Fast priming during eye fixations in reading.

Near-threshold primes were "flashed" in a target location prior to the onset of a target word while Ss read. The type and duration of the prime were manipulated. In Exp. 1, identical, related, and unrelated primes were presented for 60, 45, or 30 ms from onset of an eye fixation. The prime was then replaced with the target word, which remained in place while Ss finished reading the sentence. Fixation time on the target word was measured. Exp. 2 replicated Exp. 1, with two exceptions: A random letter string replaced the identical prime condition, and prime durations of 39, 30, or 21 ms were used. In both experiments, significant priming effects (related vs. unrelated) were obtained when the prime was presented for 30 ms. Results are discussed with regard to subliminal priming effects. Applications to the study of word recognition processes are also discussed.     

Word frequency in fast priming: Evidence for immediate cognitive control of eye movements during reading

Numerous studies have demonstrated effects of word frequency on eye movements during reading, but the precise timing of this influence has remained unclear. The fast priming paradigm was previously used to study influences of related versus unrelated primes on the target word. Here, we use this procedure to investigate whether the frequency of the prime word has a direct influence on eye movements during reading when the prime–target relation is not manipulated. We found that with average prime intervals of 32 ms readers made longer single fixation durations on the target word in the low than in the high frequency prime condition. Distributional analyses demonstrated that the effect of prime frequency on single fixation durations occurred very early, supporting theories of immediate cognitive control of eye movements. Finding prime frequency effects only 207 ms after visibility of the prime and for prime durations of 32 ms yields new time constraints for cognitive processes controlling eye movements during reading. Our variant of the fast priming paradigm provides a new approach to test early influences of word processing on eye movement control during reading.     

Eye movements of highly skilled and average readers: Differential effects of frequency and predictability

This study offers a glimpse of the moment-by-moment processes used by highly skilled and average readers during silent reading. The eye movements of adult readers were monitored while they silently read sentences. Fixation durations and the spatial-temporal patterns of eye movements were examined to see whether the two groups of readers exhibited differential effects of frequency and/or predictability. In Experiment 1, high- and low-frequency target words were embedded in nonconstraining sentence contexts. In Experiment 2, the same participants read high- and low-frequency target words that were either predictable or unpredictable, embedded in highly constraining sentence contexts. Results indicated that when target words appeared in highly constraining sentence contexts, the average readers showed different effects of frequency and predictability from those shown in the highly skilled readers. It appears that reading skill can interact with predictability to affect the word recognition processes used during silent reading.     

文本阅读中背景信息的加工过程：激活与整合

采用移动窗口技术和眼动技术探讨了文本阅读中当前信息跟背景信息的具体加工过程。被试为华南师范大学本科生92名。实验1使用移动窗口技术,计算机屏幕上每次只呈现一个句子,让被试自己按键逐句进行阅读,通过分析不同实验条件下探测词的再认反应时间和不同实验条件下目标句的阅读时间来探讨文本阅读中信息加工的具体过程。实验2使用眼动技术在一种更自然的情境中通过分析不同实验条件下眼动指标的差异来进一步探讨文本阅读中信息加工的具体过程。实验结果表明,文本阅读中背景信息的加工过程包括激活和整合两个阶段,这两个阶段相互独立但又紧密联系,激活是整合发生的前提,有整合必先发生激活,但激活发生后并不一定会发生整合;文本阅读过程中读者阅读时间的延长主要发生在整合阶段     

Word length effects on novel words: Evidence from eye movements

The present study investigated the effects of word length on eye movement behavior during initial processing of novel words while reading. Adult skilled readers’ eye movements were monitored as they read novel or known target words in sentence frames with neutral context preceding the target word. Comparable word length effects on all single-fixation measures for novel and known words suggested that both types of words were subject to similar initial encoding strategies. The impact of the absence of an existing lexical entry emerged in multiple first-pass fixation measures in the form of interactions between word length (long and short) and word type (novel and known). Specifically, readers spent significantly more first-pass time refixating long novel targets than short novel targets; however, the first-pass time spent refixating known controls did not differ as a function of length. Implications of these findings for models of eye movement control while reading, as well as for vocabulary acquisition in reading, are discussed.     

语义相关性对副中央凹-中央凹效应的影响

阅读时词汇加工的注意分配是序列的还是平行的,是所有眼动控制模型需解答的关键问题。对此,可通过分析副中央窝-中央窝效应（POF效应）进行解释。以往研究结果的争议在于POF效应是否为误差眼跳。本研究为控制眼跳误差,采用分心阅读范式,考察词n与词n－1的语义相关性对词n－1加工的影响,探讨中文阅读的POF效应。实验以26名大学生为被试,选取高频双字词为词n－1,低频双字词为词n。结果发现当词n－1与词n语义相关性高时,词n－1的凝视时间更短,再注视率更低,出现同向的POF效应。本研究在一定条件下支持SWIFT模型为代表的平行加工假设。     

Learning new word meanings from context: a study of eye movements

This study examined how readers establish the meaning of a new word from the sentence context during silent reading. Readers' eye movements were monitored while they read pairs of sentences containing a target word, context, and a word related to the target word. The target word varied in familiarity (high, low, or novel). The context varied in informativeness about the meaning of the target word (informative or neutral). The amount of time readers spent on the context depended on both the familiarity of the target word and the informativeness of the context. Readers spent additional time on the related word only when the context was neutral and the target was novel. These results indicate that readers were able to determine which areas of text were relevant and used the information to infer a meaning for the novel word.     

