Stable preview difficulty effects in reading with an improved variant of the boundary paradigm
- Using gaze-contingent display changes in the boundary paradigm during sentence reading, it has recently been shown that parafoveal word-processing difficulties affect fixations on words to the right of the boundary. Current interpretations of this post-boundary preview difficulty effect range from delayed parafoveal-on-foveal effects in parallel word-processing models to forced fixations in serial word-processing models. However, these findings are based on an experimental design that, while allowing to isolate preview difficulty effects, might have established a bias with respect to asymmetries in parafoveal preview benefit for high-frequent and low-frequent target words. Here, we present a revision of this paradigm varying the preview’s lexical frequency and keeping the target word constant. We found substantial effects of the preview difficulty in fixation durations after the boundary confirming that preview processing affects the oculomotor decisions not only via trans-saccadic integration of preview and target word information.Using gaze-contingent display changes in the boundary paradigm during sentence reading, it has recently been shown that parafoveal word-processing difficulties affect fixations on words to the right of the boundary. Current interpretations of this post-boundary preview difficulty effect range from delayed parafoveal-on-foveal effects in parallel word-processing models to forced fixations in serial word-processing models. However, these findings are based on an experimental design that, while allowing to isolate preview difficulty effects, might have established a bias with respect to asymmetries in parafoveal preview benefit for high-frequent and low-frequent target words. Here, we present a revision of this paradigm varying the preview’s lexical frequency and keeping the target word constant. We found substantial effects of the preview difficulty in fixation durations after the boundary confirming that preview processing affects the oculomotor decisions not only via trans-saccadic integration of preview and target word information. An additional time-course analysis showed that the preview difficulty effect was significant across the full fixation duration distribution on the target word without any evidence on the pretarget word before the boundary. We discuss implications of the accumulating evidence of post-boundary preview difficulty effects for models of eye movement control during reading.…
Author details: | Sarah RisseORCiDGND, Stefan Seelig |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021818819990 |
ISSN: | 1747-0218 |
ISSN: | 1747-0226 |
Pubmed ID: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30501560 |
Title of parent work (English): | The quarterly journal of experimental psychology |
Publisher: | Sage Publ. |
Place of publishing: | London |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2019/01/13 |
Publication year: | 2019 |
Release date: | 2021/01/12 |
Tag: | Eye tracking; delayed parafoveal-on-foveal effects; forced fixations; parafoveal preview benefit; reading |
Volume: | 72 |
Issue: | 7 |
Number of pages: | 14 |
First page: | 1632 |
Last Page: | 1645 |
Funding institution: | Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftGerman Research Foundation (DFG) [RI 2504/1-1] |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften / Department Psychologie |
DDC classification: | 1 Philosophie und Psychologie / 15 Psychologie / 150 Psychologie |
Peer review: | Referiert |