字间空格与词频对青年人和老年人阅读的影响：眼动研究

本研究利用眼动仪记录青年人和老年人在阅读插入字间空格文本时的眼动轨迹，考察字间空格的增大或减小对青年人和老年人阅读不同词频句子的影响。结果发现，增大字间空格和正常条件下的阅读时间没有显著差异，并且字间空格对高低频词的影响没有显著差异。更重要的是，相较于青年人，老年人在缩小字间空格条件下的注视时间更长。以上研究结果表明，增大字间空格对读者的阅读无显著促进或抑制作用，但是老年人对视觉特征的变化更敏感，减小字间空格会显著干扰老年人的阅读行为。     

镜像呈现方式对青年人和老年人汉语阅读过程的影响:眼动研究

拼音文字文本阅读研究发现,同青年人相比,老年人在阅读过程中有更多的跳读发生、向前眼跳幅度更长、回视次数更多。基于这些研究结果,研究者提出了老年人阅读的“风险阅读”策略。为探究在中文阅读过程中老年人的加工特点以及与拼音文字阅读的策略异同,实验采用镜像和正常两种方式呈现文本进行了考察。结果发现,在中文阅读过程中,相较于青年人,老年人的跳读率更低,向前眼跳幅度更小,采用的是一种更为谨慎的阅读策略。在镜像呈现的条件下,老年人与青年人之间的跳读率没有显著差异,在正常呈现的条件下,老年人的跳读率显著低于青年,表明在汉语阅读中老年人采取更加谨慎的阅读策略与其副中央凹加工能力下降,以及汉语与拼音文字两种不同书写系统的基本属性有关。     

老年人与青年人阅读空格文本的注视位置效应

采用EyeLink2000眼动仪,以14名老年人和14名青年人为被试,探讨他们阅读空格汉语文本的注视位置效应.阅读材料分为正常无空格文本和词间空格文本两种.结果发现:(1)在阅读词间空格文本和正常无空格文本时,老年人与青年人都表现出单次注视的首次注视是位于词的中心,多次注视的首次注视是位于词的开头;(2)老年人阅读正常无空格文本时对词尾的注视概率显著低于词间空格文本,而青年人则没有差异.结果表明老年人与青年人在阅读空格文本时存在注视位置效应.     

空格减少汉语发展性阅读障碍儿童的视觉拥挤效应：来自眼动的证据

使用眼动仪记录汉语发展性阅读障碍儿童、正常年龄匹配和能力匹配儿童阅读插入空格文本时的眼动,考察在字、词以及非词间插入空格呈现文本对汉语发展性阅读障碍儿童阅读加工过程的影响。结果发现,阅读障碍儿童在字间空格条件下平均注视时间减少的程度大于正常儿童,注视次数在字间和词间空格条件下未见显著增加,能力匹配儿童的注视次数在这两种空格条件下却显著增加。结果说明,在字间和词间插入空格能够减少儿童的平均阅读时间,且字间空格文本呈现显著地提高了其阅读效率,说明空格对汉语阅读障碍儿童具有促进作用,这种促进主要是由于空格减少了其视觉拥挤效应所致。     

汉语阅读眼动控制:20年研究的总结

本文系统总结了20年来汉语阅读眼动控制的研究成果。在阅读过程中眼动控制主要回答两个问题:(1)哪些因素决定眼睛的注视时间(when);(2)哪些因素决定眼睛的注视位置(where)。对于第一个问题,已有研究从词边界信息、词频、熟悉性、预测性、语义透明度、具体性、非注视词的特性、词汇获得年龄进行了探讨;对于第二个问题,已有研究从汉字字号、笔画数、字结构、词长、词结构、词间空格、词频、预测性、合理性、年龄和阅读能力进行了探讨。通过比较发现,汉语阅读的眼动控制特点与拼音文字的眼动控制特点既有共同之处,又有差异之处。因此,汉语阅读的研究者需要在现有眼动控制模型的基础上,构建适合于汉语特性的眼动控制模型。     

