Abstract: Parafoveal preview effect refers to when readers are fixating on one word (parafoveal word n), they can obtain some information from the words on the right of their fixation (parafoveal word n+1 or word n+2) at the same time. And those previewed information can influence the reading efficiency directly. Therefore, to explore the necessary conditions, the influencing factors and the mechanism of the parafoveal preview during reading has become a significant focus in Reading Psychology. This paper systematically reviews the prior researches on parafoveal preview effects in English and Chinese reading. It mainly contains the paradigm of parafoveal preview effects, what kind of information readers can obtain, the time course of lexcial processing, and the spatial extent of preview benefit. At last, this paper further discusses several critical problems of parafoveal preview effects to be resolved.

Key words: Chinese reading, parafoveal preview effects, preview benefit, eye movements