How fast can predictability influence word skipping during reading?

Abstract

Participants' eye movements were tracked when reading sentences in which target word predictability was manipulated to being unpredictable from the preceding context, predictable from the sentence preceding the one in which the target word was embedded, or predictable from the adjective directly preceding the target word. Results show that there was no difference in skipping rates between the 2 predictability conditions, which were skipped more often than the neutral condition. This suggests that predictability can impact the decision of whether to skip a word to a similar degree irrespective of whether the predictability originated from the prior word or the entire preceding sentence context. This finding can only be explained by models of eye-movement control during reading that assume that word n is processed up to a high level before the decision to skip word n + 1 is made.

Oculomotor and linguistic processing effects in reading dynamic horizontally scrolling text.

“…More predictable words attract shorter fixation durations and a higher probability of being skipped altogether (Erlich et al, 1981;Fitzsimmons & Drieghe, 2013;Rayner et al, 2004;Rayner, Binder, Ashby, & Pollatsek, 2001;Rayner & Well, 1996).…”

“…Furthermore, the nature of the discourse representation has been demonstrated to affect how a word is processed. Arguably, the most obvious example of such influences is the predictability effect (Clifton et al, 2016;Erlich et al, 1981;Fitzsimmons & Drieghe, 2013;Rayner & Well, 1996), whereby the extent to which a target word is predictable based on preceding sentential context directly influences the ease with which it is processed. Critically, from our perspective, predictability effects arise not exclusively from intrinsic characteristics of the word itself, but instead from a combination of the characteristics of the word itself and those of the words that comprise preceding text.…”

“…finger in Russell had to go to the hospital. He had trapped his finger while playing; Fitzsimmons & Drieghe, 2013), as indicated by shorter fixations and increased skipping (see Balota, Pollatsek, & Rayner, 1985;Ehrlich & Rayner, 1981;Fitzsimmons & Drieghe, 2013;Inhoff, 1984;Kliegl et al, 2004;Rayner et al, 2004. In due course, we will consider word length, frequency and predictability effects in the context of our primary experimental manipulation, namely that of text presentation (scrolling text compared to normal, static text).…”

“…This second experiment was based on a previous study by Fitzsimmons and Drieghe (2013) that used static text presentation only. As before, we expected to replicate the findings from this study in our static text condition.…”

“…The inclusion of the static text format allowed us to establish that we observed similar effects to those reported by Pollatsek et al The scrolling text condition provided us with the opportunity to establish how this format modulated any such effects. In the second experiment, we used a set of stimuli from Fitzsimmons and Drieghe (2013) in a similar experimental design to contrast word predictability effects associated with a scrolling text format with those of a static text format. In both of these experiments, we assessed word length and frequency effects (Experiment 1), and predictability effects (Experiment 2) through local analyses of eye movements in relation to the target words.…”