@phdthesis{Engelmann2016, author = {Engelmann, Felix}, title = {Toward an integrated model of sentence processing in reading}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-100864}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xiii, 143}, year = {2016}, abstract = {In experiments investigating sentence processing, eye movement measures such as fixation durations and regression proportions while reading are commonly used to draw conclusions about processing difficulties. However, these measures are the result of an interaction of multiple cognitive levels and processing strategies and thus are only indirect indicators of processing difficulty. In order to properly interpret an eye movement response, one has to understand the underlying principles of adaptive processing such as trade-off mechanisms between reading speed and depth of comprehension that interact with task demands and individual differences. Therefore, it is necessary to establish explicit models of the respective mechanisms as well as their causal relationship with observable behavior. There are models of lexical processing and eye movement control on the one side and models on sentence parsing and memory processes on the other. However, no model so far combines both sides with explicitly defined linking assumptions. In this thesis, a model is developed that integrates oculomotor control with a parsing mechanism and a theory of cue-based memory retrieval. On the basis of previous empirical findings and independently motivated principles, adaptive, resource-preserving mechanisms of underspecification are proposed both on the level of memory access and on the level of syntactic parsing. The thesis first investigates the model of cue-based retrieval in sentence comprehension of Lewis \& Vasishth (2005) with a comprehensive literature review and computational modeling of retrieval interference in dependency processing. The results reveal a great variability in the data that is not explained by the theory. Therefore, two principles, 'distractor prominence' and 'cue confusion', are proposed as an extension to the theory, thus providing a more adequate description of systematic variance in empirical results as a consequence of experimental design, linguistic environment, and individual differences. In the remainder of the thesis, four interfaces between parsing and eye movement control are defined: Time Out, Reanalysis, Underspecification, and Subvocalization. By comparing computationally derived predictions with experimental results from the literature, it is investigated to what extent these four interfaces constitute an appropriate elementary set of assumptions for explaining specific eye movement patterns during sentence processing. Through simulations, it is shown how this system of in itself simple assumptions results in predictions of complex, adaptive behavior. In conclusion, it is argued that, on all levels, the sentence comprehension mechanism seeks a balance between necessary processing effort and reading speed on the basis of experience, task demands, and resource limitations. Theories of linguistic processing therefore need to be explicitly defined and implemented, in particular with respect to linking assumptions between observable behavior and underlying cognitive processes. The comprehensive model developed here integrates multiple levels of sentence processing that hitherto have only been studied in isolation. The model is made publicly available as an expandable framework for future studies of the interactions between parsing, memory access, and eye movement control.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Chandra2020, author = {Chandra, Johan}, title = {The role of the oculomotor control in eye movements during reading}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-47593}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-475930}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xiii, 115}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Most reading theories assume that readers aim at word centers for optimal information processing. During reading, saccade targeting turns out to be imprecise: Saccades' initial landing positions often miss the word centers and have high variance, with an additional systematic error that is modulated by the distance from the launch site to the center of the target word. The performance of the oculomotor system, as reflected in the statistics of within-word landing positions, turns out to be very robust and mostly affected by the spatial information during reading. Hence, it is assumed that the saccade generation is highly automated. The main goal of this thesis is to explore the performance of the oculomotor system under various reading conditions where orthographic information and the reading direction were manipulated. Additionally, the challenges in understanding the eye movement data to represent the oculomotor process during reading are addressed. Two experimental studies and one simulation study were conducted for this thesis, which resulted in the following main findings: (i) Reading texts with orthographic manipulations leads to specific changes in the eye movement patterns, both in temporal and spatial measures. The findings indicate that the oculomotor control of eye movements during reading is dependent on reading conditions (Chapter 2 \& 3). (ii) Saccades' accuracy and precision can be