An Analysis of Reader Engagement in Literary Fiction through Eye
  Tracking and Linguistic Features
Rose Neis Karin de Langis Zae Myung Kim Dongyeop Kang
Capturing readers' engagement in fiction is a challenging but important
aspect of narrative understanding. In this study, we collected 23 readers'
reactions to 2 short stories through eye tracking, sentence-level annotations,
and an overall engagement scale survey. We analyzed the significance of various
qualities of the text in predicting how engaging a reader is likely to find it.
As enjoyment of fiction is highly contextual, we also investigated individual
differences in our data. Furthering our understanding of what captivates
readers in fiction will help better inform models used in creative narrative
generation and collaborative writing tools.