Eye movements and the perceptual span in beginning and skilled readers

doi:10.1016/0022-0965(86)90037-8

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Volume 41, Issue 2, April 1986, Pages 211-236

https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-0965(86)90037-8 Get rights and content

Abstract

Four experiments are reported which examined the size of the perceptual span in second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade children, as well as adult skilled readers. The results indicated that the perceptual span in beginning readers is slightly smaller than the perceptual span of skilled readers. Using a moving window technique, its was found that the perceptual span of beginning readers extends about 11 character spaces to the right of fixation; for skilled readers, the span extends 14–15 spaces to the right of fixation. Beginning readers apparently devote more of their processing to the foveally fixated word than more proficient readers, but their perceptual span appears to be asymmetric to the right of fixation as is the case for skilled readers. The results of the experiments also indicated that the size of the perceptual span is variable and can be influenced by the difficulty of the text. It is concluded that the size of the perceptual span does not cause beginning readers' slow reading rates.

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What is the role of executive functions in longitudinally predicting reading success in general and perceptual-span size in particular? We present two new waves of our sequential-cohort longitudinal study of perceptual-span development, including five waves totally spanning grades 1 to 10. Using nonlinear mixed effects growth-curve modeling we here show that executive functioning measured in the early primary-school years predicts reading performance seven years later, even if controlled for initial reading performance. Moreover, the two variables exerted an interactive influence, suggesting mutual benefit. Effects of initial executive functioning on the final perceptual span were even more pronounced than on reading rate, suggesting a substantial contribution of executive processes to perceptual-span development. Perceptual-span development is critical for successful reading: The initial reading-rate difference between slower and faster readers diverged at the point when perceptual-span development was fastest, and stabilized at inflated differences thereafter. In an educational setting, early tests of executive functioning may be useful for identifying children who are likely to need intervention to become proficient readers.
An eye movement study on the mechanisms of reading fluency development
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Little is known about how word recognition processes, such as decoding, change when reading fluency improves during the school year. Such knowledge may have practical importance by determining which aspects of reading are most malleable at a certain age and reading level. The development of word-recognition subprocesses of third- and fourth-grade Finnish students (n = 81) with variable reading fluency was explored from longitudinal (6-month) text reading eye-tracking data. Generic development of the word recognition system was assessed from longitudinal changes in first fixation, average refixation durations and the number of first-pass fixations. The development of orthographic word representations and decoding was studied by examining the longitudinal changes in word frequency and word length effects, respectively. According to the results, the gain in reading fluency was mainly associated with decreases in first fixation and refixation durations. These decreases, in turn, inhibited the reduction in the number of fixations. However, students who could overcome this inhibitory effect, that is, by reading both with shorter fixation durations and with fewer fixations, developed most in reading fluency. The results seem to indicate that reading fluency development is driven by increased efficiency in representing letter strings in working memory. Over time, this development may lead to fewer fixations made into a word and, thus, more letters processed during each fixation.
Eye movements and the perceptual span in disordered reading: A comparison of schizophrenia and dyslexia
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Increasing evidence of a common neurodevelopmental etiology between schizophrenia and developmental dyslexia suggests that neurocognitive functions, such as reading, may be similarly disrupted. However, direct comparisons of reading performance in these disorders have yet to be conducted. To address this gap in the literature, we employed a gaze-contingent moving window paradigm to examine sentence-level reading fluency and perceptual span (breadth of parafoveal processing) in adults with schizophrenia (dataset from Whitford et al., 2013) and psychiatrically healthy adults with dyslexia (newly collected dataset). We found that the schizophrenia and dyslexia groups exhibited similar reductions in sentence-level reading fluency (e.g., slower reading rates, more regressions) compared to matched controls. Similar reductions were also found for standardized language/reading and executive functioning measures. However, despite these reductions, the dyslexia group exhibited a larger perceptual span (greater parafoveal processing) than the schizophrenia group, potentially reflecting a disruption in normal foveal-parafoveal processing dynamics. Taken together, our findings suggest that reading and reading-related functions are largely similarly disrupted in schizophrenia and dyslexia, providing additional support for a common neurodevelopmental etiology.
