# An Eye-Tracking Study on Text Comprehension While Listening to Music: Preliminary Results
## 2 Materials and Methods
### Experimental Protocol  
The experiment employed a within-subject experimental design, whereby each participant was exposed to four distinct texts under four different conditions: preferred music, non-preferred music, cafe noise, and silence. In order to minimize the possibility of carry-over effects, each participant was assigned to receive the reading conditions and texts in a specific order. The particulars of the experimental protocol are described below. The participants were invited to the Laboratory of Bilingual Education of the Department of Special Education of the University of Thessaly, where the experiment leader provided an explanation of the experiment's purpose and the process of the study (see Figure 1 for an overview of the study design). Ensuring confidentiality and privacy is a standard practice to protect research study participants. Therefore, this process involves concealing the participants' real names and other identifiable characteristics to minimize the risk of exposing their personal information [32]. Participants were de-identified and assigned a unique ID number (for student male and female participants, e.g., SM1, SF2). They were assured that their personal information would be protected and thus each participant signed a consent form, indicating their understanding of the research aims and confidentiality policies, as well as their agreement to participate in the study. After that, the participants were required to complete a reading comprehension ability test and a pre-survey questionnaire concerning their demographics, as well as their music and reading habits. All participants were instructed to bring a 20-30 min long piece of music that they preferred to listen to while reading. The participants selected a diverse range of musical genres, including instrumental classical music, various forms of modern pop and jazz, and vocal music. Additionally, the participants indicated to the experiment leader which genres of music they did not prefer to listen to while reading. The most commonly cited examples of such music were metal and heavy metal. A comprehensive list of all preferred and non-preferred music genres is provided in Table 11. The experiment leader selected 20-30 min long pieces of music from these categories that the participants indicated they did not prefer to listen to while reading. These pieces were then brought to the Laboratory for the experiment. Subsequently, the participants were instructed to assume a seated position in front of the computer and the eye-tracking device. The participants were seated at a distance of 0.40 m from the computer screen, in a manner that was as comfortable as possible. The experiment leader informed the participants that they would be reading four texts while the eye tracker would record their eye movements. Subsequently, they were required to answer to a series of questions of a reading comprehension test (RC Test) designed to evaluate their comprehension of the text they had just read. The experiment leader informed the participants that their eye movements would not be recorded during the responses to the questions. A one-minute intermission was permitted between each reading task. The participants were instructed to read one of the texts while listening to their preferred music, one while listening to non-preferred music, one to recorded noise from a cafe, and one in complete silence. The participants were not informed of the sequence in which the four reading conditions would be presented. The participants were informed that they could access the texts by using the mouse, and that they were permitted as much time as they required to complete each reading task. To prevent significant discrepancies in  
Figure 1: Overview of the study design. overall completion times between the participants, the completion time for each reading task should not exceed 20 min. However, the participants were not informed that their time was being recorded in order to facilitate a sense of comfort and avoid any undue pressure throughout the experiment.