Word frequency effects and eye movements during two readings of a text

Abstract

The present study examined the influence of word frequency on rereading performance. Subjects read short passages, each twice in succession, while their eye movements were monitored. During first presentations, each passage contained a target word of low or high frequency; during second presentations, the targets were either repeated or replaced by synonyms. In general, during the second readings readers made shorter duration fixations, fewer fixations, and longer saccades. When fixation times on the target words were examined, results showed that fixation durations were shorter for high frequency words during both readings and that the decrease in fixation duration was similar in magnitude for low and high frequency words. This suggests that word frequency and repetition independently influenced reading time. In addition, replacing a target with a synonym did not increase processing time for the replacement word. This suggests that conceptual repetition was sufficient for obtaining repetition effects when reading text.