ComprehensionWorkshop

The 3rd Workshop on Eye Movements and the Assessment of Reading Comprehension 👁️📖

Quick links:

Dates: June 5–7, 2025

Place:
International Meeting Center “Eulenhof”
Robert-Leicht-Straße 161
70569 Stuttgart
📍 Google Maps
🚉 Walking route from S-Bahn station “Universität” to venue
🏡 More info about venue

Important dates

Workshop theme

Effective and widely available reading assessments are fundamental for education and instrumental for early diagnosis of reading difficulties, enabling timely and targeted intervention. In this workshop, we explore how eye-tracking combined with machine learning technologies can enhance reading assessments. Our goal is to bring together researchers from various relevant fields, including educational science, cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, eye-tracking-based reading research, and machine learning. The workshop will provide a platform for exchanging ideas for the next generation of reading assessments aided by eye-tracking and machine learning technologies, as well as inspiring cross-disciplinary research collaborations.

Web page of the 2024 iteration of this workshop.

Workshop format

The first two days will feature a structured program, including talks, poster sessions, and group discussions. On the third day, the focus shifts to a more relaxed format, providing participants with the opportunity to network and plan joint activities in an informal setting while enjoying an easy hike and/or leisurely picnic.

Accommodation and transit 🚆✈️🛏️

Important: If you are applying for a travel stipend, you need to hold off on booking. We first have to send you an official invitation (requirement by the funding agency).

Accommodation: We recommend that participants book rooms as soon as possible at one of the two Motel One Hotels in the center of Stuttgart. Both are in walking distance to the main station and provide convenient access to public transport that will bring you directly to the conference venue. Both also also reasonably priced considering local standards.

Travel: Stuttgart is well connected to the German railway network. For those who need to fly in, relevant airports are Frankfurt Main (FRA, ~1:15 h by train) and Stuttgart (STR, ~30 min by train). The latter is smaller and flights can be more expensive. Another international airport in the region is Strasbourg (SBX) but we haven’t tried that and the train connections may be inconvenient. Note that Strasbourg is in France, which may have visa implications.

Presenter information ℹ️

📣 For Speakers

🖼️ For poster presenters

Invited speakers

Johanna Kaakinen
Prof. Dr. Johanna Kaakinen
Dept. of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology
University of Turku, Finland
Andreas Bulling
Prof. Dr. Andreas Bulling
Dept. of Collaborative Artificial Intelligence
University of Stuttgart, Germany
Lisa Beinborn
Prof. Dr. Lisa Beinborn
Human-Centered Data Science
University of GĂśttingen, Germany
Maja Stegenwallner-SchĂźtz
Prof. Dr. Maja Stegenwallner-SchĂźtz
Language Development in Inclusive Learning Settings, University of Koblenz, Germany

Program

Day 1, Thu, June 5, 2025

Time Type Speaker(s) Title
08:30–09:00 Registration    
09:00–09:30 Welcome & Introduction Lena Jäger, Yevgeni Berzak, Titus von der Malsburg Administrative Information; Including Reimbursement Process and Workshop Intro
09:30–10:30 Invited Talk 1 Johanna Kaakinen Eye Movements as Indicators of Cognitive Engagement
10:30–11:00 Coffee Break    
11:00–11:30 Talk 1 Bordag, Denisa; Opitz, Andreas; Berulava, Hans-Georg Memory for Content and Surface Linguistic Forms: Differences in Reading in L1 and L2
11:30–12:00 Talk 2 Wiehe, Lea; Weiland, Katharina; Wahl, Michael Longitudinal Developments and Differences in Eye Movements in Children With and Without Reading Disorder in the First Three Years of School
12:00–13:30 Lunch Break    
13:30–14:30 Invited Talk 2 Lisa Beinborn Modeling Cross-Lingual Differences and Transfer
14:30–15:00 Talk 3 Brasser, Jan; Tschirner, Chiara; Stegenwallner-Schütz, Maja; Jäger, Lena A. Extending Eye Movement-Based Prediction of Reading Development to Pre-Readers
15:00–16:00 Posters 1    
16:00–16:30 Talk 4 Shubi, Omer; Avraham Hadar, Cfir; Berzak, Yevgeni Decoding Reading Goals from Eye Movements
16:30–17:00 Talk 5 Gruteke Klein, Keren; Shubi, Omer; Frenkel, Shachar; Berzak, Yevgeni The Effect of Text Simplification on Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension in L1 English Speakers
17:00–19:30 BBQ @ Eulenhof    

