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Using eye movements to investigate word frequency effects in children’s sentence reading

Using eye movements to investigate word frequency effects in children’s sentence reading
Using eye movements to investigate word frequency effects in children’s sentence reading
Although eye movements have been used widely to investigate how skilled adult readers process written language, relatively little research has used this methodology with children. This is unfortunate as, as we discuss here, eye-movement studies have significant potential to inform our understanding of children's reading development. We consider some of the empirical and theoretical issues that arise when using this methodology with children, illustrating our points with data from an experiment examining word frequency effects in 8-yearold children's sentence reading. Children showed significantly longer gaze durations to low- than high-frequency words, demonstrating that linguistic characteristics of text drive children's eye movements as they read. We discuss these findings within the broader context of how eye-movement studies can inform our understanding of children's reading, and can assist with the development of appropriately targeted interventions to support children as they learn to read.
0279-6015
207-222
Joseph, H.S.S.L.
ad883a0f-f9c7-430c-a332-e9006a55ca09
Nation, K.
b5663455-892d-47e0-8c7b-d12798c2cc8e
Liversedge, S.P.
3ebda3f3-d930-4f89-85d5-5654d8fe7dee
Joseph, H.S.S.L.
ad883a0f-f9c7-430c-a332-e9006a55ca09
Nation, K.
b5663455-892d-47e0-8c7b-d12798c2cc8e
Liversedge, S.P.
3ebda3f3-d930-4f89-85d5-5654d8fe7dee

Joseph, H.S.S.L., Nation, K. and Liversedge, S.P. (2013) Using eye movements to investigate word frequency effects in children’s sentence reading. School Psychology Review, 42, 207-222.

Record type: Article

Abstract

Although eye movements have been used widely to investigate how skilled adult readers process written language, relatively little research has used this methodology with children. This is unfortunate as, as we discuss here, eye-movement studies have significant potential to inform our understanding of children's reading development. We consider some of the empirical and theoretical issues that arise when using this methodology with children, illustrating our points with data from an experiment examining word frequency effects in 8-yearold children's sentence reading. Children showed significantly longer gaze durations to low- than high-frequency words, demonstrating that linguistic characteristics of text drive children's eye movements as they read. We discuss these findings within the broader context of how eye-movement studies can inform our understanding of children's reading, and can assist with the development of appropriately targeted interventions to support children as they learn to read.

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More information

Published date: 1 June 2013
Organisations: Psychology

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 363349
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/363349
ISSN: 0279-6015
PURE UUID: 3d022669-a0da-4608-b1d4-339df9cd9265

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Date deposited: 24 Mar 2014 16:00
Last modified: 26 Apr 2022 17:22

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Contributors

Author: H.S.S.L. Joseph
Author: K. Nation
Author: S.P. Liversedge

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