Using E-Z reader to model the effects of higher level language processing on eye movements during reading

Although computational models of eye-movement control during reading have been used to explain how saccadic programming, visual constraints, attention allocation, and lexical processing jointly affect eye movements during reading, these models have largely ignored the issue of how higher level, postlexical language processing affects eye movements. The present article shows how one of these models, E-Z Reader (Pollatsek, Reichle, & Rayner, 2006c), can be augmented to redress this limitation. Simulations show that with a few simple assumptions, the model can account for the fact that effects of higher level language processing are not observed on eye movements when such processing is occurring without difficulty, but can capture the patterns of eye movements that are observed when such processing is slowed or disrupted.     

E-Z阅读者模型的新进展

该文介绍了以序列加工假设为基础的眼动控制模型——E-Z阅读者模型的基本内容和最新进展(模型6-9)。新的E-Z阅读者模型可以有效解释阅读过程中认知加工的眼动控制机制。随着研究的深入,E-Z阅读者模型的结构不断发展完善,而且还促进了许多新的眼动研究。     

Extending the e-z reader model of eye movement control to chinese readers

Chinese readers' eye movements were simulated in the context of the E-Z Reader model, which was developed to account for the eye movements of readers of English. Despite obvious differences between English and Chinese, the model did a fairly good job of simulating the eye movements of Chinese readers. The successful simulation suggests that the control of eye movements in reading Chinese is similar to that in an alphabetic language such as English.     

Reading Text Under Normal and Disappearing Presentation Conditions

InthispaperIwillsummariseaseriesofex鄄perimentsinwhichwe[1,2]investigatedwhetheritwaspossibletoinducea"gapeffect"duringreadingandtoexaminehowwellpeoplecanreadwhenthetextliterallydisappearsfrominfrontoftheireyes.Tocarryouttheworkwerecordedreaders'eyemovementsandemployedanovelsac鄄cadecontingentchangetechniqueinwhichwemadethewordthatthereaderwasfixatingdisap鄄pear60msafterfixationonset.Inadditiontoin鄄vestigatingwhetheragapeffectmightoccurduringreading,thisworkalsoinvestigatedwhethertheprimaryde…     

The E-Z reader model of eye-movement control in reading: comparisons to other models

The E-Z Reader model (Reichle et al. 1998; 1999) provides a theoretical framework for understanding how word identification, visual processing, attention, and oculomotor control jointly determine when and where the eyes move during reading. In this article, we first review what is known about eye movements during reading. Then we provide an updated version of the model (E-Z Reader 7) and describe how it accounts for basic findings about eye movement control in reading. We then review several alternative models of eye movement control in reading, discussing both their core assumptions and their theoretical scope. On the basis of this discussion, we conclude that E-Z Reader provides the most comprehensive account of eye movement control during reading. Finally, we provide a brief overview of what is known about the neural systems that support the various components of reading, and suggest how the cognitive constructs of our model might map onto this neural architecture.     

An analysis of reading skill development using E-Z Reader

Previously reported simulations using the E-Z Reader model of eye-movement control suggest that the patterns of eye movements observed with children versus adult readers reflect differences in lexical processing proficiency. However, these simulations fail to specify precisely what aspect(s) of lexical processing (e.g., orthographic processing) account for the concurrent changes in eye movements and reading skill. To examine this issue, the E-Z Reader model was first used to simulate the aggregate eye-movement data from 15 adults and 75 children to replicate the finding that gross differences in reading skill can be accounted for by differences in lexical processing proficiency. The model was then used to simulate the eye-movement data of individual children so that the best-fitting lexical processing parameters could be correlated to measures of orthographic knowledge, phonological processing skill, sentence comprehension, and general intelligence. These analyses suggest that orthographic knowledge accounts for variance in the eye-movement measures that is observed with between-individual differences in reading skill. The theoretical implications of this conclusion will be discussed in relation to computational models of reading and our understanding of reading skill development.     

Word frequency and predictability effects in reading French: An evaluation of the E-Z Reader model

French readers' eye movements were monitored as they read a passage of text. Initial global analyses of word frequency, accounting for the majority of fixations in the text, revealed a good fit between the observed data and the simulated data from the E-Z Reader 7 model of eye movement control. However, the model did not perform as well on simulations of contextual predictability effects. A subset of 20 controlled words from the passage were used to examine the combined effects of frequency and predictability. Results from the observed data showed main effects of frequency and predictability but no interaction. With certain modifications, the E-Z Reader 7 model was able to adequately simulate the pattern of data. Although the E-Z Reader model successfully accounted for the present data, we believe that further modifications will be necessary in order to better account for data in the literature.     