汉语阅读知觉广度的老化:一项眼动研究

采用眼动追踪技术中的呈现随眼动变化范式,对16名老年人和16名青年人的汉语阅读知觉广度进行探测。结果发现:(1)老年人汉语阅读知觉广度具有不对称性;(2)在以汉字为呈现单元的条件下,老年人知觉广度范围为注视汉字及注视汉字右侧2-3个汉字;(3)和青年人相比,老年人的阅读知觉广度范围更小。     

词间空格促进汉语阅读的新词学习:词素位置的调节作用

采用眼动仪考察词素位置是否是影响词间空格在新词学习中起作用的重要因素。通过以下方式进行操纵:构造两类假词作为新词,第一类新词由低频首字、高频尾字构成;第二类新词由高频首字、低频尾字构成。采用"学习-测试"范式将新词放在句子中要求被试阅读。结果发现,相比由高频首字和低频尾字构成的新词,词间空格在由低频首字和高频尾字构成的新词学习中促进作用更大。表明在汉语阅读中词素位置可能作为一种线索参与词切分。     

词边界信息和词频在汉语阅读中的作用

利用Eyelink2000眼动仪,记录27名本科生阅读时的眼动轨迹。句子中插入四种空格(正常无空格、词间空格、字间空格和非词空格)标记词边界信息,并操纵目标词的词频,以考察词边界信息和词频在汉语阅读中的作用。结果表明:(1)插入非词空格对低频词的干扰作用大于高频词,插入字间空格能促进低频词的加工;(2)被试对低频词的加工难度均大于高频词;(3)汉语阅读的基本加工单位为词而不是汉字。     

词切分对日-汉双语者汉语阅读影响的眼动研究

以24名日-汉双语者为被试, 采用EyeLink2000眼动仪, 通过两个实验来探讨词切分对日-汉双语者汉语句子阅读的影响。实验一采用四种词切分方式：正常条件、词间空格条件、非词空格条件和字间空格条件。为了确保四种词切分条件下句子的空间分布一致, 实验二采用灰条标记作为字、词或非词的边界。结果发现：(1)在总体和局部分析中, 词间空格条件下平均注视时间显著少于正常条件; 非词空格和字间空格条件下的阅读时间更长、注视次数更多。(2)在总体分析中, 总句子阅读时间和总注视次数在正常条件和词间空格条件中差异不显著; 局部分析中, 词间空格条件比正常条件下的阅读时间更短、注视次数更少。表明日-汉双语者在阅读词间空格文本和正常文本一样容易; 词切分对日-汉双语者汉语阅读的词汇识别有促进作用; 在汉语阅读中, 词是重要的加工单位。     

词切分对初学者句子阅读影响的眼动研究

采用EyeLink II眼动仪,以72名小学三年级学生为被试,通过三个实验来探讨词切分对初学者汉语句子阅读的影响。实验一设置四种空格呈现条件:正常的无空格条件、字间空格条件、词间空格条件和非词空格条件。实验二采用灰条标记作为字、词或非词的边界,使不同条件下句子的空间分布是一致的。实验三进一步操纵了学生的阅读技能。结果发现三个实验的结果趋势是一致的。小学三年级学生在阅读有词间空格的文本和正常的无空格文本一样容易。尽管词切分文本对阅读技能高和阅读技能低的学生来说一样容易,但非词空格呈现条件会对阅读技能低的学生产生更大的干扰作用。阅读技能低的学生在阅读过程中更依赖于文本的低水平视觉线索。文章最后讨论了词切分对建构中文阅读眼动控制模型的启示。     

Effects of inter-character spacing on saccade programming in beginning readers and dyslexics

