跳读是基于副中央凹词的部分加工还是完全加工？

为探讨词跳读是基于副中央凹词的部分加工还是完全加工,实验选用高预测词作为副中央凹目标词,通过边界范式来操纵目标词的预视：高预测预视（一致预视）、低预测预视、与目标词正字法相似的假字预视、与目标词正字法不相似的假字预视。对目标词的分析发现：（1）正字法相似的假字预视下对目标词的跳读率显著大于正字法不相似的假字预视;（2）高预测预视与低预测预视下对目标词的跳读没有显著差异,但前者总注视时间比后者短。实验结果说明,从副中央凹词提取的正字法预视信息足够使中文读者做出跳读的决定,研究结果在一定程度上支持跳读基于副中央凹词部分加工的观点。     

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。     

Word skipping during sentence reading: effects of lexicality on parafoveal processing

Two experiments examined how lexical status affects the targeting of saccades during reading by using the boundary technique to vary independently the content of a letter string when seen in parafoveal preview and when directly fixated. Experiment 1 measured the skipping rate for a target word embedded in a sentence under three parafoveal preview conditions: full preview (e.g., brain–brain), pseudohomophone preview (e.g., brane–brain), and orthographic nonword control preview (e.g., brant–brain); in the first condition, the preview string was always an English word, while in the second and third conditions, it was always a nonword. Experiment 2 investigated three conditions where the preview string was always a word: full preview (e.g., beach–beach), homophone preview (e.g., beech–beach), and orthographic control preview (e.g., bench–beach). None of the letter string manipulations used to create the preview conditions in the experiments disrupted sublexical orthographic or phonological patterns. In Experiment 1, higher skipping rates were observed for the full (lexical) preview condition, which consisted of a word, than for the nonword preview conditions (pseudohomophone and orthographic control). In contrast, Experiment 2 showed no difference in skipping rates across the three types of lexical preview conditions (full, homophone, and orthographic control), although preview type did influence reading times. This pattern indicates that skipping not only depends on the presence of disrupted sublexical patterns of orthography or phonology, but also is critically dependent on processes that are sensitive to the lexical status of letter strings in the parafovea.     

Skipping of Chinese characters does not rely on word-based processing

Previous eye-movement studies have indicated that people tend to skip extremely high-frequency words in sentence reading, such as “the” in English and “的/de” in Chinese. Two alternative hypotheses have been proposed to explain how this frequent skipping happens in Chinese reading: one assumes that skipping happens when the preview has been fully identified at the word level (word-based skipping); the other assumes that skipping happens whenever the preview character is easy to identify regardless of whether lexical processing has been completed or not (character-based skipping). Using the gaze-contingent display change paradigm, we examined the two hypotheses by substituting the preview of the third character of a four-character Chinese word with the high-frequency Chinese character “的/de”, which should disrupt the ongoing word-level processing. The character-based skipping hypothesis predicts that this manipulation will enhance the skipping probability of the target character (i.e., the third character of the target word), because the character “的/de” has much higher character frequency than the original character. The word-based skipping hypothesis instead predicts a reduction of the skipping probability of the target character because the presence of the character “的/de” is lexically infelicitous at word level. The results supported the character-based skipping hypothesis, indicating that in Chinese reading the decision of skipping a character can be made before integrating it into a word.

     

Eye movements and the modulation of parafoveal processing by foveal processing difficulty: A reexamination

Henderson and Ferreira (1990) found that foveal load (manipulated via word frequency) modulates parafoveal processing, thereby affecting the amount of preview benefit obtained from the word to the right of fixation. The present experiment used the eye-contingent boundary paradigm and, consistent with Henderson and Ferreira, showed that foveal load modulated preview benefit for participants who were not aware of the display changes during reading. Also, for these participants, foveal load modulated preview benefit regardless of fixation durations on the foveal word. For participants who were aware of the display change, preview benefits occurred regardless of foveal processing difficulty. These results have important implications for understanding the way in which foveal load influences parafoveal processing during reading.     

The influence of parafoveal typographical errors on eye movements in reading

Three experiments are reported, examining the effects of a typographical error in parafoveal vision on aspects of foveal inspection time and saccade targeting. All the experiments involved reading for comprehension. A contingent presentation procedure ensured that typographical errors were restored to their correct form before they were viewed in foveal vision: They were never available for foveal processing. In Experiment 1, the error was formed by replacing the first letter of the target word with a second occurrence of its second letter, producing an illegal nonword. This manipulation had no significant effect on foveal inspection time, but lowered the probability that a short word (“de” or “du”) prior to the target would be skipped. In Experiment 2 the familiarity of the target's initial letters was maintained constant across conditions. This manipulation removed the target 1 skipping effect, suggesting that the outcome of Experiment 1 was due to orthographic rather than lexical illegality, but revealed shorter foveal inspection times as a function of the presence of the error. Experiment 3 manipulated lexical and sublexical properties of the parafoveal typing error. Properties of the parafoveal error again influenced prior foveal inspection times. The pattern of results suggested that the determining properties were sublexical rather than lexical. The results as a whole are incompatible with a view of information processing in reading in which foveal processing remains immune from concurrent parafoveal influences.     

