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. 2008 Aug;61(8):1239-49.
doi: 10.1080/17470210701467953.

Mislocated fixations can account for parafoveal-on-foveal effects in eye movements during reading

Denis Drieghe  1 , Keith Rayner, Alexander Pollatsek
Affiliations

Mislocated fixations can account for parafoveal-on-foveal effects in eye movements during reading

Denis Drieghe et al. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2008 Aug.

Abstract

Contrasting predictions of serial and parallel views on the processing of foveal and parafoveal information during reading were tested. A high-frequency adjective (young) was followed by either a high-frequency word(n) (child) or a low-frequency word(n) (tenor), which in turn was followed by either a correct (performing) or an orthographic illegal word(n+1) (pxvforming) as a parafoveal preview. A limited parafoveal-on-foveal effect was observed: There were inflated fixation times on word(n) when the preview of word(n+1) was orthographically illegal. However, this parafoveal-on-foveal effect was (a) independent of the frequency of word(n), (b) restricted to those instances when the eyes were very close to word(n+1), and (c) associated with relatively long prior saccades. These observations are all compatible with a mislocated fixation account in which parafoveal-on-foveal effects result from saccadic undershoots of word(n+1) and with a serial model of eye movement control during reading.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Figure 1. Distribution of the average single-fixation duration on wordn as a function of the preview of wordn+1. The letter position 0 is the blank space in front of wordn.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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