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Joint effect of insertion of spaces and word length in saccade target selection in Chinese reading
Author(s) -
Li Xingshan,
Shen Wei
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of research in reading
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.077
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1467-9817
pISSN - 0141-0423
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9817.2012.01552.x
Subject(s) - saccade , eye movement , word (group theory) , psychology , reading (process) , space (punctuation) , linguistics , selection (genetic algorithm) , cognitive psychology , communication , computer science , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , philosophy
The present study examined how insertion of spaces before and after a word affects saccade target selection in Chinese reading. We found that inserting spaces in Chinese text changes the eye movement behaviour of Chinese readers. They are less likely to fixate on the character near the space and will try their best to process the entire word with less fixations when a space is inserted after a word, making the final characters in a long word less likely to be fixated on. However, we did not find evidence that they target their eyes at the word centre when a space is inserted before or after a word. These results enhance our understanding of the mechanisms of eye movement control in Chinese reading.