Semantic codes are not used in integrating information across eye fixations in reading: Evidence from fluent Spanish-English bilinguals

The question of whether meaning can be extracted from unidentified parafoveal words was examined using fluent Spanish-English bilinguals. In Experiment 1, subjects fixated on a central cross, and a preview word was presented to the right of fixation in parafoveal vision. During the saccade to the parafoveal preview word, the preview was replaced by the target word, which the subject was required to name. In Experiment 2, subjects read sentences containing the target word, and, as in the naming task, a preview word was replaced by the target word when the subject’s saccade crossed a boundary location. In both experiments, preview words were identical to the target word, translations, orthographic controls for the translations, or unrelated words in the opposite language. In both experiments, the preview benefit from the translation conditions was no greater than would be predicted by the orthographic similarity of the preview to the target. Hence, the data indicated that subjects obtained no useful semantic information from words seen parafoveally that enabled them to identify them more quickly on the subsequent fixation.     

Influences on and consequences of parafoveal preview in reading

During reading, information is extracted from upcoming words to the right of the currently fixated word, which facilitates recognition of those words when they are later fixated. According to the foveal load hypothesis (Henderson & Ferreira, 1990), this parafoveal preview benefit depends on how difficult the currently fixated word is to recognize. Furthermore, there is evidence that the influence of lexical variables (frequency and predictability) on word processing changes when no preview of that word is available. The present study reports two moving-window experiments in which the upcoming word to the right of fixation was either included in or excluded from the window. Through this manipulation, accurate parafoveal information was either available or not for each word in the paragraph. Two critical interactions between preview condition and lexical variables were observed. First, the word frequency at word N was found to be the primary influence on the amount of preview benefit obtained at word N+1, consistent with the foveal load hypothesis. Second, denial of preview eliminated the word predictability effect. These findings have implications for models of eye movement control in reading.     

Eye Movement Control During Reading: Foveal Load and Parafoveal Processing

We tested theories of eye movement control in reading by looking at parafoveal processing. According to attention-processing theories, attention shifts towards word n+1 only when processing of the fixated word n is finished, so that attended parafoveal processing does not start until the programming of the saccade programming to word n+1 is initiated (Henderson & Ferreira, 1990; Morrison, 1984), or even later when the processing of word n takes too long (Henderson & Ferreira, 1990). Parafoveal preview benefit should be constant whatever the foveal processing load (Morrison, 1984), or should decrease when processing word n outlasts an eye movement programming deadline (Henderson & Ferreira, 1990). By manipulating the frequency and length of the foveal word n and the visibility of the parafoveal word n+1 , we replicated the finding that the parafoveal preview benefit is smaller with a low-frequency word in foveal vision. Detailed analyses, however, showed that the eye movement programming deadline hypothesis could not account for this finding which was due not to cases where the low-frequency words n had received a long fixation, but to cases of a short fixations less than 240 msec. In addition, there was a spill-over effect of word n to word n+1 , and there was an element of parallel processing of both words. The results are more in line with parallel processing limited by the extent to which the parafoveal word processing on fixation n can be combined with the foveal word processing on fixation n+1 .     

阅读过程中的词跳读及其产生的认知机制

在阅读过程中,读者并不会注视每一个词,而是不断地跳过很多词。在英文阅读中至少有30%的词被跳读,在中文阅读中近50%的字词被跳读。那么被跳读的字词是否得到加工,何时得到加工,是当前阅读过程中眼动控制模型关心的基本问题：具体包括（1）词跳读是基于副中央凹处词汇的完全识别还是部分识别后发生;（2）中央凹加工负荷是否影响对下一个词的跳读;（3）副中央凹和中央凹加工效率与词跳读的关系是什么;（4）较低水平的视觉信息（如词长、复杂性）和较高水平的语言信息（如词频、预测性）如何交互作用决定一个词的跳读。文章对上述问题进行系统分析,最后结合中文阅读中书写系统的特点,对未来中文阅读中词跳读研究进行了展望。     

