The fourth edition of the workshop “Eye Movements and the Assessment of Reading Comprehension” was held at the University of Koblenz with funding from COST. Around 40 researchers from eleven countries across North America, the Middle East, Asia and Europe gathered to present and discuss their work on eye movements in reading and on the cognitive processes involved in understanding written language, and to develop it further together. Topics included the use of webcam-based eye tracking to study reading, reading in specific populations such as deaf children and expert readers, and the prediction of reading comprehension from eye-movement data.
Three invited speakers shaped the program. Ido Roll (Technion – Israel Institute of Technology) spoke on assessing cognitive abilities from process data, Kate Nation (University of Oxford) highlighted how the language input gained from reading books influences reading development, and Sascha Schroeder (University of Goettingen) addressed the relationship between developing readers’ eye movements and reading comprehension. A lively panel discussion brought the scientific program to a close.
Beyond the talks, the workshop offered ample opportunity for informal exchange and for starting new research collaborations. Among the social activities was an excursion to Boppard on the Rhine, including a hike and a cable car ride.
This workshop is the latest in a series that began in Zurich in 2023 and continued there in 2024, followed by Stuttgart in 2025. The program was co-chaired by Maja Stegenwallner-Schütz (University of Koblenz), Lena Jäger (University of Zurich), Yevgeni Berzak (Technion – Israel Institute of Technology), and Titus von der Malsburg (University of Stuttgart).
