This pre-registration is composed of three sections: the research background, method, and planned analyses. This study is part of the larger project ‘Understanding XAI as digital competence’, which aims to investigate how explainable AI (XAI) can promote adequate levels of user digital competence so users can cope with AI-driven communication. It includes three sub-projects that build on each other: 1) users’ current levels of AI competence, including users’ AI knowledge, AI skills, and AI perceptions; 2) how people process and respond to different types of explanations of AI systems generated by XAI; and 3) the effects of XAI on user’s digital competence. The current study focuses on the second sub-project and examines how users process and respond to different types of explanations in recommender systems. We plan to conduct an eye-tracking experiment with a 3 (scope of explanation: local vs. global vs. Joint explanation) x 2 (modality of explanation: text-only vs. text & graphic illustration) between-subjects design, and a control group exposed to RS without any explanation. The eye-tracking experiment will take place between February 2023 and April 2023. Ethical approval was obtained for this project by the Ethics Committee at the University of Amsterdam.