The present study investigated the impact of inter-character spacing on saccade programming in beginning readers and dyslexic children. In two experiments, eye movements were recorded while dyslexic children, reading-age, and chronological-age controls, performed an oculomotor lateralized bisection task on words and strings of hashes presented either with default inter-character spacing or with extra spacing between the characters. The results of Experiment 1 showed that (1) only proficient readers had already developed highly automatized procedures for programming both left- and rightward saccades, depending on the discreteness of the stimuli and (2) children of all groups were disrupted (i.e., had trouble to land close to the beginning of the stimuli) by extra spacing between the characters of the stimuli, and particularly for stimuli presented in the left visual field. Experiment 2 was designed to disentangle the role of inter-character spacing and spatial width. Stimuli were made the same physical length in the default and extra-spacing conditions by having more characters in the default spacing condition. Our results showed that inter-letter spacing still influenced saccade programming when controlling for spatial width, thus confirming the detrimental effect of extra spacing for saccade programming. We conclude that the beneficial effect of increased inter-letter spacing on reading can be better explained in terms of decreased visual crowding than improved saccade targeting.     

The effect of visual complexity and word frequency on eye movements during Chinese reading

Eye movements of native Chinese readers were monitored when they read sentences containing single-character target words orthogonally manipulated for frequency and visual complexity (number of strokes). Both factors yielded strong main effects on skipping probability but no interaction, with readers skipping visually simple and high frequency words more often. However, an interaction between frequency and complexity was observed on the fixation times on the target words with longer fixations for the low frequency, visually complex words. The results demonstrate that visual complexity and frequency have independent influences on saccadic targeting behaviour during Chinese reading but jointly influence fixation durations and that these two factors differently impact fixation durations and saccade targeting during reading.     

Eye movements of young and older adults during reading

The eye movements of young and older adults were tracked as they read sentences varying in syntactic complexity. In Experiment 1, cleft object and object relative clause sentences were more difficult to process than cleft subject and subject relative clause sentences; however, older adults made many more regressions, resulting in increased regression path fixation times and total fixation times, than young adults while processing cleft object and object relative clause sentences. In Experiment 2, older adults experienced more difficulty than young adults while reading cleft and relative clause sentences with temporary syntactic ambiguities created by deleting the that complementizers. Regression analyses indicated that readers with smaller working memories need more regressions and longer fixation times to process cleft object and object relative clause sentences. These results suggest that age-associated declines in working memory do affect syntactic processing.     

Eye movements during repeated reading of a text

The facilitation of eye movements was studied in two experiments involving a repeated reading paradigm. A text was read three times. Initial reading was immediately followed by the first repetition; the second repetition took place one week later. Recall task instructions were used to encourage a detailed reading of the text. The data were analysed sentence by sentence from the 'first pass' readings not including returns to earlier test locations. A general facilitation for all eye movement parameters was found. Repetition decreased the summed fixation time, the average fixation duration, the number of progressive fixations, and the number of regressions. Additionally, repetition increased saccade lengths. Experiment 2 further qualified the general facilitory effect. The middle section of the text, being the most dense of information, was devoted the most visual attention by the readers. Moreover, it was also found to produce the largest degree of facilitation due to repetition. This was true with all other eye movement parameters except saccade length and average fixation duration. Average fixation durations were longer in the beginning of a text than in the end. This was true in all the three readings. Similarly, for each reading, highly important sentences received more visual attention than unimportant sentences.     

Effects of word frequency and visual complexity on eye movements of young and older Chinese readers

Research using alphabetic languages shows that, compared to young adults, older adults employ a risky reading strategy in which they are more likely to guess word identities and skip words to compensate for their slower processing of text. However, little is known about how ageing affects reading behaviour for naturally unspaced, logographic languages like Chinese. Accordingly, to assess the generality of age-related changes in reading strategy across different writing systems we undertook an eye movement investigation of adult age differences in Chinese reading. Participants read sentences containing a target word (a single Chinese character) that had a high or low frequency of usage and was constructed from either few or many character strokes, and so either visually simple or complex. Frequency and complexity produced similar patterns of influence for both age groups on skipping rates and fixation times for target words. Both groups therefore demonstrated sensitivity to these manipulations. But compared to the young adults, the older adults made more and longer fixations and more forward and backward eye movements overall. They also fixated the target words for longer, especially when these were visually complex. Crucially, the older adults skipped words less and made shorter progressive saccades. Therefore, in contrast with findings for alphabetic languages, older Chinese readers appear to use a careful reading strategy according to which they move their eyes cautiously along lines of text and skip words infrequently. We propose they use this more careful reading strategy to compensate for increased difficulty processing word boundaries in Chinese.     

