# An Eye-Tracking Study on Text Comprehension While Listening to Music: Preliminary Results
## 5 Conclusions
Furthermore, the eye-tracking methodology employed in this study, in which reading comprehension performance was assessed across four reading conditions, represents a significant contribution to the existing literature on the subject, since there is a lack of research investigating text comprehension while listening to music and tracking readers' eye movements simultaneously. However, the results of this study are not in accordance with the body of research that claims that text comprehension is enhanced in the presence of music rather than in its absence [1; 6]. This discrepancy may be attributed to the several limitations of our study. To date, no studies have been conducted examining text comprehension and eye movements while listening to different kinds of music and noise in the context of the Greek language. Unlike many previous studies that examined reading comprehension in English, this research focused on Greek-language texts, which may involve different syntactic structures, lexical properties, and cognitive processing demands. Furthermore, cultural reading habits and educational background may influence how Greek students engage with texts in the presence of background music. Cultural background plays a significant role in reading habits, cognitive engagement, and text interpretation. Different cultures emphasize distinct reading strategies, such as note memorization, inferential reasoning, or critical analysis. In the context of this study, Greek university students may approach reading differently from students in English-speaking countries, where previous research on background music and reading comprehension has been conducted. Additionally, exposure to background noise varies across cultures-some students may be accustomed to studying in noisy environments (e.g., cafes, communal study spaces), while others prefer quiet, isolated settings. These factors could influence how participants respond to auditory distractions like music or cafe noise during reading tasks. Linguistic structure plays a crucial role in reading comprehension, influencing how individuals process and extract meaning from text. Greek and English differ significantly in morphology, syntax, and orthographic depth, which may affect reading strategies and cognitive load. Greek is a highly inflected language, where word endings change based on grammatical case, number, and tense, requiring readers to engage in more detailed morphological processing than in English. Additionally, Greek has a shallow orthography, meaning there is a strong correspondence between letters and sounds, whereas English has a deep orthography, with irregular spelling rules requiring greater reliance on whole-word recognition. These differences suggest that Greek readers may depend more on phonological processing, while English readers rely on lexical familiarity and contextual cues. Furthermore, Greek syntax allows for a flexible word order, which may require greater cognitive effort in sentence parsing, potentially influencing reading comprehension under auditory distractions. These linguistic differences highlight the need for cross-linguistic comparisons to determine whether background music and noise affect reading comprehension in a language-specific or universal manner. Furthermore, the present study was conducted with a limited number of participants, namely university students in Greece and an underrepresentation of males in the sample. As a result, the findings cannot be generalized to readers of other languages or cultural contexts. This study was conducted as a pilot investigation with a small sample size (\(n=10\)), which limits the generalizability of the findings. While no formal power analysis was performed prior to data collection, the sample size was determined based on feasibility constraints and the exploratory nature of the research. While we acknowledge its limitations, the primary objective was to test the experimental procedure and to refine the methodology for a subsequent main study.