Eye movements, the perceptual span, and reading speed

Rayner, Keith; Slattery, Timothy J.; Bélanger, Nathalie

doi:10.3758/pbr.17.6.834

Cited by 222 publications

(211 citation statements)

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“…We must bear in mind that the "default" interletter spacing has been set by the publishing companies with no previous (published) empirical work on its impact on reading speed (see McLeish 2007): it would be a quite a fortunate coincidence if the "default" interletter spacing value were the optimal. Determining the optimal values for the interletter spacing is a goal of researchers investigating visual-word recognition and reading (see Rayner et al 2010). We acknowledge that more research is needed to examine in greater detail the optimal interletter value using a large set of interletter spacing conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…; see Andrews, 2006, for review). However, little attention has been paid on the physical features (e.g., typography) that may influence the speed of the recognition of visually presented words (see Moret-Tatay & Perea in press;Rayner et al 2010;. Indeed, the featural-level analysis in the most influential models of visual-word recognition is still based on the uppercase letter font created by Rumelhart and Siple (1974), in which the letters are defined in a matrix [ , etc.…”

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The effects of interletter spacing in visual-word recognition

2011

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Despite the importance of determining the effects of interletter spacing on visual-word recognition, this issue has often been neglected in the literature. The goal of the present study is to shed some light on this topic. The rationale is that a thin increase in interletter spacing, as in c a s i n o, may reduce lateral interference among internal letters without destroying a word's integrity and/or allow a more precise encoding of a word's letter positions. Here we examined whether identification times for word stimuli in a lexical decision task were faster when the target word had a slightly wider than default interletter spacing value relative to the default settings (e.g., c a s i n o vs. casino). In Experiment 1, we examined whether interletter spacing interacted with word-frequency, whereas in Experiment 2, we examined whether interletter spacing interacted with word length. Results showed that responses to words using a thin increase in interletter spacing were faster than the responses to words using the default settings-regardless of word-frequency and word length. Thus, interletter spacing plays an important role at modulating the identification of visually presented words.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

The effects of interletter spacing in visual-word recognition

2011

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“…Word N and Word N+1 information is available and by over 30% when only Word N 17 information is available (Rayner, Slattery, & Bélanger, 2010; Rayner, Well, Pollatsek, & Bertera, 18 1982). was proposed by Morrison (1984; see also Just & Carpenter, 1980), and several modified 23 5 versions aimed at extending it were later introduced (e.g., Henderson & Ferreira, 1990; 1 Henderson, 1992;Kennison & Clifton, 1995;Pollatsek & Rayner, 1990; Rayner & Pollatsek, 2 1989;Reichle, Pollatsek, Fisher, & Rayner, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, for readers of English the encoding of useful 11 perceptual information is confined to the perceptual span, an asymmetric region of the text 12 around the fixation point, which is limited to about 3-4 letter spaces to the left and 14-15 letter 13 spaces to the right of fixation (McConkie & Rayner, 1975). Importantly, when the area of useful 14 orthographic information during a fixation is restricted to word N, word N+1 and word N+2, 15 reading rate is approximately normal, while reading rate decreases by about 10% when only 16Word N and Word N+1 information is available and by over 30% when only Word N 17 information is available (Rayner, Slattery, & Bélanger, 2010; Rayner, Well, Pollatsek, & Bertera, 18 1982). was proposed by Morrison (1984; see also Just & Carpenter, 1980), and several modified 23 5 versions aimed at extending it were later introduced (e.g., Henderson & Ferreira, 1990; 1 Henderson, 1992;Kennison & Clifton, 1995;Pollatsek & Rayner, 1990; Rayner & Pollatsek, 2 1989;Reichle, Pollatsek, Fisher, & Rayner, 1998).…”

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confidence: 99%

Attention and eye-movement control in reading: The selective reading paradigm.

