TY  - JOUR
A1  - Zhou, Wei
A1  - Wang, Aiping
A1  - Shu, Hua
A1  - Kliegl, Reinhold
A1  - Yan, Ming
T1  - Word segmentation by alternating colors facilitates eye guidance in Chinese reading
JF  - Memory & cognition
N2  - During sentence reading, low spatial frequency information afforded by spaces between words is the primary factor for eye guidance in spaced writing systems, whereas saccade generation for unspaced writing systems is less clear and under debate. In the present study, we investigated whether word-boundary information, provided by alternating colors (consistent or inconsistent with word-boundary information) influences saccade-target selection in Chinese. In Experiment 1, as compared to a baseline (i.e., uniform color) condition, word segmentation with alternating color shifted fixation location towards the center of words. In contrast, incorrect word segmentation shifted fixation location towards the beginning of words. In Experiment 2, we used a gaze-contingent paradigm to restrict the color manipulation only to the upcoming parafoveal words and replicated the results, including fixation location effects, as observed in Experiment 1. These results indicate that Chinese readers are capable of making use of parafoveal word-boundary knowledge for saccade generation, even if such information is unfamiliar to them. The present study provides novel support for the hypothesis that word segmentation is involved in the decision about where to fixate next during Chinese reading.
KW  - Chinese
KW  - Word segmentation
KW  - Fixation location
KW  - Parafoveal
KW  - Color
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-018-0797-5
SN  - 0090-502X
SN  - 1532-5946
VL  - 46
IS  - 5
SP  - 729
EP  - 740
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York
ER  -