Memory for Word Locations in Reading

Abstract

Sentences were presented in various spatial formats, and readers localised one word of each sentence using a mouse cursor directly after reading. There was a localisation advantage for cumulative over single-word displays, for left-to-right presentation over presentation in a 3×3 grid, and for complete over incomplete sentences. Comparing performance for predictable and unpredictable word locations suggests that word location memory in reading decays within three seconds to a span of only 2–3 entries, and that readers can then reconstruct word locations from item memory. Implications for the role of spatial cognition in reading are discussed.