Parafoveal previews and lexical frequency in natural reading: Evidence from eye movements and fixation-related potentials.

Federica Degno,Otto Loberg,Nick Donnelly,Chuanli Zang,Manman Zhang,Simon P. Liversedge

doi:10.1037/xge0000494

Abstract

Participants’ eye movements and electroencephalogram (EEG) signal were recorded as they read sentences displayed according to the gaze-contingent boundary paradigm. Two target words in each sentence were manipulated for lexical frequency (high vs. low frequency) and parafoveal preview of each target word (identical vs. string of random letters vs. string of Xs). Eye movement data revealed visual parafoveal-on-foveal (PoF) effects, as well as foveal visual and orthographic preview effects and word frequency effects. Fixation-related potentials (FRPs) showed visual and orthographic PoF effects as well as foveal visual and orthographic preview effects. Our results replicated the early preview positivity effect (Dimigen, Kliegl, & Sommer, 2012) in the X-string preview condition, and revealed different neural correlates associated with a preview comprised of a string of random letters relative to a string of Xs. The former effects seem likely to reflect difficulty associated with the integration of parafoveal and foveal information, as well as feature overlap, while the latter reflect inhibition, and potentially disruption, to processing underlying reading. Interestingly, and consistent with Kretzschmar, Schlesewsky, and Staub (2015), no frequency effect was reflected in the FRP measures. The findings provide insight into the neural correlates of parafoveal processing and written word recognition in reading and demonstrate the value of utilizing ecologically valid paradigms to study well established phenomena that occur as text is read naturally.

Highlights

Participants’ eye movements and electroencephalogram (EEG) signal were recorded as they read sentences displayed according to the gaze-contingent boundary paradigm
The X-string preview results in a delay to processing in the temporal windows we considered in relation to target word foveation
Because to date only a handful of studies have used the coregistration methodology to investigate reading under natural conditions, we considered effects previously unexplored or only occasionally examined during natural reading of sentences

Summary

Introduction

Participants’ eye movements and electroencephalogram (EEG) signal were recorded as they read sentences displayed according to the gaze-contingent boundary paradigm. Eye movement data revealed visual parafoveal-on-foveal (PoF) effects, as well as foveal visual and orthographic preview effects and word frequency effects. The findings provide insight into the neural correlates of parafoveal processing and written word recognition in reading and demonstrate the value of utilizing ecologically valid paradigms to study well established phenomena that occur as text is read naturally. Federica Degno, Centre for Vision and Cognition, School of Psychology, University of Southampton; Otto Loberg, Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä; Chuanli Zang and Manman Zhang, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University; Nick Donnelly, School of Psychology, University of Southampton; Simon P. Federica Degno conducted eye movement data analyses. Eye movement, and EEG data, as well as scripts for statistical analyses, are available at https://osf.io/uxd7c/ ?view_onlyϭ8257f93bea3a4b919fcd54c7cf3d719a. It is of particular importance to understand how the brain represents and transforms information during reading, and the nature of processes that occur as different stages of processing unfold over time, from the early visual perception of a word form through to its full identification and linguistic interpretation

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