Beyond the Hype: Does Bionic reading live up to the expectations from the perspective of ADHD individuals? An EEG study.

Abstract

Nowadays, people have nearly unlimited access to a vast amount of written information, and combined with the fast-paced lifestyle led by most, comes the necessity to consume that information as quickly as possible. One of the solutions to the rising necessity to consume information quickly and efficiently is the Bionic Reading (BR) font, which makes quite the claim that it aids in improving speed with minimal trade-off on reading comprehension, especially in individuals with reading difficulties. Bionic reading is a relatively new method that uses a unique typeface that bolds the initial characters of each word, establishing artificial fixation points that supposedly enhance reading speed while preserving comprehension. The current study aims to evaluate that claim, focusing on individuals with ADHD, as they often experience lower processing speed, affecting their reading comprehension. A set-up involving EEG-recorded measures was used to investigate this while performing an RSVP task. The participants were shown a mixture of semantically congruent and semantically incongruent sentences. The N400 response was used to measure semantic processing during speed-reading. Contrary to the hypothesis, the results suggest that the high word rate did not impair semantic processing, as indicated by the presence of the N400 effect in response to semantically incongruent sentences. The findings were inconclusive; however, the study contributes to the growing body of research in psycholinguistics and the reading disability spectrum.