Saccade size control in reading: Evidence for the linguistic control hypothesis

In Experiment 1, it is shown that during reading the eye makes larger saccades near long words than near short words. The effects are reduced when the subject’s peripheral vision is diminished by the use of a moving “window” centered on the subject’s fixation point, outside of which letters are replaced by Xs. In Experiment 2, it is shown that even if linguistic predictions are kept constant, the eye tends to make longer jumps when approaching THE than when approaching a three-letter verb. This “THE-skipping” effect is weaker if THE is compared with an auxiliary (HAD, WAS, or ARE) than if it is compared with a less frequently occurring verb (ATE, RAN, MET). It follows that knowledge of the lexicon can combine with information from peripheral vision fast enough to influence saccade size from moment to moment.