Research on Reading in the Digital Era Has Begun

Although the implementation of the Fundamental and Applied Research Programme project “Reading in the Digital Era: Factors that Contribute to Successful Reading on Digital Devices” will officially begin in January 2026, the Department of English Studies at the UL Faculty of Humanities, in collaboration with the Department of Optometry and Vision Science at the UL Faculty of Physics, Mathematics, and Optometry, has already commenced preparatory work.

As part of these early activities, the research team has joined the international cooperation programme COST “MultiplEye", led by colleagues from the Department of Optometry and Vision Science.

The FLPP project “Reading in the Digital Era: Factors that Contribute to Successful Reading on Digital Devices” is the result of interdisciplinary cooperation among specialists in linguistics, vision science, and psychology. The project aims to explore how people perceive and process visual and linguistic information in digital environments, using eye-tracking technology. 

In preparation for establishing the project’s technical and data-collection facilities at the UL’s House of Nature and the Faculty of Humanities, the project research team hosted Domenic Mayer, a data-collection specialist from Saarland University (Germany). His visit, carried out as a Short-Term Scientific Mission (STSM) within the “MultiplEye” programme, focused on setting up the technical groundwork for future experiments.

During his stay in Latvia, Domenic also actively participated in both academic and cultural events, attending the 12th Baltic Student Conference “Bridges in the Baltics” and joining excursions in Rīga and Sigulda, where he learned about Latvia’s history, architecture, and cultural traditions.

The applied linguistics specialists of the Department of English Studies are delighted to collaborate with experts in vision science and psychology, as this fosters not only interdisciplinarity but also scientific cooperation, in addition to facilitating an exchange of experience with international partners, and the involvement of young researchers in international projects. 

Fundamental and Applied Research is a programme financed from the state budget which aims to create new knowledge and technological know-how in all Fields of Science. Programme is organized as annual open calls. Organization of project calls and evaluation of the research proposals is carried out by the Latvian Research Council (LRC). 

The LRC FARP project “Reading in the Digital Era: Factors That Contribute to Successful Reading on Digital Devices” (lzp-2025/1-0195) will be implemented three years, from 2026 to 2028.