simultaneously modulated under reversed reading condition, supporting the assumption that the random and systematic oculomotor errors are not independent. By assuming that readers increase the precision of sensory observation while maintaining the learned prior knowledge when reading direction was reversed, a process-oriented Bayesian model for saccade targeting can account for the simultaneous reduction of oculomotor errors (Chapter 2). (iii) Plausible parameter values serving as proxies for the intended within-word landing positions can be estimated by using the maximum a posteriori estimator from Bayesian inference. Using the mean value of all observations as proxies is insufficient for studies focusing on the launch-site effect because the method exhibits the strongest bias when estimating the size of the effect. Mislocated fixations remain a challenge for the currently known estimation methods, especially when the systematic oculomotor error is large (Chapter 4). The results reported in this thesis highlight the role of the oculomotor system, together with underlying cognitive processes, in eye movements during reading. The modulation of oculomotor control can be captured through a precise analysis of landing positions.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Ong2007, author = {Ong, James Kwan Yau}, title = {The predictability problem}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-15025}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2007}, abstract = {Wir versuchen herauszufinden, ob das subjektive Maß der Cloze-Vorhersagbarkeit mit der Kombination objektiver Maße (semantische und n-gram-Maße) gesch{\"a}tzt werden kann, die auf den statistischen Eigenschaften von Textkorpora beruhen. Die semantischen Maße werden entweder durch Abfragen von Internet-Suchmaschinen oder durch die Anwendung der Latent Semantic Analysis gebildet, w{\"a}hrend die n-gram-Wortmaße allein auf den Ergebnissen von Internet-Suchmaschinen basieren. Weiterhin untersuchen wir die Rolle der Cloze-Vorhersagbarkeit in SWIFT, einem Modell der Blickkontrolle, und w{\"a}gen ab, ob andere Parameter den der Vorhersagbarkeit ersetzen k{\"o}nnen. Unsere Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass ein computationales Modell, welches Vorhersagbarkeitswerte berechnet, nicht nur Maße beachten muss, die die Relatiertheit eines Wortes zum Kontext darstellen; das Vorhandensein eines Maßes bez{\"u}glich der Nicht-Relatiertheit ist von ebenso großer Bedeutung. Obwohl hier jedoch nur Relatiertheits-Maße zur Verf{\"u}gung stehen, sollte SWIFT ebensogute Ergebnisse liefern, wenn wir Cloze-Vorhersagbarkeit mit unseren Maßen ersetzen.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Pauly2021, author = {Pauly, Dennis Nikolas}, title = {The effect of noun capitalization when reading German and English}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-49803}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-498031}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {III, 200}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Das Promotionsprojekt hatte als Ziel, die Fragestellung zu beantworten, ob die strukturelle wortinitiale Substantivgroßschreibung, wie sie sich neben dem Deutschen sonst nur noch im Luxemburgischen finden l{\"a}sst, {\"u}ber eine Funktion verf{\"u}gt, die dem Leser einen Vorteil bringt. Die {\"u}bergeordnete Hypothese war, dass ein Vorteil dadurch erreicht wird, dass durch die parafoveale Wahrnehmung der Majuskel bereits eine syntaktische Kategorie, n{\"a}mlich der Kern einer Nominalgruppe, aktiviert wird. Durch diese Wahrnehmung aus dem Augenwinkel sollte das nachfolgende Substantiv schon vorverarbeitet werden k{\"o}nnen. Im Ergebnis sollte eine Erleichterung der Satzverarbeitung bewirkt werden, was sich letztlich in insgesamt schnelleren Lese- bzw. Fixationszeiten zeigen sollte. Die Struktur des Projekts beinhaltet drei Studien, die teilweise jeweils unterschiedliche Versuchspersonengruppen umfassten: Studie 1: - Studiendesign: Semantisches Priming mittels sogenannter Holzwegs{\"a}tze sollten die Funktionsweise der Substantivgroßschreibung f{\"u}r den Leser hervorbringen - Versuchspersonen: Deutsche L1-Sprecher lesen Deutsch Studie 2: - Studiendesign: gleiches Design wie Studie 1, allerdings auf Englisch - Versuchspersonengruppen: Studie 3: 1. Englische L1-Sprecher g{\"a}nzlich ohne Deutschkenntnisse, 2. englische L1-Sprecher, die regelm{\"a}ßig deutsche Texte lesen, 3. deutsche L1-Sprecher mit exzellenten Englischkenntnissen. - Studiendesign: Einfluss der Substantivfrequenz auf eine potentielle Vorverarbeitung mittels boundary paradigm; Untersuchungsprachen: Deutsch und Englisch - Versuchspersonengruppen: 1. Deutsche L1-Sprecher lesen Deutsch, 2. englische L1-Sprecher g{\"a}nzlich ohne Deutschkenntnisse lesen Englisch, 3. deutsche L1-Sprecher mit exzellenten Englischkenntnissen lesen Englisch. Zusammenfassung der Ergebnisse: Die Substantivgroßschreibung hat eindeutig einen Einfluss auf die Satzverarbeitung sowohl im Deutschen als auch im Englischen. Dass dieser einen substanziell entscheidenden Vorteil bringt, kann nicht best{\"a}tigt werden.