Abstract
Eye movements were recorded while subjects read passages of text repeatedly (Experiment 1) and while normal text and strings ofhomogeneous letters were fixated (Experiment 2). Text repetition decreased fixation durations and increased saccade size, presumably because it decreased attention demands. Irrespective ofrepetition, however, no distinct distribution of brief (express) fixations emerged. In Experiment 2, fixation durations were shorter and saccades were larger when strings of homogeneous letters were “read,” indicating that this condition decreased attention demands. Again, however, no distinct distribution of express fixations emerged. These findings pose problems for the view that attentional processes determine the occurrence of brief (express) fixation durations in reading. Supplementary analyses of Experiments 1 and 2 suggested that visuospatial processing affected fixation durations, irrespective of linguistic processing demands.
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The research reported in this articlewas supported by National Science Foundation Grant BNS-9010067 and by the Center for Cognitive and Psycholinguistic Studies at SUNY-Binghamton. Francoise Vitu was supported by a grant from the French govermnent’s Ministère des Affaires Etrangers while she had a postdoctoral position at SUNYBinghamton.
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Inhoff, A.W., Topolski, R., Vitu, F. et al. Attention demands during reading and the occurrence of brief (express) fixations. Perception & Psychophysics 54, 814–823 (1993). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211806
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211806