Parafoveal preview effects in reading unspaced text
Parafoveal preview effects in reading unspaced text
In English reading, eye guidance relies heavily on the spaces between words for demarcating word boundaries. In an eye tracking experiment, we examined the impact of removing spaces on parafoveal processing. Using the gaze-contingent boundary paradigm (Rayner, 1975), a high or low frequency pre-boundary word was followed by a post-boundary preview presented either normally (i.e. identical to the post- boundary word), or with letters replaced creating an orthographically illegal preview. The spaces between words were either retained or removed. Results replicate previous findings of increased reading times during unspaced reading (Rayner, Fischer & Pollatsek, 1998) and indicate rather limited evidence for more distributed processing: Observations of processing of the previous word (spill-over effects) or processing of the next word (parafoveal-on-foveal effects) influencing fixation durations on the currently fixated word were limited. Spill-over effects were only observed in the unspaced layout when the post-boundary preview was correct, presumably because the orthographically illegal, incorrect preview was visually salient enough to allow for relatively easy word segmentation and therefore more focused processing of the pre- boundary word. As such, results points towards a system that prefers narrowly focused processing of a single word, at least when means for easy word segmentation are available.
1701-1716
Drieghe, Denis
dfe41922-1cea-47f4-904b-26d5c9fe85ce
Fitzsimmons, Gemma
ac6b7c69-8992-44f1-92ca-05aa22e75129
Liversedge, Simon P.
3ebda3f3-d930-4f89-85d5-5654d8fe7dee
October 2017
Drieghe, Denis
dfe41922-1cea-47f4-904b-26d5c9fe85ce
Fitzsimmons, Gemma
ac6b7c69-8992-44f1-92ca-05aa22e75129
Liversedge, Simon P.
3ebda3f3-d930-4f89-85d5-5654d8fe7dee
Drieghe, Denis, Fitzsimmons, Gemma and Liversedge, Simon P.
(2017)
Parafoveal preview effects in reading unspaced text.
Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance, 43 (10), .
(doi:10.1037/xhp0000441).
Abstract
In English reading, eye guidance relies heavily on the spaces between words for demarcating word boundaries. In an eye tracking experiment, we examined the impact of removing spaces on parafoveal processing. Using the gaze-contingent boundary paradigm (Rayner, 1975), a high or low frequency pre-boundary word was followed by a post-boundary preview presented either normally (i.e. identical to the post- boundary word), or with letters replaced creating an orthographically illegal preview. The spaces between words were either retained or removed. Results replicate previous findings of increased reading times during unspaced reading (Rayner, Fischer & Pollatsek, 1998) and indicate rather limited evidence for more distributed processing: Observations of processing of the previous word (spill-over effects) or processing of the next word (parafoveal-on-foveal effects) influencing fixation durations on the currently fixated word were limited. Spill-over effects were only observed in the unspaced layout when the post-boundary preview was correct, presumably because the orthographically illegal, incorrect preview was visually salient enough to allow for relatively easy word segmentation and therefore more focused processing of the pre- boundary word. As such, results points towards a system that prefers narrowly focused processing of a single word, at least when means for easy word segmentation are available.
Text
Drieghe, Fitzsimmons & Liversedge (in press)
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 9 April 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 1 October 2017
Published date: October 2017
Organisations:
Research Performance, Cognition
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 407843
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/407843
ISSN: 0096-1523
PURE UUID: 308ed646-1bb7-4487-9bbc-0fce64ec7d24
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Date deposited: 27 Apr 2017 01:03
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:01
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Contributors
Author:
Gemma Fitzsimmons
Author:
Simon P. Liversedge
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