Abstract:

Whether readers can obtain preview information from word N+2 in the parafovea is a key problem for solving the controversy of whether words in the perceptual span are processed in serial or in parallel. Several studies using the boundary paradigm have demonstrated that the preview of word N+2 influences fixations on word N+1 (Kliegl, 2007; Yan, 2010; Yang, 2009; Risse, 2012), but it has not been investigated what kind of preview information drives these effects. The present study used the boundary paradigm to explore the influence of the preview of word N+2 on the processing of word N+1 during Chinese reading. Three experiments are reported. In experiment 1, we manipulated the previews of a single character high-frequency word N+1 and the first character of word N+2. The results showed that fixation durations on word N+1 given an identity preview of word N+1 were significantly longer given an identity compared to non-word preview of word N+2. In experiment 2, we manipulated the previews of word N+1 and the first character of word N+2, and controlled the identity previews of both characters to be orthographically similar. We hypothesized that the orthographic information gained from the first character of word N+2 in the parafovea would affect the processing of word N+1. Our results showed no effect of the N+2 preview. However, due to the orthographically similar character N+2 being available during fixations on both words N and N+1 we were unable to determine if our effect was driven by it being processed far into the parafovea during fixations on word N, or closer to the fovea during fixations on word N+1. To address this possibility we conducted experiment 3. We used the same manipulation as in experiment 2, but ensured that the orthographic similarity between the two characters was only present during fixations on word N. In this experiment there was orthographic overlap between the identity preview of word N+1 and the false preview of word N+2. As such, the orthographic similarity was only present during fixations on word N, rather than both word N and word N+1.Our results showed that when the preview of word N+2 was orthographically similar to word N+1 as opposed to orthographically dissimilar, fixation durations on word N+1 were shorter. Overall, the results showed that the preprocessing of word N+2 significantly influenced the processing of word N+1. The results indicated that orthographic information from word N+2 had been preprocessed in the parafovea during fixations on word N, and that this overlapping information markedly affected the processing of word N+1, such that fixation times were shorter. Therefore, the present study demonstrates that words within the perceptual span can be processed in parallel.

Key words: Chinese reading, preview benefit, boundary paradigm, eye movements