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We recorded the eye movements of adults reading aloud short (four digit) and long (eight to 11 digit) Arabic numerals compared to matched-in-length words and pseudowords. We presented each item in isolation, at the center of the screen. Participants read each item aloud at their pace, and then pressed the spacebar to display the next item. Reading accuracy was 99 %. Results showed that adults make 2.5 times more fixations when reading short numerals compared to short words, and up to 7 times more fixations when reading long numerals with respect to long words. Similarly, adults make 3 times more saccades when reading short numerals compared to short words, and up to 9 times more saccades when reading long numerals with respect to long words. Fixation duration and saccade amplitude stay almost the same when reading short numerals with respect to short words. However, fixation duration increases by ∼50 ms when reading long numerals (∼300 ms) with respect to long words (∼250 ms), and saccade amplitude decreases up to 0.83 characters when reading long numerals with respect to long words. The pattern of findings for long numerals—more and shorter saccades as well as more and longer fixations—shows the extent to which reading long Arabic numerals is a cognitively costly task. Within the phonographic writing system, this pattern of eye movements stands for the use of the sublexical print-to-sound correspondence rules. The data highlight that reading large numerals is an unautomatized activity and that Arabic numerals must be converted into their oral form by a step-by-step process even by expert readers.
Eye movements during reading in beginning and skilled readers: Impact of reading level or physiological maturation?
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We begin by presenting and examining relevant data in the literature on eye movements in reading, from childhood to adulthood. In particular, we discuss the differences found in eye movements during reading between children in different age groups and with different reading levels and skilled adult readers in terms of word recognition and sentence processing. We then critically discuss two hypotheses that account for the differences between children and adults' eye movement during reading: one being reading age itself - the changes in eye movement patterns in reading are regulated by the level of reading proficiency and its automatization - and the other being the role of maturation of oculomotor control and, consequently, its possible changes in eye movement patterns during reading. Finally, we list gaps in the research field and suggest that future research will benefit from investigating eye movements during reading in ex-illiterate adults who are in the process of learning to read in order to isolate both reading and maturational factors.
The determinants of saccade targeting strategy in neurodevelopmental disorders: The influence of suboptimal reading experience
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Whether eye-movements deficits are causal in reading disorders (RD) or rather a consequence of linguistic processing difficulty experienced by disabled readers has been extensively debated. Since RD are frequently comorbid with the Neurofibromatosis type1 (NF1), children with NF1 were used as a comparison group for children with dyslexia in this study. Eye movements were recorded while 21 dyslexic, 20 NF1, and 20 typically developing children performed an oculomotor lateralized bisection task. In this experiment, we manipulated the type of stimulus - discrete (words and strings of hashes) versus continuous (solid lines) - and the visual field where the stimulus was displayed (left vs right). The results showed that (1) only proficient readers (TD and NF1 without RD) showed fully developed oculomotor mechanisms for efficient reading, with a clear preferred viewing location located to the left of the word's centre in both visual fields, and fine-tuned saccade targeting guided by the between-character space information and (2) NF1 poor readers mirrored the dyslexic eye movement behaviour, with less accuracy and more variability in saccadic programming, no sensitivity to the discreteness of the stimuli, particularly in the left visual field. We concluded that disruption to oculomotor behaviour reflects the fact that many of the processes involved in reading are not yet automatized for children with RD, independently of NF1. This suggests that the differences in saccade targeting strategy between children with and without RD would be secondary consequences of their reduced reading experience.

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^☆: This research was supported by Grant HD12727 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Portions of the data were presented at the Cambridge meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society in July 1985. The paper was written while the author was a visitor in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford.

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Eye movements and the perceptual span in beginning and skilled readers☆

Abstract

Cognitive Psychology

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Vision Research

Cognitive Psychology

Brain and Language

Cognitive Psychology

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Vision Research

Fundamental reading habits: A study of their development

Eye movements and the perceptual span in reading

Reading Research Quarterly

BMDP statistical software manual

Dysfunction in reading disability: There's more than meets the eye

Spatial and contextual factors in beginning reading: Evidence for PSG-CSG complements to developing automaticity?

Memory & Cognition

Saccadic eye movements of children and adults to double-step stimuli

Developmental Psychology

Components of literacy: Speculation and exploratory research

The psychology and pedagogy of reading

Eye movements of preschool children

Science (Washington, D.C.)

The span of the effective stimulus during a fixation in reading

Perception & Psychophysics

Asymmetry of the perceptual span in reading

Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society