Lexical access during eye fixations in reading: Effects of word-initial letter sequence (original) (raw)
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Word-Initial Letters Influence Fixation Durations during Fluent Reading
Frontiers in Psychology, 2012
The present study examined how word-initial letters influence lexical access during reading. Eye movements were monitored as participants read sentences containing target words. Three factors were independently manipulated. First, target words had either high or low constraining word-initial letter sequences (e.g., dwarf or clown, respectively). Second, targets were either high or low in frequency of occurrence (e.g., train or stain, respectively). Third, targets were embedded in either biasing or neutral contexts (i.e., targets were high or low in their predictability).This 2 (constraint) × 2 (frequency) × 2 (context) design allowed us to examine the conditions under which a word's initial letter sequence could facilitate processing. Analyses of fixation duration data revealed significant main effects of constraint, frequency, and context. Moreover, in measures taken to reflect "early" lexical processing (i.e., first and single fixation duration), there was a significant interaction between constraint and context. The overall pattern of findings suggests lexical access is facilitated by highly constraining word-initial letters. Results are discussed in comparison to recent studies of lexical features involved in word recognition during reading.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 2010
Participants' eye movements were monitored while they read sentences in which high-frequency and low-frequency target words were presented either in normal font (e.g., account) or case alternated (e.g., aCcOuNt). The influence of the word frequency and case alternation manipulations on fixation times was examined. Although both manipulations had comparable effects on standard first-pass fixation measures, word frequency, but not case alternation was found to influence the duration of the first fixation in trials with multiple first-pass fixations. Assuming that lexical processing is more often incomplete at the termination of the first in multiple first-pass fixations than at the end of single first-pass fixations, the present findings provide strong evidence for an influence of word frequency on early lexical processing. Importantly, such a demonstration of a fast acting influence of a lexical variable on fixation times satisfies a critical prerequisite for establishing lexical control of eye movements in reading.
European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 2004
Are readers capable of lexically processing more than one word at a time? In five eye movement experiments, we examined to what extent lexical characteristics of the nonfixated word to the right of fixation influenced readers' eye behaviour on the fixated word. In three experiments, we varied the frequency of the initial constituent of two-noun compounds, while in two experiments the whole-word frequency was manipulated. The results showed that frequency characteristics of the parafoveal word sometimes affected eye behaviour prior to fixating it, but the direction of effects was not consistent and the effects were not replicated across all experiments. Follow-up regression analyses suggested that foveal and parafoveal word length as well as the frequency of the word-initial trigram of the parafoveal word may modulate the parafoveal-on-foveal effects. It is concluded that lowfrequency words or lexemes may under certain circumstances serve as a magnet to attract an early eye movement to them. However, further corroborative evidence is clearly needed.
Parafoveal word processing during eye fixations in reading: Effects of word frequency
Attention Perception & Psychophysics, 1986
The present experiment measured eye fixations in reading to determine whether word frequency affects the processing of the fixated word and the processing of the word to the right of the fixated word (the parafoveal word). In the experiment, subjects read sentences that contained either a critical high-or low-frequency target word. High-and low-frequency targets were matched on word length and a number of other variables. In one condition, parafoveal visual information to the right of the fixated word was denied or distorted; in other conditions, information about the parafoveal word to the right of the fixated word was available. The main results showed shorter fixations on high-frequency than on low-frequency target words. Furthermore, readers gained more effective previews from high-frequency parafoveal target words than from low-frequency parafoveal target words.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2011
The processing of abbreviations in reading was examined with an eye movement experiment. Abbreviations were of two distinct types: Acronyms (abbreviations that can be read with the normal grapheme-phoneme correspondence rules, such as NASA) and initialisms (abbreviations in which the grapheme-phoneme correspondences are letter names, such as NCAA). Parafoveal and foveal processing of these abbreviations was assessed with the use of the boundary change paradigm (Rayner, 1975). Using this paradigm, previews of the abbreviations were either identical to the abbreviation (NASA or NCAA), orthographically legal (NUSO or NOBA), or illegal (NRSB or NRBA). The abbreviations were presented as capital letter strings within normal, predominantly lowercase sentences and also sentences in all capital letters such that the abbreviations would not be visually distinct. The results indicate that acronyms and initialisms undergo different processing during reading, and that readers can modulate their processing based on low-level visual cues (distinct capitalization) in parafoveal vision. In particular, readers may be biased to process capitalized letter strings as initialisms in parafoveal vision when the rest of the sentence is normal, lower case letters.
Orthographic familiarity influences initial eye fixation positions in reading
European Journal of Cognitive …, 2004
An important issue in the understanding of eye movements in reading is what kind of non-foveal information can influence where we move our eyes. In Experiment 1, first fixation landing positions were nearer the beginning of misspelled words. Experiment 2 showed that the informativeness of word beginnings does not influence where words are first fixated. In both experiments, refixations were more likely to be to the left of the initial fixation position if the words were misspelled. Also, there was no influence of spelling on prior fixation durations or refixation probabilities, that is, there was no evidence for parafoveal-on-foveal effects. The results show that the orthographic familiarity, but not informativeness, of word initial letter sequences influences where words are first fixated.
Eye movement control during reading: II. Frequency of refixating a word
Perception & Psychophysics, 1989
An analysis of over 40,000 eye fixations made by college students during reading indicates that the frequency of immediately refIxating a word following an initial eye fixation on it varies with the location of that fixation. The refixation frequency is lowest near the center of the word, positively accelerating with distance from the center. The data are well fit by a parabolic function. Assuming that refIxation frequency is related to the frequency of successful word identification, the observed curvilinear relation results naturally from models that postulate a linear decrease in visual information with retinal eccentricity. A single letter difference in fixation location in a word can make a sizeable difference in the likelihood of refixating that word. The effects of word length and cultural frequency on the frequency of refixating are also examined.
On the Processing of Meaning from Parafoveal Vision During Eye Fixations in Reading
The Mind's Eye, 2003
Research dealing with parafoveal processing during eye fixations is reviewed. Four main topics are addressed: (1) parafoveal processing, (2) word skipping, (3) preview benefit effects, and (4) parafoveal-on-foveal effects. We argue that word skipping effects reflect the fact that a parafoveal word (word n+1) has been identified on the fixation on word n. We also review evidence which strongly suggests that preview benefits during reading are not due to semantic processing of a parafoveal word. Finally, we review the more recent and more controversial research suggesting that the meaning of word n+1 can influence the fixation time on word n, and argue that it is premature at this point to accept the validity of such findings with respect to normal reading. Implications of the research for serial attention shift models like the E-Z Reader model are also discussed. 4 While a great deal has been learned about eye movements during reading over the past twenty-five to thirty years (Liversedge & Findlay, 2000;, there remain a number of unresolved issues . In this chapter, we will focus our discussion on research related to one of these unresolved issues: parafoveal semantic processing of words. Research on this issue has apparently gained momentum because it has been assumed that if there were so-called parafoveal-on-foveal effects, or evidence that the meaning of the word to the right of fixation influences the duration of the fixation on the currently fixated word, it would be damaging to serial attention shift models such as the E-Z Reader model . We will return to this issue at the end of the chapter. However, before discussing the relevance of such research for the E-Z Reader model, we will first provide a general review of research on parafoveal processing and then discuss in turn (1) word skipping, (2) preview benefit effects, and (3) parafoveal-onfoveal effects.