ERIC Number: EJ934654
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Aug
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0096-1523
EISSN: N/A
Parafoveal Processing of Word n + 2 during Reading: Do the Preceding Words Matter?
Angele, Bernhard; Rayner, Keith
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, v37 n4 p1210-1220 Aug 2011
We used the boundary paradigm (Rayner, 1975) to test two hypotheses that might explain why no conclusive evidence has been found for the existence of n + 2 preprocessing effects. In Experiment 1, we tested whether parafoveal processing of the second word to the right of fixation (n + 2) takes place only when the preceding word (n + 1) is very short (Angele, Slattery, Yang, Kliegl, & Rayner, 2008); word n + 1 was always a three-letter word. Before crossing the boundary, preview for both words n + 1 and n + 2 was either incorrect or correct. In a third condition, only the preview for word n + 1 was incorrect. In Experiment 2, we tested whether word frequency of the preboundary word (n) had an influence on the presence of preview benefit and parafoveal-on-foveal effects. Additionally, Experiment 2 contained a condition in which only preview of n + 2 was incorrect. Our findings suggest that effects of parafoveal n + 2 preprocessing are not modulated by either n + 1 word length or n frequency. Furthermore, we did not observe any evidence of parafoveal lexical preprocessing of word n + 2 in either experiment. (Contains 6 tables.)
Descriptors: Models, Hypothesis Testing, Evidence, Vision, Visual Acuity, Word Frequency, Reading Processes, Eye Movements, Language Processing, Word Recognition, Attention, Resource Allocation, College Students, Sentences, Time
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: California
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A