The On-line Study of Sentence Comprehension: An Examination of Dual Task Paradigms

This paper presents three studies which examine the susceptibility of sentence comprehension to intrusion by extra-sentential probe words in two on-line dual-task techniques commonly used to study sentence processing: the cross-modal lexical priming paradigm and the unimodal all-visual lexical priming paradigm. It provides both a general review and a direct empirical examination of the effects of task-demand in the on-line study of sentence comprehension. In all three studies, sentential materials were presented to participants together with a target probe word which constituted either a better or a worse continuation of the sentence at a point at which it was presented. Materials were identical for all three studies. The manner of presentation of the sentence materials was, however, manipulated; presentation was either visual, auditory (normal rate) or auditory (slow rate). The results demonstrate that a technique in which a visual target probe interrupts ongoing sentence processing (such as occurs in unimodal visual presentation and in very slow auditory sentence presentation) encourages the integration of the probe word into the on-going sentence. Thus, when using such ‘sentence interrupting’ techniques, additional care to equate probes is necessary. Importantly, however, the results provide strong evidence that the standard use of fluent cross-modality sentence investigation methods are immune from such external probe word intrusions into ongoing sentence processing and are thus accurately reflect underlying comprehension processes.     

初中二年级学生字词阅读知觉广度的眼动研究

采用眼动研究中经典的移动窗口技术范式探讨中学生字词阅读知觉广度。通过两个实验分别对17名初中二学生和12名初中二学生进行了汉语字、词阅读知觉广度的眼动研究。实验1结果表明,初中二年级学生字窗口条件下的阅读知觉广度为注视点左侧1个单字到右侧2个单字的范围;实验2结果表明,双字词窗口条件下的阅读知觉广度为注视点左侧1个双字词到右侧1个双字词的范围。本研究推论汉语阅读过程进行的是词单元加工,而不是单字。     

Inhibitory neighbor priming effects in eye movements during reading

We report an eye movement experiment investigating whether prior processing of a word’s orthographic neighbor in a sentence influences subsequent word processing during reading. There was greater difficulty in early word processing when a target word’s neighbor rather than a control word appeared earlier in a sentence; this effect was uninfluenced by the relative lexical frequency of the word and its neighbor. We discuss this inhibitory neighbor priming effect in terms of competitive network models of word recognition and the process of lexical identification in the E-Z Reader model of oculomotor control (e.g., Reichle, Pollatsek, Fisher, & Rayner, 1998).     

Language comprehension and probe-list memory

Experiments were performed using probe-word recognition methodology in which participants read sentences that were presented 1 word at a time and were then shown a probe word and had to make a speeded response indicating whether the word had occurred in the sentence. One experiment showed that response times to probe words increased with the size of the set of candidate probes. The other experiments showed that the effects caused by name repetition in circumstances in which the repeated name was co-referential also occurred when the repeated name was not co-referential and when the order of words in a sentence was scrambled. The results suggest that responses in the task can be based on probe-list memory, a mental representation created to keep track of those words that the participant believes are likely to be probed, and that the use of the task to make inferences about language comprehension should be accompanied by controls ruling out such strategies.     

Lexical processing and text integration of function and content words: Evidence from priming and eye fixations

The results of two experiments comparing processing of function words and content words are reported. In Experiment 1, priming was present for both related function and related content word pairs, as measured in lexical decision response times. In Experiment 2, participants' eye movements were monitored as they read sentences containing either a high- or a low-frequency function or content target word. Average word length and word frequency were matched across the function and content word conditions. Function words showed frequency effects in first-fixation and gaze duration that were similar to those seen for content words. Clear differences in on-line processing of function and content words emerged in later processing measures. These differences were reflected in reading patterns and reading time measures. There was inflated processing time in the phrase immediately following a low-frequency function word, and participants made more regressions to the target word in this condition than in the other three conditions. The priming effects in lexical decision and the word frequency effects in initial processing measures in silent reading for both word types were taken as evidence of common lexical processing for function and content words. The observed differences in later processing measures in the eye-movement data were taken as evidence of differences in the role that the two word types have in sentence processing beyond the lexical level.     

Interference and facilitation effects of primes upon verification processes

Priming effects on sentence verification were investigated. The semantic relation of the prime and the probe, and the interval between prime and probe presentation (SOA), were varied for both ambiguous and unambiguous sentences. Reaction time to decide that a sentence was true or false was longer if the preceding prime was a word that was unrelated to the probe than if the prime was the word “blank.” In contradiction of Posner and Snyder’s (1975) claim that conscious processes develop slowly, this result was found at SOAs as short as 250 msec. Verification performance was facilitated for both sentence types when the prime word was the first of the to-be-presented probe sentence, but the magnitude of the facilitation effects depended upon the truth value of the probe, the associative strength of the subject and predicate of the probe sentence, and upon SOA. These findings indicate that priming affects the processing of relations among concepts in semantic memory, as well as the encoding of the probe.     

