Eye movements and identifying words in parafoveal vision

Rayner, Keith; Morrison, Robert E.

doi:10.3758/bf03333690

Cited by 87 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…A slower RSVP rate was used here due to the first author’s impression that the rate used by Metusalem et al (2012) did not allow adequate time for reliable recognition of the laterally presented target words. This aligns with research showing that word recognition is slower for words presented peripheral to the point of fixation (Bouma, 1978; Rayner & Morrison, 1981; Schiepers, 1980). …”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 89%

Hemispheric asymmetry in event knowledge activation during incremental language comprehension: A visual half-field ERP study

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

During incremental language comprehension, the brain activates knowledge of described events, including knowledge elements that constitute semantic anomalies in their linguistic context. The present study investigates hemispheric asymmetries in this process, with the aim of advancing our understanding of the neural basis and functional properties of event knowledge activation during incremental comprehension. In a visual half-field event-related brain potential (ERP) experiment, participants read brief discourses in which the third sentence contained a word that was either highly expected, semantically anomalous but related to the described event, or semantically anomalous but unrelated to the described event. For both visual fields of target word presentation, semantically anomalous words elicited N400 ERP components of greater amplitude than did expected words. Crucially, event-related anomalous words elicited a reduced N400 relative to event-unrelated anomalous words only with left visual field/right hemisphere presentation. This result suggests that right hemisphere processes are critical to the activation of event knowledge elements that violate the linguistic context, and in doing so informs existing theories of hemispheric asymmetries in semantic processing during language comprehension. Additionally, this finding coincides with past research suggesting a crucial role for the right hemisphere in elaborative inference generation, raises interesting questions regarding hemispheric coordination in generating event-specific linguistic expectancies, and more generally highlights the possibility of functional dissociation between event knowledge activation for the generation of elaborative inferences and for linguistic expectancies.

show abstract

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 89%

Hemispheric asymmetry in event knowledge activation during incremental language comprehension: A visual half-field ERP study

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In our view, attentional theories of eye movement control in reading have seriously underestimated the time it takes to identify a parafoveal word, although Rayner himself pointed to the fact that word identification times increase 90 nms per degree of eccentricity (Rayner and Morrison, 1981; see also Schiepers, 1980). This value should be added to the 60 ms stimulus transfer time from the eyes to the brain and the 100 ms needed for saccade programming (McConkie, 1983), so that it is virtually impossible for a parafoveal word beginning at an eccentricity of three letter positions to det-ermine the size of the upcoming saccade, unless the fixation lasts considerably longer than 60 + 100 + 90 = 250 ms. What is possible, however, is that the system responsible for the programming of the next saccade at a certain point in time (i.e., before the programming of the saccade starts) estimates the likelihood that the parafoveal word will be recognized within the next 100 ms.…”

Section: Fleshing Out the Modelmentioning

confidence: 95%

Word skipping: Implications for theories of eye movement control in reading

Brysbaert¹,

Vitu²

2005

Cognitive Processes in Eye Guidance

191

223

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Eye movements in reading are characterized by short periods of steadiness (fixations) followed by fast movements (saccades). Saccades are needed to bring new inform-ation into the centre of the visual field where acuity is best; fixations are required to recognize words. Assuming that the central (foveal) word is identified during a fixation, it is tempting to forward the hypothesis that eye movements in reading essentially consist of word-to-word movements. Unfortunately, such a simple sequence of motion is rarely observed in empirical data. Some words are fixated more than once, some are initially not fixated but immediately afterwards regressed to, and some are not fixated at all. Ever since the first measurements of eye movements in reading, researchers have been puzzled by this complicated pattern of activity and have suggested various explanations for it. In this chapter, we will focus on one aspect, namely the fact that more than one third of the words are initially skipped during reading. First, we will discuss the explanations offered by different authors, then we will examine the empirical evidence more closely, and, finally, we will present an alternative account of word skipping.

show abstract

“…At the same time, there is evidence in the literature that processing of parafoveal words occurs at least up to a lexical level (Rayner & Pollatsek, 1989;Rayner & Balota, 1989;Rayner & Morisson, 1981). Both naming time and gaze duration (or total time the eyes spend on the word) are shorter when the word was visible in parafoveal vision before being ®xated than when it was masked.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of semantic context on initial eye landing sites in words

2000

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To determine the role of ongoing processing on eye guidance in reading, two studies examined the eects of semantic context on the eyesÕ initial landing position in words of dierent levels of processing diculty. Results from both studies clearly indicate a shift of the initial ®xation location towards the end of the words for words that can be predicted from a prior semantic context. However, shifts occur only in high-frequency words and with prior ®xations close to the beginning of the target word. These results suggest that ongoing perceptual and linguistic processes can aect the decision of where to send the eyes next in reading. They are explained in terms of the easiness of processing associated with the target words when located in parafoveal vision. It is concluded that two critical factors might help observing eects of linguistic variables on initial landing sites, namely, the frequency of the target word and the position where the eyes are launched from as regards to the beginning of the target word. Results also provide evidence for an early locus of semantic context eects in reading. Ó

show abstract

Eye movements and identifying words in parafoveal vision

Cited by 87 publications

References 12 publications

Hemispheric asymmetry in event knowledge activation during incremental language comprehension: A visual half-field ERP study

Hemispheric asymmetry in event knowledge activation during incremental language comprehension: A visual half-field ERP study

Word skipping: Implications for theories of eye movement control in reading

The influence of semantic context on initial eye landing sites in words

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About