Word frequency in fast priming: Evidence for immediate cognitive control of eye movements during reading |
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| Authors: | Daniel J. Schad Sarah Risse Timothy Slattery Keith Rayner |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany;2. Charité, University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germanydanieljschad@gmail.com;4. Department of Psychology, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA;5. Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA |
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| Abstract: | 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. |
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| Keywords: | Eye movements Reading Fast-priming Word frequency Distributional analyses |
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