The Return Sweep in Reading

Hofmeister, Jörg; Heller, Dieter; Radach, Ralph

doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-3054-8_49

Cited by 20 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The return sweep saccade brings a reader's fixation from the end of one line of text to the start of the next and is a common eye movement during normal reading (Hofmeister, Heller, & Radach, 1999;Parker & Slattery, 2017). In our preview present conditions, the target word occurred in the middle of a line of text and therefore this word was available for parafoveal preview when fixating the prior few words in the sentence.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Becker (1972) reported that approximately 10% of return sweeps landed short of their intended target. These undershoot saccades often result in short "undersweep" fixations which are then followed by a corrective saccade toward the start of the line (Hofmeister et al, 1999). While undersweep fixations tend to be shorter than typical reading fixations (Heller, 1982), fixations that accurately reach their target following a return sweep tend to be longer than typical reading fixations (Kuperman, Dambacher, Nuthmann, & Kliegl, 2010).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predictability effects during reading in the absence of parafoveal preview

Parker

Kirkby

Slattery

2017

Journal of Cognitive Psychology

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The predictability of upcoming words facilitates both spoken and written language comprehension. One interesting difference between these language modalities is that readers' routinely have access to upcoming words in parafoveal vision while listeners must wait for each fleeting word from a speaker. Despite readers' potential glimpse into the future, it is not clear if and how this bottom-up information aids top-down prediction. The current study manipulated the predictability of target words and their location on a line of text. Targets were located in the middle of the line (preview available) or as the first word on a new line (preview unavailable). This represents an innovative method for manipulating parafoveal preview which utilises return sweeps to deny access to parafoveal preview of target words without the use of invalid previews. The study is the first to demonstrate gaze duration word predictability effects in the absence of parafoveal preview.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predictability effects during reading in the absence of parafoveal preview

Parker

Kirkby

Slattery

2017

Journal of Cognitive Psychology

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“…Despite these limitations, subsequent studies have reported similar findings. In general, the frequency of RUEs increases with the length of the intended returnsweep, with shorter lines yielding fewer RUEs (Beymer, Russell, & Orton, 2005;Schneps et al, 2013), while the landing position of the return-sweep is shifted to the right (Hofmeister et al, 1999).…”

Section: Return-sweeps In Readingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As return-sweeps move the eyes farther than typical reading saccades, they are more likely to be influenced by these error components. However, return-sweeps very infrequently overshoot their target (Hofmeister et al, 1999). Instead, they have a systematic tendency to undershoot the start of the line (Heller, 1982;Hofmeister et al, 1999;Parker, Kirkby, & Slattery, 2017;Parker et al, 2019).…”

Section: Return-sweeps In Readingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, when readers process multiline text and arrive at the end of a line, they are required to execute a specific saccade, known as a return-sweep, to direct their gaze toward the start of a new line. The distance traversed by return-sweeps is larger than what is typically observed for intraline reading saccades, and this distance is directly related to the horizontal extent of the text (i.e., line length; Hofmeister, Heller, & Radach, 1999). It is not yet clear whether these distinct qualities of return-sweeps influence binocular disparity and compensatory vergence movements at the point where readers begin to process a new line of text.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Binocular coordination and return-sweep saccades among skilled adult readers

et al. 2019

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Return-sweep saccades in oral reading

Adedeji

Vasilev

Kirkby

et al. 2021

Psychological Research

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Recent research on return-sweep saccades has improved our understanding of eye movements when reading paragraphs. However, these saccades, which take our gaze from the end of one line to the start of the next line, have been studied only within the context of silent reading. Articulatory demands and the coordination of the eye–voice span (EVS) at line boundaries suggest that the execution of this saccade may be different in oral reading. We compared launch and landing positions of return-sweeps, corrective saccade probability and fixations adjacent to return-sweeps in skilled adult readers while reading paragraphs aloud and silently. Compared to silent reading, return-sweeps were launched from closer to the end of the line and landed closer to the start of the next line when reading aloud. The probability of making a corrective saccade was higher for oral reading than silent reading. These indicate that oral reading may compel readers to rely more on foveal processing at the expense of parafoveal processing. We found an interaction between reading modality and fixation type on fixation durations. The reading modality effect (i.e., increased fixation durations in oral compared to silent reading) was greater for accurate line-initial fixations and marginally greater for line-final fixations compared to intra-line fixations. This suggests that readers may use the fixations adjacent to return-sweeps as natural pause locations to modulate the EVS.

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The Return Sweep in Reading

Cited by 20 publications

References 8 publications

Predictability effects during reading in the absence of parafoveal preview

Predictability effects during reading in the absence of parafoveal preview

Binocular coordination and return-sweep saccades among skilled adult readers

Return-sweep saccades in oral reading

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