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Nuthmann2005, author = {Nuthmann, Antje}, title = {The "where" and "when" of eye fixations in reading}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-7931}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2005}, abstract = {To investigate eye-movement control in reading, the present thesis examined three phenomena related to the eyes' landing position within words, (1) the optimal viewing position (OVP), (2) the preferred viewing location (PVL), and (3) the Fixation-Duration Inverted-Optimal Viewing Position (IOVP) Effect. Based on a corpus-analytical approach (Exp. 1), the influence of variables word length, launch site distance, and word frequency was systematically explored. In addition, five experimental manipulations were conducted. First, word center was identified as the OVP, that is the position within a word where refixation probability is minimal. With increasing launch site distance, however, the OVP was found to move towards the word beginning. Several possible causes of refixations were discussed. The issue of refixation saccade programming was extensively investigated, suggesting that pre-planned and directly controlled refixation saccades coexist. Second, PVL curves, that is landing position distributions, show that the eyes are systematically deviated from the OVP, due to visuomotor constraints. By far the largest influence on mean and standard deviation of the Gaussian PVL curve was exhibited by launch site distance. Third, it was investigated how fixation durations vary as a function of landing position. The IOVP effect was replicated: Fixations located at word center are longer than those falling near the edges of a word. The effect of word frequency and/or launch site distance on the IOVP function mainly consisted in a vertical displacement of the curve. The Fixation-Duration IOVP effect is intriguing because word center (the OVP) would appear to be the best place to fixate and process a word. A critical part of the current work was devoted to investigate the origin of the effect. It was suggested that the IOVP effect arises as a consequence of mislocated fixations, i.e. fixations on unintended words, which are caused by saccadic errors. An algorithm for estimating the proportion of mislocated fixations from empirical data was developed, based on extrapolations of landing position distributions beyond word boundaries. As a new central theoretical claim it was suggested that a new saccade program is started immediately if the intended target word is missed. On average, this will lead to decreased durations for mislocated fixations. Because mislocated fixations were shown to be most prevalent at the beginning and end of words, the proposed mechanism generated the inverted U-shape for fixation durations when computed as a function of landing position. The proposed mechanism for generating the effect is generally compatible with both oculomotor and cognitive models of eye-movement control in reading.}, subject = {Allgemeine Psychologie}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Trukenbrod2012, author = {Trukenbrod, Hans Arne}, title = {Temporal and spatial aspects of eye-movement control : from reading to scanning}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-70206}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Eye movements are a powerful tool to examine cognitive processes. However, in most paradigms little is known about the dynamics present in sequences of saccades and fixations. In particular, the control of fixation durations has been widely neglected in most tasks. As a notable exception, both spatial and temporal aspects of eye-movement control have been thoroughly investigated during reading. There, the scientific discourse was dominated by three controversies, (i), the role of oculomotor vs. cognitive processing on eye-movement control, (ii) the serial vs. parallel processing of words, and, (iii), the control of fixation durations. The main purpose of this thesis was to investigate eye movements in tasks that require sequences of fixations and saccades. While reading phenomena served as a starting point, we examined eye guidance in non-reading tasks with the aim to identify general principles of eye-movement control. In addition, the investigation of eye movements in non-reading tasks helped refine our knowledge about eye-movement control during reading. Our approach included the investigation of eye movements in non-reading experiments as well as the evaluation and development of computational models. I present three main results : First, oculomotor phenomena during reading can also be observed in non-reading tasks (Chapter 2 \& 4). Oculomotor processes determine the fixation position within an object. The fixation position, in turn, modulates both the next saccade target and the current fixation duration. Second, predicitions of eye-movement models based on sequential attention shifts were falsified (Chapter 3). In fact, our results suggest that distributed processing of multiple objects forms the basis of eye-movement control. Third, fixation durations are under asymmetric control (Chapter 4). While increasing processing demands immediately prolong fixation durations, decreasing processing demands reduce fixation durations only with a temporal delay. We propose a computational model ICAT to account for asymmetric control. In this model, an autonomous timer initiates saccades after random time intervals independent of ongoing processing. However, processing demands that are higher than expected inhibit the execution of the next saccade and, thereby, prolong the current fixation. On the other hand, lower processing