Contextual effects on word perception and eye movements during reading

Abstract

Subjects read passages of text which differed in the extent to which the context constrained or predicted the occurrence of particular target words. In Experiment 1, misspellings were introduced into target words and we examined the extent to which fixation duration and probability of fixating the target word was influenced by contextual constraint and the misspelling. Subjects had a lower probability of fixating the target word in the high-constraint passages than in the low-constraint passages. Furthermore, when subjects did fixate the target, the fixation duration was shorter in the high-constraint passages. In Experiment 2, subjects read passages which included either a predictable target word or a visually similar word which was unpredictable. Fixation durations on the target word were shorter when the predictable word was in the target location than when the unpredictable word was present. The implications of the results for the role of contextual constraint in reading are discussed.