Eye movements when reading disappearing text: the importance of the word to the right of fixation

Rayner, Keith, Liversedge, Simon P. and White, Sarah J. (2006) Eye movements when reading disappearing text: the importance of the word to the right of fixation. Vision Research, 46 (3), 310-323. (doi:10.1016/j.visres.2005.06.018).

Record type: Article

Abstract

In a series of experiments, the currently fixated word (word n) and/or the word to the right of fixation (word n + 1) either disappeared or was masked during readers’ eye fixations. Consistent with prior research, when only word n disappeared or was masked, there was little disruption to reading. However, when word n + 1 either disappeared or was masked (either at the onset of fixation on word n or after 60 ms), there was considerable disruption to reading. Independent of whether word n and/or word n + 1 disappeared or was masked, there were robust frequency effects on the fixation on word n. These results not only confirm the robust influence of cognitive/linguistic processing on fixation times in reading, but also again confirm the importance of preprocessing the word to the right of fixation for fluent reading.

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