Serial processing is consistent with the time course of linguistic information extraction from consecutive words during eye fixations in reading: a response to Inhoff, Eiter, and Radach (2005)

A. W. Inhoff, B. M. Eiter, and R. Radach reported the results of 2 experiments that they claimed were problematic for serial attention models of eye movements in reading (such as the E-Z Reader model). In this reply, the authors demonstrate via argumentation and simulations that their data pose no serious problem for the E-Z Reader model or serial attention models in general.     

Investigating the causes of wrap-up effects: Evidence from eye movements and E-Z Reader

Wrap-up effects in reading have traditionally been thought to reflect increased processing associated with intra- and inter-clause integration (Just, M. A. & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). A theory of reading: From eye fixations to comprehension. Psychological Review,87(4), 329-354; Rayner, K., Kambe, G., & Duffy, S. A. (2000). The effect of clause wrap-up on eye movements during reading. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,53A(4), 1061-1080; cf. Hirotani, M., Frazier, L., & Rayner, K. (2006). Punctuation and intonation effects on clause and sentence wrap-up: Evidence from eye movements. Journal of Memory and Language,54, 425-443). We report an eye-tracking experiment with a strong manipulation of integrative complexity at a critical word that was either sentence-final, ended a comma-marked clause, or was not comma-marked. Although both complexity and punctuation had reliable effects, they did not interact in any eye-movement measure. These results as well as simulations using the E-Z Reader model of eye-movement control (Reichle, E. D., Warren, T., & McConnell, K. (2009). Using E-Z Reader to model the effects of higher-level language processing on eye movements during reading. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,16(1), 1-20) suggest that traditional accounts of clause wrap-up are incomplete.     

Examining the word identification stages hypothesized by the E-Z Reader model

A critical prediction of the E-Z Reader model is that experimental manipulations that disrupt early encoding of visual and orthographic features of the fixated word without affecting subsequent lexical processing should influence the processing difficulty of the fixated word without affecting the processing of the next word. We tested this prediction by monitoring participants' eye movements while they read sentences in which a target word was presented either normally or altered. In the critical condition, the contrast between the target word and the background was substantially reduced. Such a reduction in stimulus quality is typically assumed to have an impact that is largely confined to a very early stage of word recognition. Results were consistent with the E-Z Reader model: This faint presentation had a robust influence on the duration of fixations on the target word without substantially altering the processing of the next word.     

Eye movements in reading versus nonreading tasks: Using E-Z Reader to understand the role of word/stimulus familiarity

In this article, we extend our previous work (Reichle, Pollatsek, & Rayner, 2012) using the principles of the E-Z Reader model to examine the factors that determine when and where the eyes move in both reading and non-reading tasks, and in particular the role that word/stimulus familiarity plays in determining when the eyes move from one word/stimulus to the next. In doing this, we first provide a brief overview of E-Z Reader, including its assumption that word familiarity is the "engine" driving eye movements during reading. We then review the theoretical considerations that motivated this assumption, as well as recent empirical evidence supporting its validity. We also report the results of three new simulations that were intended to demonstrate the utility of the familiarity check in three tasks: (1) reading; (2) searching for a target word in embedded in text; and (3) searching for the letter O in linear arrays of Landolt Cs. The results of these simulations suggest that the familiarity check always improves task efficiency by speeding its rate of performance. We provide several arguments as to why this conclusion is not likely to be true for the two non-reading tasks, and in the final section of the paper, we provide a fourth simulation to test the hypothesis that problems associated with the mis-identification of words may also curtail the too liberal use of word familiarity.     

中文阅读中快速读者与慢速读者的词频效应

在熟练的中文阅读中,个体阅读效率越高,词汇加工效率是否越高,目前还缺少直接证据。本研究通过记录快速读者与慢速读者在阅读含有高频或低频目标词句子时的眼动轨迹来考察该问题。结果发现,在第一遍注视时间、回视路径时间和总注视时间上,快速读者对高频词与低频词的注视时间无显著差异,但都短于慢速读者;而慢速读者对低频词的注视时间显著长于高频词。即快速读者的早期词汇识别和后期词汇整合效率都较高,不受词频影响;而慢速读者的整个词汇加工效率较低,受词频影响较大。这些结果表明两组读者的词汇加工模式具有本质差异,符合个体差异性观点与词汇质量假说。     

