were captured using a webcam-based eye tracker.
The study found no significant effect of text framing or saliency on task-unrelated thought, valence, or arousal. There were no differences between conditions on test performance, but better test performance was associated with lower task-unrelated thought.