demands will not affect the duration before the next saccade is executed. Since the autonomous timer adjusts to expected processing demands from fixation to fixation, a decrease in processing demands may lead to a temporally delayed reduction of fixation durations. In an extended version of ICAT, we evaluated its performance while simulating both temporal and spatial aspects of eye-movement control. The eye-movement phenomena investigated in this thesis have now been observed in a number of different tasks, which suggests that they represent general principles of eye guidance. I propose that distributed processing of the visual input forms the basis of eye-movement control, while fixation durations are controlled by the principles outlined in ICAT. In addition, oculomotor control contributes considerably to the variability observed in eye movements. Interpretations for the relation between eye movements and cognition strongly benefit from a precise understanding of this interplay.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Risse2011, author = {Risse, Sarah}, title = {Processing in the perceptual span : investigations with the n+2-boundary paradigm}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-60414}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Cognitive psychology is traditionally interested in the interaction of perception, cognition, and behavioral control. Investigating eye movements in reading constitutes a field of research in which the processes and interactions of these subsystems can be studied in a well-defined environment. Thereby, the following questions are pursued: How much information is visually perceived during a fixation, how is processing achieved and temporally coordinated from visual letter encoding to final sentence comprehension, and how do such processes reflect on behavior such as the control of the eyes' movements during reading. Various theoretical models have been proposed to account for the specific eye-movement behavior in reading (for a review see Reichle, Rayner, \& Pollatsek, 2003). Some models are based on the idea of shifting attention serially from one word to the next within the sentence whereas others propose distributed attention allocating processing resources to more than one word at a time. As attention is assumed to drive word recognition processes one major difference between these models is that word processing must either occur in strict serial order, or that word processing is achieved in parallel. In spite of this crucial difference in the time course of word processing, both model classes perform well on explaining many of the benchmark effects in reading. In fact, there seems to be not much empirical evidence that challenges the models to a point at which their basic assumptions could be falsified. One issue often perceived as being decisive in the debate on serial and parallel word processing is how not-yet-fixated words to the right of fixation affect eye movements. Specifically, evidence is discussed as to what spatial extent such parafoveal words are previewed and how this influences current and subsequent word processing. Four experiments investigated parafoveal processing close to the spatial limits of the perceptual span. The present work aims to go beyond mere existence proofs of previewing words at such spatial distances. Introducing a manipulation that dissociates the sources of long-range preview effects, benefits and costs of parafoveal processing can be investigated in a single analysis and the differing impact is tracked across a three-word target region. In addition, the same manipulation evaluates the role of oculomotor error as the cause of non-local distributed effects. In this respect, the results contribute to a better understanding of the time course of word processing inside the perceptual span and attention allocation during reading.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Rabe2024, author = {Rabe, Maximilian Michael}, title = {Modeling the interaction of sentence processing and eye-movement control in reading}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-62279}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-622792}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xiii, 171}, year = {2024}, abstract = {The evaluation of process-oriented cognitive theories through time-ordered observations is crucial for the advancement of cognitive science. The findings presented herein integrate insights from research on eye-movement control and sentence comprehension during reading, addressing challenges in modeling time-ordered data, statistical inference, and interindividual variability. Using kernel density estimation and a pseudo-marginal likelihood for fixation durations and locations, a likelihood implementation of the SWIFT model of eye-movement control during reading (Engbert et al., Psychological Review, 112, 2005, pp. 777-813) is proposed. Within the broader framework of data assimilation, Bayesian parameter inference with adaptive Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques is facilitated for reliable model fitting. Across the different studies, this framework has shown to enable reliable parameter recovery from simulated data and prediction of experimental summary statistics. Despite its complexity, SWIFT can be fitted within a principled Bayesian workflow, capturing interindividual differences and modeling experimental