Reingold

Sheridan

Meadmore

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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1We introduced a novel paradigm for investigating covert attention and eye-movement control in 2 reading. In 2 experiments, participants read sentence words (shown in blue color) while ignoring 3 interleaved distractor strings (shown in orange color). Each single-line text display contained a 4 target word and a critical distractor. Critical distractors were located just prior to the target in the 5 text and were either words or symbol strings (e.g., @#%&). Target word availability for 6 parafoveal processing (i.e., preview validity) was also manipulated. The results indicated much 7 shallower processing of distractors than targets and this pattern was more pronounced for symbol 8 than word distractors. The influences of word frequency and fixation location on first-pass 9 fixation durations on distractors were dramatically different than the well-documented pattern 10 obtained in normal reading. Robust preview benefits were demonstrated both when the critical 11 distractors were fixated and when the critical distractors were skipped. Finally, with the 12 exception of larger preview benefits that were obtained in the condition in which the target and 13 critical distractor were identical, the magnitude of the preview effect was largely unaffected by 14 the nature of the critical distractor. Implications of the present paradigm and findings to the study 15 of eye-movement control in reading are discussed. 16 3 The use of eye movements to study reading has a rich history dating back over a century 1 (see Rayner, 1998Rayner, , 2009, for reviews). Readers move their eyes primarily forward in the text to 2 encounter new words. The magnitude of the typical forward movement (saccade) for readers of 3English is about 7-9 letter spaces. High-velocity saccadic eye movements, during which vision is 4 largely suppressed (Matin, 1974), occur at an average rate of 3-4 per second and are separated by 5 periods during which the eyes remain relatively still (fixations), and perceptual information is 6 extracted. Saccades are required in order to align the high-acuity foveal region of the retina (the 7 central 2° of vision) with the part of the text that is being encoded by the reader. However, 8 during each fixation, while the fixated word (word N) is primarily encoded using foveal vision, 9 parafoveal vision is used to extract perceptual information from at least the next two words in the 10 text (word N+1 and word N+2). Specifically, for readers of English the encoding of useful 11 perceptual information is confined to the perceptual span, an asymmetric region of the text 12 around the fixation point, which is limited to about 3-4 letter spaces to the left and 14-15 letter 13 spaces to the right of fixation (McConkie & Rayner, 1975). Importantly, when the area of useful 14 orthographic information during a fixation is restricted to word N, word N+1 and word N+2, 15 reading rate is approximately normal, while reading rate decreases by about 10% when only 16Word N and Word N+1 information is available and by over 30% wh...

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“…This asymmetry gives the opportunity to pre-process information from the right of the fixation point and reflects the shift in attention to upcoming words, for the programming of an eye-movement necessarily results in covert attention shifting to the saccade target (Deubel & Schneider, 1996). The asymmetry and extent of the perceptual span are not constant.They depend on various factors, including textual (Apel, Henderson, & Ferreira, 2012;Henderson & Ferreira, 1990;Rayner, 1986) and individual (Ashby, Yang, Evans, & Rayner, 2012;Häikiö, Bertram, Hyönä, & Niemi, 2009;Rayner, 1986;Rayner, Slattery, & Bélanger, 2010;Veldre & Andrews, 2014) properties. Readers dynamically adjust the size of their perceptual spans, and it is well known that difficulty reduces the perceptual span, because foveal processing then requires more resources, thereby reducing the amount of information retrieved from the right of the fixation point.…”

Section: Perceptual Spanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eye movements in children during reading: a review

Frey¹

2016

Actes Du Symposium International Sur La Litéracie À L’école = International Symposium for Educational Literacy (SILE/ISEL)

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Over the last decades, the analysis of eye movements has proven very useful to investigate the cognitive processes underlying reading. However, from a developmental perspective, this technique has yet hardly been used to better understand the children's acquisition of reading. This chapter aims at presenting a review of the studies comparing the eye-movement patterns observed in children with those observed in adult readers. Firstly, it presents the differences and similarities in eye-movement patterns between those two groups, and then it proposes different attempts at explaining these differences in terms of oculomotor, visual and linguistic constraints. Key words: Eye movements ; Children; ReadingRésumé : L'analyse des mouvements des yeux a été très largement utilisée ces dernières années en psychologie de la lecture pour mieux rendre compte des traitements cognitifs sous-jacents. Cependant, cette technique a été jusqu'à présent peu utilisée dans une perspective développementale, pour mieux comprendre les processus d'apprentissage et de la lecture chez les enfants. Ce chapitre présente une brève revue des études qui ont comparé les mouvements des yeux chez les enfants à ceux des adultes. Nous y décrivons dans un premier temps ce qui distingue les patterns oculaires de ces deux populations, et présentons ensuite les résultats d'études tentant d'expliquer ces différences en terme de contraintes oculomotrices, visuelles et linguistiques.

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Eye movements, the perceptual span, and reading speed

Cited by 222 publications

References 18 publications

The effects of interletter spacing in visual-word recognition

The effects of interletter spacing in visual-word recognition

Attention and eye-movement control in reading: The selective reading paradigm.

Eye movements in children during reading: a review

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