A dual-route perspective on eye movements of dyslexic readers

This study assessed eye movement abnormalities of adolescent dyslexic readers and interpreted the findings by linking the dual-route model of single word reading with the E-Z Reader model of eye movement control during silent sentence reading. A dysfunction of the lexical route was assumed to account for a reduced number of words which received only a single fixation or which were skipped and for the increased number of words with multiple fixations and a marked effect of word length on gaze duration. This pattern was interpreted as a frequent failure of orthographic whole-word recognition (based on orthographic lexicon entries) and on reliance on serial sublexical processing instead. Inefficiency of the lexical route was inferred from prolonged gaze durations for singly fixated words. These findings were related to the E-Z Reader model of eye movement control. Slow activation of word phonology accounted for the low skipping rate of dyslexic readers. Frequent reliance on sublexical decoding was inferred from a tendency to fixate word beginnings and from short forward saccades. Overall, the linkage of the dual-route model of single word reading and a model of eye movement control led to a useful framework for understanding eye movement abnormalities of dyslexic readers.     

阅读过程眼动控制理论模型:E-Z Reader

简要介绍了一个新近出现的阅读过程中的眼动控制理论模型——E-Z Reader模型,并对该模型的特点进行了深入讨论。文中还涉及了其它几个相关的理论模型．如Morrison(1984)模型和Mr．Chips：理想观察者模型等。最后就E-Z Reader在中文阅读过程认知研究领域中的应用前景进行了讨论。     

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。     

先前语境与随后副中央凹预视在词跳读中的相对作用

词跳读促使了阅读高效地进行。被跳读的词主要根据前文语境和副中央凹预视提前得到加工。分析跳读的影响因素可知,相比于语境因素（特别是预测性）和副中央凹词汇因素（如词频）,副中央凹词的视觉词长信息对跳读的影响最大。跳读密切联系当前眼动控制的两大内容,理想的阅读眼动控制模型需区别语境不同信息（即预测性、语义合理性和句法合理性）对跳读的作用。未来可扩展中文跳读的研究,解决中文跳读单元问题及相关争论。     

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.     

中文阅读中副中央凹预加工的范围与程度

在阅读中, 读者既能加工当前注视的中央凹视觉区的信息, 也能从副中央凹视觉区提取信息并利用该信息预先加工下文词汇, 称为预加工或预视。它是熟练阅读的一个关键环节。对副中央凹信息的预加工涉及预视的空间范围和预视程度(即预视量和预视类型)。在拼音文字阅读的研究中, 关于预视范围与预视程度如何受中央凹加工负荷和副中央凹预加工负荷的调节存在争议, 一个主要的原因是拼音文字词长变异大, 在考察预视程度时难以克服预视范围的干扰。而中文词长变化小, 能有效分离预视范围与预视程度。利用中文优势, 采用眼动技术来考察:(1)副中央凹预加工负荷如何影响预视范围, (2)中央凹加工负荷如何影响预视范围与预视程度, (3)阅读能力与阅读效率如何调节预视范围与预视程度, 结果将有助于解决副中央凹预视研究中的理论争论, 为预测阅读能力与衡量阅读效率提供更多有效的眼动行为指标。     

The effect of word frequency, word predictability, and font difficulty on the eye movements of young and older readers

Young adult and older readers' eye movements were recorded as they read sentences containing target words that varied in frequency or predictability. In addition, half of the sentences were printed in a font that was easy to read (Times New Roman) and the other half were printed in a font that was more difficult to read (Old English). Word frequency, word predictability, and font difficulty effects were apparent in the eye movement data of both groups of readers. In the fixation time data, the pattern of results was the same, but the older readers had larger frequency and predictability effects than the younger readers. The older readers skipped words more often than the younger readers (as indicated by their skipping rate on selected target words), but they made more regressions back to the target words and more regressions overall. The E-Z Reader model was used as a platform to evaluate the results, and simulations using the model suggest that lexical processing is slowed in older readers and that, possibly as a result of this, they adopt a more risky reading strategy.     

EVENT-RELATED BRAIN POTENTIALS, EYE MOVEMENTS, AND READING

Abstract— This article compares studies that use event-related brain potential (ERP) and eye movement data to examine changes in reading behavior when a text is read twice. Although the types of information provided by these methodologies are different, both indicate that rereading a text facilitates many aspects of processing. ERPs provide a method for measuring comprehension and memory processes separately, while eye movements provide a continuous record of performance and allow changes in reading behavior to be localized to specific words. The results from these studies are compatible. However, converging evidence is not always found when different paradigms are contrasted, and diverging results can provide important information. To facilitate comparison across experiments, we suggest using a common set of materials for both paradigms. We conclude that comparing the results of research based on more than one paradigm provides a more complete understanding of the processes involved in reading.