TY  - JOUR
A1  - Chandra, Johan
A1  - Krügel, André
A1  - Engbert, Ralf
T1  - Experimental test of Bayesian saccade targeting under reversed reading direction
JF  - Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics
N2  - During reading, rapid eye movements (saccades) shift the reader's line of sight from one word to another for high-acuity visual information processing. While experimental data and theoretical models show that readers aim at word centers, the eye-movement (oculomotor) accuracy is low compared to other tasks. As a consequence, distributions of saccadic landing positions indicate large (i) random errors and (ii) systematic over- and undershoot of word centers, which additionally depend on saccade lengths (McConkie et al.Visual Research, 28(10), 1107-1118,1988). Here we show that both error components can be simultaneously reduced by reading texts from right to left in German language (N= 32). We used our experimental data to test a Bayesian model of saccade planning. First, experimental data are consistent with the model. Second, the model makes specific predictions of the effects of the precision of prior and (sensory) likelihood. Our results suggest that it is a more precise sensory likelihood that can explain the reduction of both random and systematic error components.
KW  - eye movements and reading
KW  - Bayesian modeling
KW  - eye-movement control
KW  - model
KW  - fixation
KW  - attention
KW  - words
KW  - swift
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-019-01814-4
SN  - 1943-393X
SN  - 1943-3921
VL  - 82
SP  - 1230
EP  - 1240
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York, NY
ER  -