Adult age differences in the perceptual span during reading

Following up on research suggesting an age-related reduction in the rightward extent of the perceptual span during reading (Rayner, Castelhano, & Yang, 2009), we compared old and young adults in an N + 2-boundary paradigm in which a nonword preview of word N + 2 or word N + 2 itself is replaced by the target word once the eyes cross an invisible boundary located after word N. The intermediate word N + 1 was always three letters long. Gaze durations on word N + 2 were significantly shorter for identical than nonword N + 2 preview both for young and for old adults, with no significant difference in this preview benefit. Young adults, however, did modulate their gaze duration on word N more strongly than old adults in response to the difficulty of the parafoveal word N + 1. Taken together, the results suggest a dissociation of preview benefit and parafoveal-on-foveal effect. Results are discussed in terms of age-related decline in resilience towards distributed processing while simultaneously preserving the ability to integrate parafoveal information into foveal processing. As such, the present results relate to proposals of regulatory compensation strategies older adults use to secure an overall reading speed very similar to that of young adults.     

中文阅读中的预视效应与词切分*

通过眼动随动显示技术操作注视点右侧文字的掩蔽范围和掩蔽单元,考察中文阅读的预视效应和词切分现象。研究包括两项实验。实验一以词为单元掩蔽注视点右侧的文字,发现词 n 右侧文本掩蔽(条件1)、词n+1右侧文本掩蔽(条件2)和词n+1掩蔽(条件3)均显著影响总阅读时间。其中,条件2剥夺了词n+1以右文字的预视加工,同时提供了词n+1的右侧边界线索,结果导致总阅读时间增加,并减少基于单词的平均凝视时间和再注视概率。实验二采用与实验一相同的处理方式,以不提供词边界的双字为单元掩蔽注视点右侧文字,结果发现掩蔽条件对阅读的影响程度甚于实验一,条件2基于词的平均凝视时间显著高于控制条件。综合两个实验的结果可见,中文读者能够切分出注视点右侧的第一个词汇,并以词为单元识别词n和词n+1处的汉字,在注视词n的时间内可加工到词n+2处的文字。     

Vowel processing during silent reading: evidence from eye movements

Two eye movement experiments examined whether skilled readers include vowels in the early phonological representations used in word recognition during silent reading. Target words were presented in sentences preceded by parafoveal previews in which the vowel phoneme was concordant or discordant with the vowel phoneme in the target word. In Experiment 1, the orthographic vowel differed from the target in both the concordant and discordant preview conditions. In Experiment 2, the vowel letters in the preview were identical to those in the target word. The phonological vowel was ambiguous, however, and the final consonants of the previews biased the vowel phoneme either toward or away from the target's vowel phoneme. In both experiments, shorter reading times were observed for targets preceded by concordant previews than by discordant previews. Implications for models of word recognition are discussed.     

Reaction time reduction after parafoveal preview in a lexical decision task

Time and the accuracy of a lexical decision performed on a letter string (either a word or nonword), presented foveally after a parafoveal preview displayed at 5 degrees of eccentricity and 100 msec. duration were measured. Students of Padova University, 10 women and 7 men, ages 19 to 23 years were subjects. The hypothesis investigated was whether the facilitatory effect, a reduction in lexical decision time due to the parafoveal preview, was tied to global visual information acquired in the visual periphery during the preview presentation. In Exp. 1, eight subjects performed the task either with no preview (No Preview) or with a preview presented at 5 degrees eccentricity in two conditions, preview of the same foveal string (Preview-Letters) and preview of symbols ("x xx...") of the same length as the foveal string (Preview Symbols). In Exp. 2, 9 subjects performed the task with two preview conditions, No Preview and preview of the foveal string in uppercase letters at 5 degrees of eccentricity (Preview Uppercase). Analyses suggested the reduction in lexical decision time due to the Preview with respect to the No Preview condition is tied to global information extracted during parafoveal presentation. The reduction in lexical decision time depends on word texture, i.e., letters' identities and also word boundary, in addition to word length.     

Previewing the neighborhood: the role of orthographic neighbors as parafoveal previews in reading

In 2 experiments, a boundary technique was used with parafoveal previews that were identical to a target (e.g., sleet), a word orthographic neighbor (sweet), or an orthographically matched nonword (speet). In Experiment 1, low-frequency words in orthographic pairs were targets, and high-frequency words were previews. In Experiment 2, the roles were reversed. In Experiment 1, neighbor words provided as much preview benefit as identical words and greater benefit than nonwords, whereas in Experiment 2, neighbor words provided no greater preview benefit than nonwords. These results indicate that the frequency of a preview influences the extraction of letter information without setting up appreciable competition between previews and targets. This is consistent with a model of word recognition in which early stages largely depend on excitation of letter information, and competition between lexical candidates becomes important only in later stages.     

