Word processing in the parafoveal region

Abstract

This study examined the role of words viewed in the parafoveal region during reading. In contrast to previous work, the present experiments used a reading-aloud paradigm that was postulated to encourage letter-to-sound processing, as is typical for beginning readers and for skilled readers who are reading difficult material. The three experiments in this study examined the role of orthographic and semantic information in the parafoveal region on the processing of a word in the foveal region. For this, two words, one in the foveal region and the other in the parafoveal region, were presented side by side to resemble normal reading. Participants were instructed to read aloud the word on the left side, ignoring the word on the right side. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that the presence of a word in the parafoveal region slowed naming of target words, and that this delay was attributable to linguistic interference. This pattern indicates that the information in the parafoveal region affect the processing of the target. Experiment 3 showed an effect of parafoveal semantic information on processing of the target word. In sum the results of the current study suggest that information in the parafoveal region appears to be linguistically processed but to a weaker degree than the focused word. In sum, the results of the experiments in the current study indicate that the influence of parafoveal information is quite lexical and semantic information in the parafoveal region affects processing of the target in the foveal region.