Posters Day 1, Thu, June 5, 2025

  1. Thul, RĂźdiger; Conklin, Kathy: Investigating sentence reading in young adults with and without university education: An eye-tracking study
  2. van der Stelt, Candace M.; Wallace, Sarah E.; Madden, Elizabeth; Dickey, Michael Walsh: Alexia Assessment: Shifting the Focus from Reading Aloud to Silent Reading Comprehension
  3. Canaj, Kimete; Suka, Cliresa: Eye Movements and the Assessment of Reading in Foreign Language
  4. Schmidt, Heiko; Pohl, Nada; Kammerer, Yvonne; Gottschling, Steffen; Kern, Dagmar: Using machine learning and eye-tracking to predict survey item comprehension
  5. Pohl, Nada Zahra; Schmidt, Heiko; Kern, Dagmar; Gottschling, Steffen; Kammerer, Yvonne: The Role of Reading Comprehension Ability in Comprehension Difficulties with Negated Questionnaire Items – An Eye-Tracking Study
  6. Tsikulina, Alina; Soroli, Efstathia: Eye-Tracking Insights into Bilingual Reading: How late French-English and Russian-English learners process Evaluative constructions?
  7. Ivchenko, Oksana; Grabar, Natalia; Nasir, Jamal: Reading Profiles Issued from Eye-tracking Data
  8. Weicker, Merle: How beneficial are causal connectives to the reading process? Evidence from eye-tracking
  9. Lopes Rego, Adrielli; Snell, Joshua; Meeter, Martijn: A single semantics-based mechanism to explain oculomotor behaviour in reading
  10. Thumbeck, Sarah-Maria; Dressel, Katharina; Baumgärtner, Annette; Büttner-Kunert, Julia; Ablinger, Irene: TEXT-FROM – a person-centred framework for acquired text comprehension disorders
  11. Venagli, Ilaria; Nardon, Andrea; Dal Maso, Serena; Melloni, Chiara; Piccinin, Sabrina; Vender, Maria: Investigating the impact of event nominalizations on reading behaviour and comprehension

BBQ 🔥🍔🍹

There will be a free BBQ in the garden of the venue on the first day. Vegetarian and vegan options will be offered. We were unfortunately unable to find a suitable caterer with halal certification.

Day 2, Fri, June 6, 2025

Time Type Speaker(s) Title
09:00–10:00 Invited Talk 3 Andreas Bulling What’s in the eyes for computational user behaviour modelling?
10:00–10:30 Talk 6 Sood, Ekta; Dhar, Prajit; Troiano, Enrica; Southwell, Rosy; D’Mello, Sidney ScanEZ: Integrating Cognitive Models with Self-Supervised Learning for Spatiotemporal Scanpath Prediction
10:30–11:00 Coffee Break    
11:00–11:30 Talk 7 Angele, Bernhard; Zeynep Gunes Ozkan; Marina Serrano Carot; Jon Andoni Duñabeitia Studying Reading at Lower Sampling Rates
11:30–12:00 Talk 8 Tschense, Monika; Wallot, Sebastian Reading Time Regularity as Predictor for Text Comprehension
12:00–13:30 Lunch Break    
13:30–14:30 Invited Talk 4 Maja Stegenwallner-Schütz Mapping Language to Literacy: Eye-Tracking and Other Behavioral Evidence for Developmental Pathways
14:30–15:00 Talk 9 Mézière, Diane; von der Malsburg, Titus Using Eye Movements to Predict Reading Comprehension: A Re-analysis with Random Forests
15:00–16:00 Posters 2    
16:00–16:30 Talk 10 Bammel, Moritz; Sanches de Oliveira, Guilherme Comparing Aggregate versus Process Measures of Eye Movements to Assess Reading Comprehension
16:30–17:00 Talk 11 Zermiani, Francesca; Mézière, Diane; Kaakinen, Johanna; Vargas, Cristina; Salmerón, Ladislao Eye-Movement Metrics as Predictors of Reading Comprehension: A Meta-Analysis
17:00–17:10 Closing Remarks Lena Jäger, Yevgeni Berzak, Titus von der Malsburg  

