Predictive modeling of parafoveal information processing during reading

Abstract

Skilled reading requires information processing of the fixated and the not-yet-fixated words to generate precise control of gaze. Over the last 30 years, experimental research provided evidence that word processing is distributed across the perceptual span, which permits recognition of the fixated (foveal) word as well as preview of parafoveal words to the right of fixation. However, theoretical models have been unable to differentiate the specific influences of foveal and parafoveal information on saccade control. Here we show how parafoveal word difficulty modulates spatial and temporal control of gaze in a computational model to reproduce experimental results. In a fully Bayesian framework, we estimated model parameters for different models of parafoveal processing and carried out large-scale predictive simulations and model comparisons for a gaze-contingent reading experiment. We conclude that mathematical modeling of data from gaze-contingent experiments permits the precise identification of pathways from parafoveal information processing to gaze control, uncovering potential mechanisms underlying the parafoveal contribution to eye-movement control.

Bilingual parafoveal processing: Children and adults preprocess orthographic information of the upcoming word during sentence reading in their first and second language.

“…With respect to computational models of eye movement control in reading such as EZ-Reader (Reichle et al, 1999) and Saccade-generation with inhibition by foveal targets model (Engbert & Kliegl, 2011; Schad & Engbert, 2012; Seelig et al, 2021), the present study has two implications. First, there does not appear to be a need for a qualitative differentiation between the architecture of parafoveal processing in L1 and L2 reading, at least when the language pairs are visually similar.…”

“…These models assume that when the word recognition process of the currently fixated word n is completed, the reader’s attention moves on to the word n + 1 before the saccade out of word n is executed. Computational models of eye movement control, in which multiple words are assumed to be processed in parallel during reading, account for parafoveal processing with the distribution of attention across words in the reader’s visual field, including words presented in the parafovea (e.g., Saccade-generation with inhibition by foveal targets model, Engbert & Kliegl, 2011; Schad & Engbert, 2012; Seelig et al, 2021). In both types of models, the parafoveal processing of upcoming words represents a critical element of skilled reading and neither explicitly differentiates between L1 and L2 reading.…”

SEAM: An Integrated Activation-Coupled Model of Sentence Processing and Eye Movements in Reading

“…1 Just and Carpenter's processing model is highly serial, which matches most readers' subjective experience that sentences are processed in an incremental, left-to-right fashion (Snell & Grainger, 2019). However, while readers do tend to make fixations incrementally in the reading direction, fixation sequences are not always in serial order: Instead of systematically shifting the gaze from one word to the next -something that only happens in about 50% of fixations (Seelig, 2021) readers also skip words, refixate the same word, or regress to previous words (for a comprehensive discussion, see Rayner, 1998).…”