effects on reading across different geometrical alterations of text. Based on these advancements, the integrated dynamical model SEAM is proposed, which combines eye-movement control, a traditionally psychological research area, and post-lexical language processing in the form of cue-based memory retrieval (Lewis \& Vasishth, Cognitive Science, 29, 2005, pp. 375-419), typically the purview of psycholinguistics. This proof-of-concept integration marks a significant step forward in natural language comprehension during reading and suggests that the presented methodology can be useful to develop complex cognitive dynamical models that integrate processes at levels of perception, higher cognition, and (oculo-)motor control. These findings collectively advance process-oriented cognitive modeling and highlight the importance of Bayesian inference, individual differences, and interdisciplinary integration for a holistic understanding of reading processes. Implications for theory and methodology, including proposals for model comparison and hierarchical parameter inference, are briefly discussed.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schad2012, author = {Schad, Daniel}, title = {Mindless reading and eye movements : theory, experiments and computational modeling}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-70822}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2012}, abstract = {It sometimes happens that we finish reading a passage of text just to realize that we have no idea what we just read. During these episodes of mindless reading our mind is elsewhere yet the eyes still move across the text. The phenomenon of mindless reading is common and seems to be widely recognized in lay psychology. However, the scientific investigation of mindless reading has long been underdeveloped. Recent progress in research on mindless reading has been based on self-report measures and on treating it as an all-or-none phenomenon (dichotomy-hypothesis). Here, we introduce the levels-of-inattention hypothesis proposing that mindless reading is graded and occurs at different levels of cognitive processing. Moreover, we introduce two new behavioral paradigms to study mindless reading at different levels in the eye-tracking laboratory. First (Chapter 2), we introduce shuffled text reading as a paradigm to approximate states of weak mindless reading experimentally and compare it to reading of normal text. Results from statistical analyses of eye movements that subjects perform in this task qualitatively support the 'mindless' hypothesis that cognitive influences on eye movements are reduced and the 'foveal load' hypothesis that the response of the zoom lens of attention to local text difficulty is enhanced when reading shuffled text. We introduce and validate an advanced version of the SWIFT model (SWIFT 3) incorporating the zoom lens of attention (Chapter 3) and use it to explain eye movements during shuffled text reading. Simulations of the SWIFT 3 model provide fully quantitative support for the 'mindless' and the 'foveal load' hypothesis. They moreover demonstrate that the zoom lens is an important concept to explain eye movements across reading and mindless reading tasks. Second (Chapter 4), we introduce the sustained attention to stimulus task (SAST) to catch episodes when external attention spontaneously lapses (i.e., attentional decoupling or mind wandering) via the overlooking of errors in the text and via signal detection analyses of error detection. Analyses of eye movements in the SAST revealed reduced influences from cognitive text processing during mindless reading. Based on these findings, we demonstrate that it is possible to predict states of mindless reading from eye movement recordings online. That cognition is not always needed to move the eyes supports autonomous mechanisms for saccade initiation. Results from analyses of error detection and eye movements provide support to our levels-of-inattention hypothesis that errors at different levels of the text assess different levels of decoupling. Analyses of pupil size in the SAST (Chapter 5) provide further support to the levels of inattention hypothesis and to the decoupling hypothesis that off-line thought is a distinct mode of cognitive functioning that demands cognitive resources and is associated with deep levels of decoupling. The present work demonstrates that the elusive phenomenon of mindless reading can be vigorously investigated in the cognitive laboratory and further incorporated in the theoretical framework of cognitive science.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Rettig2021, author = {Rettig, Anja}, title = {Learning to read in German}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {XXIII, 231, LXXX}, year = {2021}, abstract = {In the present dissertation, the development of eye movement behavior and the perceptual span of German beginning readers was investigated in Grades 1 to 3 (Study 1) and longitudinally within a one-year time interval (Study 2), as well as in relation to intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation (Study 3). The presented results are intended to fill the gap of only sparse information on young readers' eye movements and completely missing information on German young readers' perceptual span and its development. On the other hand, reading motivation data have been scrutinized with respect to reciprocal