Aging and the use of interword spaces during reading: Evidence from eye movements

In an eye movement experiment, we assessed the performance of young (18–30 years) and older (65 + years) adult readers when sentences contained conventional interword spaces, when interword spaces were removed, or when interword spaces were replaced by nonlinguistic symbols. The replacement symbol was either a closed square (■) that provided a salient (low-spatial-frequency) cue to word boundaries, or an open square (□) that provided a less salient cue and included features (vertical and horizontal lines) similar to those found in letters. Removing or replacing interword spaces slowed reading times and impaired normal eye movement behavior for both age groups. However, this disruption was greater for the older readers, particularly when the replacement symbol did not provide a salient cue as to word boundaries. Specific influences of this manipulation on word identification during reading were assessed by examining eye movements for a high- or low-frequency target word in each sentence. Standard word frequency effects were obtained for both age groups when text was spaced normally, and although the word frequency effect was larger when spaces were removed or filled, the increases were similar across age groups. Therefore, whereas older adults’ normal eye movements were substantially disrupted when text lacked conventional interword spaces, the process of lexical access associated with the word frequency effect was no more difficult for older than for young adults. The indication, therefore, is that although older adults struggle from the loss of conventional cues to word boundaries, this is not due to additional difficulties in word recognition.     

汉字间空格大小对青年人和老年人阅读的影响：眼动研究

拼音文字阅读的眼动研究发现,老年人会采取一种“风险”阅读策略来弥补因视力和认知的自然老化所造成的阅读困难。本研究通过控制字间空格的大小对青年人和老年人汉语阅读过程的眼动模式进行了比较,结果发现,相比青年人,老年人读得更慢,有更长的注视时间和更多的回视,这些研究结果与拼音文字一致;但更为重要的发现是,相比青年人,老年人有更短的向前眼跳距离,缩小汉语字间空格给老年人阅读造成了更为显著的困难,但扩大字间空格两组被试表现出相似的阅读眼动模式。结果说明,汉语阅读中老年人并不使用拼音文字研究中发现的“风险”阅读策略,反而采用了更为谨慎的策略,原因可能在于,作为拼音文字阅读中的重要视觉线索,空格是影响两种语言下老年人阅读加工策略不同的重要因素。     

Interword spacing in Chinese text layout

Three experiments using Chinese text were conducted to investigate word spacing and its effect on reading performance. In Exp. 1, a sonogram detector was used to analyze interword and intercharacter (within a word) time intervals from text read aloud by professional TV broadcasters versus college graduates. The results showed interword intervals were significantly longer than intercharacter intervals, indicating that interword spacing has psychological reality in speech. Exp. 2 examined the effect on reading performance due to separating the characters that compose a word. Separating the characters of a word did not decrease reading accuracy but did result in significantly longer reading times. Exp. 3 explored the effect of word spacing in Chinese sentences on reading performance. Analysis showed that word spacing did not affect reading accuracy, but half character and whole-character spacing significantly reduced reading time. The results of the present study suggest that word spacing in Chinese text layout enhances reading performance. Word spacing may help the reader to segment more quickly a string of characters into words and reduce the likelihood of misinterpretation. Also, ambiguity of sentence structure severely degraded reading accuracy. The implications of the results for word spacing design in Chinese text are discussed.     

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.     

Effects of intraword and interword spacing on eye movements during reading: Exploring the optimal use of space in a line of text

Two eye movement experiments investigated intraword spacing (the space between letters within words) and interword spacing (the space between words) to explore the influence these variables have on eye movement control during reading. Both variables are important factors in determining the optimal use of space in a line of text, and fonts differ widely in how they employ these spaces. Prior research suggests that the proximity of flanking letters influences the identification of a central letter via lateral inhibition or crowding. If so, decrements in intraword spacing may produce inhibition in word processing. Still other research suggests that increases in intraword spacing can disrupt the integrity of word units. In English, interword spacing has a large influence on word segmentation and is important for saccade target selection. The results indicate an interplay between intra- and interword spacing that influences a font’s readability. Additionally, these studies highlight the importance of word segmentation processes and have implications for the nature of lexical processing (serial vs. parallel).     

