Space information is important for reading

Perea, Manuel; Acha, Joana

doi:10.1016/j.visres.2009.05.009

Cited by 95 publications

(117 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Rayner et al 1998). What is inconsistent with the literature is that in previous studies, the first appearance of this interaction has been consistently reported in gaze duration (Perea & Acha, 2009;Rayner et al, 1998;Sheridan et al, 2013;Sheridan et al, 2016;Veldre et al 2016), whereas this interaction was not close to significant for gaze durations in the current study. The absence of this interaction was even more surprising given the sizeable numerical interaction in the untransformed gaze durations (91ms frequency effect in unspaced compared to 41 ms in spaced reading).…”

contrasting

confidence: 99%

“…These findings, both the increased frequency effect in unspaced compared to spaced reading, and the time course of the effect in that it appears in gaze duration and not earlier, has been replicated multiple times (e.g. Perea & Acha, 2009;Sheridan, Rayner & Reingold, 2013).Additionally, using survival analyses, Sheridan et al (2013) were able to show a later time course of word frequency effects in unspaced versus spaced reading. They observed the earliest discernible influence of word frequency in spaced text 112 ms from the start of fixation, with no discernible difference until 152 ms into the fixation when the text was unspaced.…”

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confidence: 67%

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confidence: 73%

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Parafoveal preview effects in reading unspaced text.

Drieghe¹,

Fitzsimmons²,

Liversedge³

2017

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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In English reading, eye guidance relies heavily on the spaces between words for demarcating word boundaries. In an eye tracking experiment, we examined the impact of removing spaces on parafoveal processing. Using the gaze-contingent boundary paradigm (Rayner, 1975), a high or low frequency pre-boundary word was followed by a post-boundary preview presented either normally (i.e. identical to the postboundary word), or with letters replaced creating an orthographically illegal preview.The spaces between words were either retained or removed. Results replicate previous findings of increased reading times during unspaced reading (Rayner, Fischer & Pollatsek, 1998) and indicate rather limited evidence for more distributed processing:Observations of processing of the previous word (spill-over effects) or processing of the next word (parafoveal-on-foveal effects) influencing fixation durations on the currently fixated word were limited. Spill-over effects were only observed in the unspaced layout when the post-boundary preview was correct, presumably because the orthographically illegal, incorrect preview was visually salient enough to allow for relatively easy word segmentation and therefore more focused processing of the preboundary word. As such, results points towards a system that prefers narrowly focused processing of a single word, at least when means for easy word segmentation are available. 3Statement of the Public Significance of the Work.In the influential gaze contingent boundary paradigm (Rayner, 1975), before the eyes cross an invisible boundary during reading, a preview is presented at the location of the target word that can either be identical to the target word or manipulated to be related to a certain extent with the target word (e.g. number of shared letters). After the eyes cross the boundary, a display change is carried out replacing the preview with the target word. Using this paradigm we examined the impact of removing spaces between the words. Results replicate previous findings of increased reading times during unspaced reading and indicate rather limited evidence for distributed processing when means for easy word segmentation were available (either spaces or an orthographically illegal string of letters in the preview). 4Reading is a complex, cognitive task that has to accommodate a limitation in our visual system in that the fine-grained visual acuity necessary to identify letters is mostly restricted to a limited area of the retina, the fovea, which receives input from only the central 2 degrees of the visual field (for reviews, see Rayner, 1998;Rayner, 2009). As a consequence, reading typically requires a multitude of fixations and saccades to allow sampling of visual information at different locations across the text.Nevertheless, a large body of evidence indicates that besides the currently fixated word, readers do routinely pick up information from the upcoming word as well (for a review, see Schotter, Angele, & Rayner, 2012). The upcoming word will typically be in an area cal...

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Parafoveal preview effects in reading unspaced text.

Drieghe¹,

Fitzsimmons²,

Liversedge³

2017

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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“…In a recent study, Perea and Acha (2009) found reading cost in unspaced sentences relative to normally written sentences, with smaller cost for sentences with words presented in an alternating bold-normal unspaced series than for sentences with words presented as a regular unspaced series. These results indicate that readers can use other information than an empty space to determine word boundaries for target selection.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Font size modulates saccade-target selection in Chinese reading

Shu

Zhou

Yan

et al. 2010

Atten Percept Psychophys

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In alphabetic writing systems, saccade amplitude (a close correlate of reading speed) is independent of font size, presumably because an increase in the angular size of letters is compensated for by a decrease of visual acuity with eccentricity. We propose that this invariance may (also) be due to the presence of spaces between words, guiding the eyes across a large range of font sizes. Here, we test whether saccade amplitude is also invariant against manipulations of font size during reading Chinese, a character-based writing system without spaces as explicit word boundaries for saccade-target selection. In contrast to word-spaced alphabetic writing systems, saccade amplitude decreased significantly with increased font size, leading to an increase in the number of fixations at the beginning of words and in the number of refixations. These results are consistent with a model which assumes that word beginning (rather than word center) is the default saccade target if the length of the parafoveal word is not available.

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“…As such, it is crucial that when we read a line of text, we are able to identify the beginnings and endings of individual lexical items, a process referred to as word segmentation. A number of studies have reported substantial reductions in reading rate for English text when interword spaces are removed (Morris, Rayner, & Pollatsek, 1990;Perea & Acha, 2009;Pollatsek & Rayner, 1982;Rayner, Fischer, & Pollatsek, 1998;Rayner, Yang, Schuett, & Slattery, 2013;Sheridan, Rayner, & Reingold, 2013;Spragins, Lefton, & Fisher, 1976). However, at least one study has reported a more modest reduction in reading rate for text without spaces (Epelboim, Booth, & Steinman, 1994).…”

Section: Interword Spacing Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of intraword and interword spacing on eye movements during reading: Exploring the optimal use of space in a line of text

Slattery

Rayner

2013

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Two eye movement experiments investigated intraword spacing (the space between letters within words) and interword spacing (the space between words) to explore the influence these variables have on eye movement control during reading. Both variables are important factors in determining the optimal use of space in a line of text, and fonts differ widely in how they employ these spaces. Prior research suggests that the proximity of flanking letters influences the identification of a central letter via lateral inhibition or crowding. If so, decrements in intraword spacing may produce inhibition in word processing. Still other research suggests that increases in intraword spacing can disrupt the integrity of word units. In English, interword spacing has a large influence on word segmentation and is important for saccade target selection. The results indicate an interplay between intra-and interword spacing that influences a font's readability. Additionally, these studies highlight the importance of word segmentation processes and have implications for the nature of lexical processing (serial vs. parallel).

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Space information is important for reading

Cited by 95 publications

References 27 publications

Parafoveal preview effects in reading unspaced text.

Parafoveal preview effects in reading unspaced text.

Font size modulates saccade-target selection in Chinese reading

Effects of intraword and interword spacing on eye movements during reading: Exploring the optimal use of space in a line of text

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