Word complexity modulates the divided-word effect during Chinese reading

Zhang, Mingzhe; Bai, Xuejun; Li, Sainan

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.921056

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Recall that, in standard Chinese text, the boundaries of line-final words are not respected in relation to line endings, thereby resulting in some situations in which line-final words would have their constituent characters split over two lines. Li et al ( 2012 ) demonstrated that when words are split across lines in Chinese there is significant disruption to lexical identification, reporting that readers experienced more difficulty processing words presented in this way than when words were presented as a whole (see also Zhang et al, 2022 ). In the present study, we maintained the integrity of line-final words such that all line-final words appeared in their integrity on the same line, to minimize any potential processing difficulty inherent in splitting words across different lines of text.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Column setting and text justification influence return-sweep eye movement behavior during Chinese multi-line reading

Wang,

Gill,

Judge

et al. 2024

Cogn. Research

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People regularly read multi-line texts in different formats and publishers, internationally, must decide how to present text to make reading most effective and efficient. Relatively few studies have examined multi-line reading, and fewer still Chinese multi-line reading. Here, we examined whether texts presented in single or double columns, and either left-justified or fully-justified affect Chinese reading. Text format had minimal influence on overall reading time; however, it significantly impacted return-sweeps (large saccades moving the eyes from the end of one line of text to the beginning of the next). Return-sweeps were launched and landed further away from margins and involved more corrective saccades in single- than double-column format. For left- compared to fully-justified format, return-sweeps were launched and landed closer to margins. More corrective saccades also occurred. Our results showed more efficient return-sweep behavior for fully- than left-justified text. Moreover, there were clear trade-off effects such that formats requiring increased numbers of shorter return-sweeps produced more accurate targeting and reduced numbers of corrective fixations, whereas formats requiring reduced numbers of longer return-sweeps caused less accurate targeting and an increased rate of corrective fixations. Overall, our results demonstrate that text formats substantially affect return-sweep eye movement behavior during Chinese reading without affecting efficiency and effectiveness, that is, the overall time it takes to read and understand the text.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%