Effects of load on the time course of attentional engagement, disengagement, and orienting in reading

Abstract

We examined how the frequency of the fixated word influences the spatiotemporal distribution of covert attention during reading. Participants discriminated gaze-contingent probes that occurred with different spatial and temporal offsets from randomly chosen fixation points during reading. We found that attention was initially focused at fixation and that subsequent defocusing was slower when the fixated word was lower in frequency. Later in a fixation, attention oriented more towards the next saccadic target for high- than for low-frequency words. These results constitute the first report of the time course of the effect of load on attentional engagement and orienting in reading. They are discussed in the context of serial and parallel models of reading.

Clustering of Eye Fixations: A New Oculomotor Determinant of Reading Speed in Maculopathy

“…83 Another important difference is that the perceptual span is attentionally constrained during eye-mediated reading. [84][85][86][87] This is suggested, for instance, by the reduction of the perceptual span when foveal processing difficulty increases. One important goal for future research is to investigate and clarify the relationship between visual span and perceptual span especially in the context of low-vision reading.…”

Serial and parallel processes in eye movement control: Current controversies and future directions

“…The issue starts off with an overview by Radach and Kennedy (2013) of the findings of the last decade related to the issue of spatially distributed word processing in the context of both alphabetic and non-Roman writing systems. Following this overview, we begin by examining basic issues in attentional control, with a paper by Ghahghaei, Linnell, Fischer, Dubey, and Davis (2013) using gaze-contingent probe discrimination to characterize the spatiotemporal deployment of attention within a fixation during reading and how this is influenced by the frequency of the fixated word. The study by Leyland, Kirby, Juhasz, Pollatsek, and Liversedge (2013) investigated the effect of visual characteristics of text on the temporal and spatial aspects of eye movements, finding clear effects, but no evidence that such manipulations impinge on the presence of PoF effects, consistent with the idea that such effects are related to higher level orthographic processing.…”

Spatial attention in written word perception

“…Given that a broad distribution of attention appears to be the default mode during processing of HFWs (e.g., Kliegl et al, 2006 ; Brand-D’Abrescia and Lavie, 2007 ; Schad and Engbert, 2012 ; Ghahghaei et al, 2013 ), it is conceivable that the identification of HFWs in the present study was better in the neutral condition because the cue triggered a broader attentional focus. Indeed, the attention literature shows that optimal performance in perceptual identification is obtained with an adequate allocation of attentional resources and that too much focused attention may be not beneficial ( Yeshurun and Carrasco, 1998 ).…”

“…First, target duration in their study was 30 ms shorter (i.e., 50 vs. 80 ms). The deployment of attention along the whole letter string is a process that takes time ( Ghahghaei et al, 2013 ). Therefore, it is possible that 50 ms of target duration are not enough to detect fine modulations of the attentional focus.…”