This experiment has, we believe for the first time, demonstrated that it is possible (in fact without having to "mount eye cameras onto magazines or their readers" to take a technique on which over the years millions of dollars and pounds have been spent to little avail, and with the help of laboratory equipment, to improve the technique, and to bring it into line with (advertising) reality. Clearly, in view of the differences we have in the past found to hold for claims for different types of advertisement (colour is mono, size and so on) it will be necessary to conduct further experiments in order to allow for the effects of such variables in the weighting system. It might ultimately be necessary in the future, before conducting large-scale reading and noting studies, to precede them with a small pilot study using DEMOS to ascertain the correct weights to be used for readers of the particular publication(s) concerned.
It is in the interests of the advertisers and media owners to know about reading behaviour - either in relation to specific advertisements or with regard to entire media. The problem is that widely-used methods of collecting data relating to reading and "looking at" have been shown to be inaccurate in a number of ways. This paper briefly describes these methods, and some of the difficulties that are involved in their use and interpretation. However, conventional methods of measuring eye movement pose problems of interpretation and in any event lead to most unnatural reading situations. An observational technique that overcomes these difficulties was first developed by the Institute for Market Psychology in Mannheim. Currently, it is being used by BMRB in the U.K. under the name DEMOS - Direct Eye Movement Observation System. Some of our experiences in validation work with this technique are discussed, and results are given of experimental work on: 1. The accuracy of the system; 2. the effects of observation on reading behaviour, and; 3. the relationship between claimed and actual behaviour. The remainder of the paper concerns the potential wider application of this method of data collection to advertisement and media research needs.