中文阅读中词汇加工的年老化:眼动证据

本研究探讨年老化影响中文阅读中词汇加工过程的特点,包含两项实验。实验一探讨老年与青年读者在词频效应上的差异,实验二探讨老年与青年读者在语境预测性效应上的差异。结果发现：（1）相对于青年读者,老年读者注视目标词汇的时间较长、再注视回视较多、跳读较少;（2）在首次注视时间、凝视时间和眼跳参数上,年龄组别与词频之间交互作用不显著,但对目标词汇的总注视时间上,年龄组别与词频之间交互作用显著;（3）在所有注视时间指标和回视概率上,均发现年龄组别与语境预测性影响之间交互作用显著。结论：中文老年读者阅读时的词汇加工效率低于青年人;中文阅读中眼跳策略与词汇加工的年老化模式有语言特殊性特点。     

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。     

Does interword spacing influence lexical processing in Chinese reading?

This study investigated how inserting spaces between Chinese words affected word recognition in Chinese reading. Eye movements of Chinese readers were recorded in a sentence reading task where high- and low-frequency target words were presented in both the spaced and normally unspaced texts. We found that fixation durations on target words were shorter in the high- than low-frequency conditions, and shorter in the spaced than unspaced conditions. The survival analysis revealed that interword spacing advanced the temporal onset of word frequency effects relative to the normally unspaced condition. However, inconsistent with the findings in English reading, there was no interaction between word frequency and interword spacing on all fixation duration measures, and the Bayes factor analyses also favoured the hypothesis of null interaction. These data suggest that interword spacing facilitates visual rather than lexical processing in Chinese reading, and thus improves our understanding on the roles of interword spacing across different writing systems.     

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.     

中文阅读中词汇视觉编码的年龄特征：来自眼动研究的证据

研究以小学三年级、小学五年级、大学生和老年读者为对象,采用消失文本范式,通过操作注视词消失的延迟时间,考察了不同年龄阶段读者对注视词进行视觉编码的过程.结果发现:(1)注视词延迟消失严重影响小学三年级和老年人的总阅读时间,但对小学五年级和大学生读者总阅读时间的影响不显著;(2)注视词消失不影响小学五年级、大学生和老年读者基于词的平均凝视时间,但影响小学三年级读者的平均凝视时间;(3)所有消失条件都不影响大学生被试的基于词的回视次数,但严重影响小学三年级、小学五年级和老年读者的回视次数.这些结果表明,中文阅读过程中,对注视词的视觉编码能力在小学五年级阶段已趋于成熟,但进入老年阶段出现老化;视觉编码的保持在儿童词汇识别的中后期加工阶段中仍起到一定作用.     

老年人汉语阅读中预测误差成本的产生机制

阅读的认知加工机制随年龄变老只发生了量变还是也产生了质变,是毕生发展研究领域的重要问题。要进行有效的语言处理,读者必须结合已有的经验知识和当前语境对即将出现的信息进行预测加工。因此,要解决上述问题就要回答老年人阅读中预测加工机制发生了怎样变化,即预测误差成本是如何产生的。研究拟采用眼动脑电同步记录技术,在自然阅读过程中实时获取语言处理的行为和神经指标,聚焦老年人预测误差成本的产生机制,主要从副中央凹视觉、工作记忆负荷及语言能力三方面解释预测误差成本产生的原因。研究成果对构建汉语阅读的毕生发展模型有重要意义。     

Age differences in rereading

Younger and older adults read a series of expository and narrative passages twice in order to answer comprehension questions. Reading time was used to index attentional allocation to word, textbase, and situation model processing and to assess shifts in the allocation policy from the first to the second reading. Older readers' comprehension was at least as good as that of younger readers. Analysis of reading times suggested that for both genres, older adults allocated more attention to situation model features than younger adults did on the first reading, whereas young and old allocated attention similarly to this level of representation on the second reading, suggesting that mature readers may give greater priority to situation model construction when first encountering text. Also, for both genres, older adults showed relatively less facilitation than the young in word-level processing in rereading, suggesting that representation at this level is not as firmly established during reading or decays more quickly for older readers. For narrative texts only, this pattern also obtained for textbase processing. Collectively, these data show that age equivalence in text comprehension at the molar level may be accomplished through different processing routes at the molecular level.     