中文阅读中切词过程的年老化:眼动证据

研究包含两项实验考察中文阅读中的词切分是否受年老化影响。发现如下结果:(1)实验一显示,静态提示词汇正确边界(词间空格和词阴影条件)消极影响青年组总阅读时间的程度大于其对老年组的影响,静态提示词汇错误边界(非词空格)消极影响老年组总阅读时间的程度大于其对青年组的影响。(2)实验二显示,动态提示词汇正确边界(提示词n+1边界和提示词n边界)积极影响老年组总阅读时间的程度大于其对青年组的影响。(3)在眼动数据上,两项实验均发现呈现条件与组别交互影响凝视时间和跳读概率。总的来说,提示词汇(正确/错误)边界影响老年组句子阅读时间/眼动过程的模式不同于其对青年组的影响,说明中文阅读中的切词会受到年老化的影响。     

Using E-Z Reader to examine the concurrent development of eye-movement control and reading skill

Compared to skilled adult readers, children typically make more fixations that are longer in duration, shorter saccades, and more regressions, thus reading more slowly (Blythe & Joseph, 2011). Recent attempts to understand the reasons for these differences have discovered some similarities (e.g., children and adults target their saccades similarly; Joseph, Liversedge, Blythe, White, & Rayner, 2009) and some differences (e.g., children’s fixation durations are more affected by lexical variables; Blythe, Liversedge, Joseph, White, & Rayner, 2009) that have yet to be explained. In this article, the E-Z Reader model of eye-movement control in reading (Reichle, 2011 and Reichle et al., 1998) is used to simulate various eye-movement phenomena in adults vs. children in order to evaluate hypotheses about the concurrent development of reading skill and eye-movement behavior. These simulations suggest that the primary difference between children and adults is their rate of lexical processing, and that different rates of (post-lexical) language processing may also contribute to some phenomena (e.g., children’s slower detection of semantic anomalies; Joseph et al., 2008). The theoretical implications of this hypothesis are discussed, including possible alternative accounts of these developmental changes, how reading skill and eye movements change across the entire lifespan (e.g., college-aged vs. older readers), and individual differences in reading ability.     

Length,frequency, and predictability effects of words on eye movements in reading

We tested the effects of word length, frequency, and predictability on inspection durations (first fixation, single fixation, gaze duration, and reading time) and inspection probabilities during first‐pass reading (skipped, once, twice) for a corpus of 144 German sentences (1138 words) and a subset of 144 target words uncorrelated in length and frequency, read by 33 young and 32 older adults. For corpus words, length and frequency were reliably related to inspection durations and probabilities, predictability only to inspection probabilities. For first‐pass reading of target words all three effects were reliable for inspection durations and probabilities. Low predictability was strongly related to second‐pass reading. Older adults read slower than young adults and had a higher frequency of regressive movements. The data are to serve as a benchmark for computational models of eye movement control in reading.     

字词视觉空间特征在中文阅读眼动控制中的作用

研究采用4（呈现方式：小－小、小－大、大－小、大－大）×2（文本内容：句子、“※”串）的被试内设计,考察了文本字符呈现大小对读者眼跳选择目标和注视持续时间的影响。结果发现：（1）读者在浏览不同呈现方式的“※”串时的眼动模式基本上与阅读相应呈现方式的句子类似;（2）句子完全是由双字词构成,词内的首字和尾字大小不等（‘小－大”和“大－小”呈现条件）严重影响阅读效率;（3）读者在阅读句子时的注视时间高于浏览“※”串时的注视时间。结果说明,视觉呈现方式和词汇加工均影响读者的眼动模式。