Posters Day 2, Fri, June 6, 2025

  1. Pavlinušić Vilus, Eva; Matić Škorić, Ana; Cergol, Kristina; Palmović, Marijan: How (not) to design a L1 vocabulary test based on a lexical decision task: evidence from Croatian
  2. Krause, AndrĂŠ Frank; Kannen, Kyra; BĂźscher, Sarah; Ressel, Christian; Wild-Wall, Nele: Neuroadaptive Reading Support for People with ADHD (Proposal)
  3. Alacam, Özge; Hoeken, Sanne; Zarrieß, Sina: Gaze Signals For Hate Speech Evaluation
  4. Haveriku, Alba; Kote, Nelda; Çepani, Anila; Çerpja, Adelina; Kajo Meçe, Elinda: Predicting Syntactic Dependencies in Albanian Language by leveraging mouse tracking data
  5. Vrazitulis, Michael; Schoknecht, Pia; Vasishth, Shravan: A German eye-movement benchmark data-set
  6. Pappert, Sandra; Olszycka, Carolina: Processing of simple versus complex structures by heterogenous groups of vocational students: Interactions between language proficiency and self-paced reading times?
  7. Gauditz, Hannah M.; Bergström, Kirstin; Fernandez, Leigh; Konerding, Marita; Großmann, Nicolas; Dengel, Andreas; Schmidt, Thomas; Lachmann, Thomas: Effects of coloured syllables in different stages of reading acquisition: evidence from eye movements and behavioural data in a combined longitudinal and cross-sectional design
  8. Dostálová, Nicol; Šašinka, Čeněk; Jochecová, Kateřina; Pátková Daňsová, Petra: Using eye-tracking for dyslexia intervention: A paired reading task
  9. Hodivoianu, Anamaria; Kuvshynova, Oleksandra; Marin, Mircea; Nisioi, Sergiu: Using Eye Tracking Data for Lexical Simplification
  10. Delgado, Pablo; Micai, Martina; Barea, Paula ; Gema Erena-guardia; Vanessa FernĂĄndez-Torres; Moreno-PĂŠrez, F. Javier; RodrĂ­guez-Ortiz, Isabel R.; Rivero-Contreras, Miriam; SolĂ­s-Campos, AdriĂĄn; SaldaĂąa, David: How students with autism and students with ADHD adapt their reading to different reading goals: An eye-tracking study
  11. Breukink, Corina: Reading or looking for answers: Secondary school students’ reading and responding processes in poetry and prose

Social outing Day 3, Sat, June 7

We’ll meet at the beautiful Solitude Palace, then take a scenic walk through the woods to Bärenschlössle (~50 min), a charming lakeside cottage in the forest known for its wide selection of food and drinks. After lunch and some time off, we’ll stroll together to the “Forsthaus 1” bus stop (~30 min), from where we’ll take the bus back to the city center.

🗺️ Route of the walk on Google Maps (~6 km)

Solitude Palace BärenschlÜssle

Detailed Timeline:

Good to Know:

We look forward to seeing you for a relaxing Saturday in Stuttgart’s beautiful green forest!

Venue

Eulenhof entrance Eulenhof courtyard

The workshop will take place at the International Meeting Center (IZB) of the University of Stuttgart, a modern and welcoming venue designed to foster collaboration and exchange of ideas. The facility features a lecture hall for up to 80 participants, as well as two smaller seminar rooms ideal for focused discussions and breakout sessions. Attendees will also enjoy the charming amenities of the venue, including a cozy fireside lounge—perfect for informal networking—and a spacious garden that provides a serene atmosphere for relaxation between sessions. The garden is equipped with facilities for barbecues, making it an great setting for social events and fostering meaningful connections in a laid-back environment.

Organizers and program chairs

Titus von der Malsburg
Titus von der Malsburg
Institute of Linguistics, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Lena Jäger
Lena Jäger
Department of Computational Linguistics, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Yevgeni Berzak
Yevgeni Berzak
Technion Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences, Israel

Co-organizers

Anna Prysłopska
Anna Prysłopska
Institute of Linguistics, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Anna Bondar
Anna Bondar
Department of Computational Linguistics, University of Zurich, Switzerland

Funding

The workshop is sponsored by the University of Stuttgart and the MultiplEYE COST Action. The workshop will provide financial support to cover travel expenses for a limited number of participants. Authors will be invited to apply for travel funding upon abstract acceptance. Funding will be partial and priority will be given to junior researchers.

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Photo credits