Presentation modality effect on false memories in younger and older adults: the use of an inference paradigm

Classically, false memories are studied using the DRM paradigm (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995), involving use of words lists. The words of each list are linked to a critical word not presented. Participants create a false memory in recognising and/or recalling this critical word. In most cases older adults have more false memories than younger adults in this paradigm. To use less strategy-dependent material, we compared predictive inferences activated during text reading in young and healthy older participants. For example, in the sentence "The fragile porcelain vase was thrown against the wall" the predictive inference was that the vase is broken. After reading or hearing the texts, the participants had false memories in recalling and/or recognising the predictive inferences. Older adults had more false recognitions than younger adults when they read or heard the text. However, the difference did not reach significance with the cued recalled task. It is concluded that, in more ecological situations such as text reading, abilities in older adults can be preserved.     

Integrating information across eye fixations in reading: the role of letter and word units

Eye movements and eye fixations were recorded to study the integration of letter/word information across interword fixations in reading. Two hypotheses were examined. One hypothesis posits that readers obtain effective information from the beginning two or three letters of a parafoveal word. This information facilitates the recognition of the word when it is being fixated. The alternative posits that effective information is obtained from the complete parafoveal word. The results of the present study showed faster reading rates when parafoveal previews comprised complete words than when they comprised beginning letters alone. Furthermore, the usability of parafoveally available partial word information from beginning and ending letters was not affected by small variations in retinal eccentricity. Both findings were taken as evidence that readers gain useful information from all letters of the parafoveally available word and that whole word information, rather than specific letter information, is integrated across interword fixations in reading.     

Reading units that include interword spaces: Filling spaces around a letter can facilitate letter detection

College students searched for the letter "a" in prose passages typed normally, with an asterisk (Experiments 1 and 2) or the letter "x" (Experiment 3) replacing every interword space, or with asterisks replacing only some of the interword spaces (Experiment 2). Contrary to predictions based on masking through lateral interference but consistent with predictions based on studies of eye movement monitoring and unitization, asterisks or instances of the letter "x" surrounding the word "a" actually made the letter "a" easier to detect in that word, but generally not in other words in the text. It is concluded that for very common words, reading units may extend beyond the word boundary to include the surrounding interword spaces.     

空格在文本阅读中的作用

本文总结空格在文本阅读中作用的相关研究, 主要包括以下内容: (1)删除或替代有空格文本中的空格, 对阅读产生的干扰作用; (2)在无空格的文本中插入空格, 对阅读产生一定的促进作用, 空格在汉语阅读中的作用受被试阅读经验、阅读方式和空格大小等因素影响; (3)被试母语和第二语言呈现方式的一致性会影响空格在第二语言阅读中的作用; (4)今后应结合眼动控制理论, 从注视点落点位置和熟悉性等方面开展研究。     

汉语老年读者的多词单元加工：来自眼动研究的证据

选取由两个双字词组成的多词组合（单词组合、模糊词组合、双词组合）,比较老年人和青年人对多词单元的加工情况。结果发现,相比于其他两类组合,所有被试在单词组合上的注视时间更短,第一遍注视次数更少,成分词上的注视时间更短,跳读率更高,表现出多词单元的加工优势,而且这一加工优势不存在显著的年龄差异。结果表明,汉语老年读者同样将多词单元作为整体进行加工。     

词间空格促进从右向左呈现汉语文本的阅读

摘要：为探讨在无阅读经验时,词切分线索是否促进读者的阅读与词汇识别,本研究操纵了阅读方向、词切分线索与目标词的词频。采用眼动仪记录读者的阅读过程。结果发现：阅读方向与词切分线索的交互作用显著,词切分显著地促进了从右向左呈现文本的阅读,但并不影响阅读从左向右呈现的文本;词切分条件下目标词的注视时间显著地短于无词切分条件。表明词切分线索促进了无阅读经验时的阅读,支持词切分线索的促进与文本不熟悉干扰之间权衡作用的假设。