快速与慢速读者的中央凹加工对副中央凹预视的影响

在中文阅读中, 预视量是否存在个体差异及其是否受中央凹加工调节, 尚不清楚。本研究采用眼动技术和边界范式, 通过操纵前目标词的加工负荷(高、低)与目标词的预视(相同、假字)来考察快速与慢速读者的中央凹加工对副中央凹预视的影响。结果显示, 中央凹负荷主效应显著; 快速读者对低负荷词的首次和单次注视短于高负荷词, 而慢速读者对两种负荷词的首次和单次注视无差异, 表明快速读者能更快利用词汇特性加工中央凹词汇。预视主效应显著, 即与假字预视相比, 相同预视使两组读者都对目标词的注视更短、向前眼跳更长、跳读率更高; 而且该效应与中央凹负荷没有交互作用。这表明快速读者与慢速读者提取了等量预视, 且不受其中央凹加工的调节。E-Z读者模型和SWIFT模型不能完全解释当前结果。     

Early morphological effects in reading: Evidence from parafoveal preview benefit in Hebrew

Hebrew words are composed of two interwoven morphemes: a triconsonantal root and a word pattern. We examined the role of the root morpheme in word identification by assessing the benefit of presentation of a parafoveal preview word derived from the same root as a target word. Although the letter information of the preview was not consciously perceived, a preview of a word derived from the same root morpheme as the foveal target word facilitated eye-movement measures of first-pass reading (i.e.,first fixation and gaze duration). These results are the first to demonstrate early morphological effects in the context of sentence reading in which no external task is imposed on the reader, and converge with previous findings of morphemic priming in Hebrew using the masked priming paradigm, and morphemic parafoveal preview benefit effects in a single-word identification task.     

The influence of parafoveal word length and contextual constraint on fixation durations and word skipping in reading

The present study examined the relationship between the predictability of words within a sentence and the availability of parafoveal word length information, on when and where the eyes move in reading. Predictability influenced first-pass reading times when parafoveal word length preview information was correct, but not when it was incorrect. Similarly, for saccades launched from near the target word (wordn), predictability influenced the probability with which it was skipped only when the word length preview was correct. By contrast, for saccades launched farther away from wordn, predictability influenced word skipping regardless of the parafoveal word length preview. Taken together, the data suggest that parafoveal word length preview and predictability can act as a joint constraint on the decision of when and where to move the eyes.     

Evidence for delayed parafoveal-on-foveal effects from word n+2 in reading

During reading information is acquired from word(s) beyond the word that is currently looked at. It is still an open question whether such parafoveal information can influence the current viewing of a word, and if so, whether such parafoveal-on-foveal effects are attributable to distributed processing or to mislocated fixations which occur when the eyes are directed at a parafoveal word but land on another word instead. In two display-change experiments, we orthogonally manipulated the preview and target difficulty of word n+2 to investigate the role of mislocated fixations on the previous word n+1. When the eyes left word n, an easy or difficult word n+2 preview was replaced by an easy or difficult n+2 target word. In Experiment 1, n+2 processing difficulty was manipulated by means of word frequency (i.e., easy high-frequency vs. difficult low-frequency word n+2). In Experiment 2, we varied the visual familiarity of word n+2 (i.e., easy lower-case vs. difficult alternating-case writing). Fixations on the short word n+1, which were likely to be mislocated, were nevertheless not influenced by the difficulty of the adjacent word n+2, the hypothesized target of the mislocated fixation. Instead word n+1 was influenced by the preview difficulty of word n+2, representing a delayed parafoveal-on-foveal effect. The results challenge the mislocated-fixation hypothesis as an explanation of parafoveal-on-foveal effects and provide new insight into the complex spatial and temporal effect structure of processing inside the perceptual span during reading.     

A theoretical analysis of the perceptual span based on SWIFT simulations of the n + 2 boundary paradigm

Eye-movement experiments suggest that the perceptual span during reading is larger than the fixated word, asymmetric around the fixation position, and shrinks in size contingent on the foveal processing load. We used the SWIFT model of eye-movement control during reading to test these hypotheses and their implications under the assumption of graded parallel processing of all words inside the perceptual span. Specifically, we simulated reading in the boundary paradigm and analysed the effects of denying the model to have valid preview of a parafoveal word n + 2 two words to the right of fixation. Optimizing the model parameters for the valid preview condition only, we obtained span parameters with remarkably realistic estimates conforming to the empirical findings on the size of the perceptual span. More importantly, the SWIFT model generated parafoveal processing up to word n + 2 without fitting the model to such preview effects. Our results suggest that asymmetry and dynamic modulation are plausible properties of the perceptual span in a parallel word-processing model such as SWIFT. Moreover, they seem to guide the flexible distribution of processing resources during reading between foveal and parafoveal words.