effects on reading comprehension but not with respect to more immediate, basic cognitive processing (e.g., word decoding) that is indicated by different eye movement measures. Based on a longitudinal study design, children in Grades 1-3 participated in a moving window reading experiment with eye movement recordings in two successive years. All children were participants of a larger longitudinal study on intrapersonal developmental risk factors in childhood and adolescence (PIER study). Motivation data and other psychometric reading data were collected during individual inquiries and tests at school. Data analyses were realized in three separate studies that focused on different but related aspects of reading and perceptual span development. Study 1 presents the first cross-sectional report on the perceptual span of beginning German readers. The focus was on reading rate changes in Grades 1 to 3 and on the issue of the onset of the perceptual span development and its dependence on basic foveal reading processes. Study 2 presents a successor of Study 1 providing first longitudinal data of the perceptual span in elementary school children. It also includes information on the stability of observed and predicted reading rates and perceptual span sizes and introduces a new measure of the perceptual span based on nonlinear mixed-effects models. Another issue addressed in this study is the longitudinal between-group comparison of slower and faster readers which refers to the detection of developmental patterns. Study 3 includes longitudinal reading motivation data and investigates the relation between different eye movement measures including perceptual span and intrinsic as well as extrinsic reading motivation. In Study 1, a decelerated increase in reading rate was observed between Grades 1 to 3. Grade effects were also reported for saccade length, refixation probability, and different fixation duration measures. With higher grade, mean saccade length increased, whereas refixation probability, first-fixation duration, gaze duration, and total reading time decreased. Perceptual span development was indicated by an increase in window size effects with grade level. Grade level differences with respect to window size effects were stronger between Grades 2 and 3 than between Grades 1 and 2. These results were replicated longitudinally in Study 2. Again, perceptual span size significantly changed between Grades 2 and 3, but not between Grades 1 and 2 or Grades 3 and 4. Observed and predicted reading rates were found to be highly stable after first grade, whereas stability of perceptual span was only moderate for all grade levels. Group differences between slower and faster readers in Year 1 remained observable in Year 2 showing a pattern of stable achievement differences rather than a compensatory pattern. Between Grades 2 and 3, between-group differences in reading rate even increased resulting in a Matthew effect. A similar effect was observed for perceptual span development between Grades 3 and 4. Finally, in Study 3, significant relations between beginning readers' eye movements and their reading motivation were observed. In both years of measurement, higher intrinsic reading motivation was related to more skilled eye movement patterns as indicated by short fixations, longer saccades, and higher reading rates. In Year 2, intrinsic reading motivation was also significantly and negatively correlated with refixation probability. These correlational patterns were confirmed in cross-sectional linear models controlling for grade level and reading amount and including both reading motivation measures, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. While there were significant positive relations between intrinsic reading motivation and word decoding as indicated by the above stated eye movement measures, extrinsic reading motivation only predicted variance in eye movements in Year 2 (significant for fixation durations and reading rate), with a consistently opposite pattern of effects as compared to intrinsic reading motivation. Finally, longitudinal effects of Year 1 intrinsic reading motivation on Year 2 word decoding were observed for gaze duration, total reading time, refixation probability, and perceptual span within cross-lagged panel models. These effects were reciprocal because all eye movement measures significantly predicted variance in intrinsic reading motivation. Extrinsic reading motivation in Year 1 did not affect any eye movement measure in Year 2, and vice versa, except for a significant, negative relation with perceptual span. Concluding, the present dissertation demonstrates that largest gains in reading development in terms of eye movement changes are observable between Grades 1 and 2. Together with the observed pattern of stable differences between slower and faster readers and a widening achievement gap between Grades 2 and 3 for reading rate, these results underline the importance of the first year(s) of formal reading instruction. The development of the perceptual span lags behind as it is most apparent between Grades 2 and 3. This suggests that efficient parafoveal processing presupposes a certain degree of foveal reading proficiency (e.g., word decoding). Finally, this dissertation demonstrates that intrinsic reading motivation—but not extrinsic motivation—effectively supports the development of skilled reading.}, language = {en} }