阅读中的快速启动范式述评

快速启动范式（Sereno & Rayner, 1992）是一种基于呈现随眼动变化技术而设计的眼动范式,主要用于研究中央凹视野内字词识别的瞬时启动,通过精确控制启动条件和启动时窗,以考察词汇通达过程中词汇水平（如,词频、词长等）、亚词汇水平（如,语音、语义、字形等）信息的加工时序。本文从基本原理、设计基础、应用领域、注意事项等方面对快速启动范式进行了较为深入的解读和介绍,并结合已有的研究成果,指出了该范式在汉语阅读中的应用价值。     

Memory for word location during reading: Eye movements to previously read words are spatially selective but not precise

In two experiments, readers' use of spatial memory was examined by asking them to determine whether an individually shown probe word had appeared in a previously read sentence (Experiment 1) or had occupied a right or left sentence location (Experiment 2). Under these conditions, eye movements during the classification task were generally directed toward the right, irrespective of the location of the relevant target in the previously read sentence. In two additional experiments, readers' knowledge of prior sentence content was examined either without (Experiment 3) or with (Experiment 4) an explicit instruction to move the eyes to a target word in that sentence. Although regressions into the prior sentence were generally directed toward the target, they rarely reached it. In the absence of accurate spatial memories, readers reached previously read target words in two distinct steps--one that moved the eyes in the general vicinity of the target, and one that homed in on it.     

Eye movements in developing readers: A comparison of silent and oral sentence reading

We present sentence reading data from a large-scale study with children (N = 632), focusing on three key research questions. (1) What are the trajectories of reading development in oral as compared to silent reading? (2) How are word frequency effects developing and are changes differentially affected by reading mode? (3) Are there systematic differences between better and weaker comprehenders when reading silently vs. aloud? Results illuminate a number of differences between reading modes, including more and prolonged fixations in oral reading, along with less inter-word regressions and attenuated effects of word frequency. Weaker comprehenders were slower, especially in oral reading and showed less flexibility in the allocation of word processing time. Differences between reading modes can be explained by additional processing demands imposed by concurrent articulation and eye–voice coordination when reading aloud.     

Context length and reading novel words: An eye‐movement investigation

The current study investigated the effects of context length on the processing of novel words. Participants read real adjectives or novel words embedded in either sentence or paragraph contexts while their eye movements were recorded. The results extend the literature on novel word reading by exploring the time‐course of word processing using realistic contexts derived from existing sources. Eye‐movement measures demonstrated that readers were very sensitive to the presence of novel words. Novel words were more likely to be fixated and had longer reading times than real words. In addition, words in sentence contexts had longer gaze durations than words in paragraphs. The effect of novelty on reading the target word did not vary as a function of the context length. While performance on the surprise post‐test did not demonstrate significant word learning, participants did report higher confidence in correct responses than incorrect, suggesting that some learning took place.     

Early parafoveal processing in reading Chinese sentences

The possibility that during Chinese reading information is extracted at the beginning of the current fixation was examined in this study. Twenty-four participants read for comprehension while their eye movements were being recorded. A pretarget-target two-character word pair was embedded in each sentence and target word visibility was manipulated in two time intervals (initial 140 ms or after 140 ms) during pretarget viewing. Substantial beginning- and end-of-fixation preview effects were observed together with beginning-of-fixation effects on the pretarget. Apparently parafoveal information at least at the character level can be extracted relatively early during ongoing fixations. Results are highly relevant for ongoing debates on spatially distributed linguistic processing and address fundamental questions about how the human mind solves the task of reading within the constraints of different writing systems.     

Word recognition and temporal order judgments: semantics turns back the clock.

This paper examines the consequences that codes activated during reading have on activities unrelated to reading by investigating the effects of semantics on temporal order judgments. Participants judged which of two word targets appeared first. Targets appeared either synchronously, or were separated by varying stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). For one group of participants, one target on each trial was related to a prime word shown at the beginning of the trial. This priming relation affected temporal order judgments such that participants sometimes reported related targets as having appeared first, even when they appeared second. It is suggested that this effect is best explained as showing that codes activated during word recognition affect the attentional selection aspects of the temporal order judgment task.     

句子语境中汉语词汇形、音作用的眼动研究

采用眼动方法, 通过两个实验考查了句子语境中汉语词汇形、音的作用及其作用的时间进程。结果发现：(1)在高限制性句子语境中, 音同的凝视时间和总注视时间显著短于无关控制; (2)在低限制性句子语境中, 音同、形似的首视时间均显著短于无关控制; (3)词频效应出现在低限制性句子语境中。该结果表明, 句子语境影响词汇形、音的作用及作用的时间进程, 汉语词汇的意义可以由字形直接通达, 也可以由形和音两条路径得到通达。