Abstract
Skilled reading requires information processing of the fixated and the not-yet-fixated words to generate precise control of gaze. Over the last 30 years, experimental research provided evidence that word processing is distributed across the perceptual span, which permits recognition of the fixated (foveal) word as well as preview of parafoveal words to the right of fixation. However, theoretical models have been unable to differentiate the specific influences of foveal and parafoveal information on saccade control. Here we show how parafoveal word difficulty modulates spatial and temporal control of gaze in a computational model to reproduce experimental results. In a fully Bayesian framework, we estimated model parameters for different models of parafoveal processing and carried out large-scale predictive simulations and model comparisons for a gaze-contingent reading experiment. We conclude that mathematical modeling of data from gaze-contingent experiments permits the precise identification of pathways from parafoveal information processing to gaze control, uncovering potential mechanisms underlying the parafoveal contribution to eye-movement control.
Highlights
In experiments using the boundary paradigm, readers show differences in fixation durations as a function of the preview condition in which the sentence was presented
We investigated three assumptions on possible saccade cancelations due to display changes, i.e., without cancelation, with saccade cancelation (SC), and with cancelation limited to saccades during the increasing stage of lexical activation (SC-L1)
Since we focus on lexical parafoveal processing in an n + 1 boundary paradigm, we restricted our analyses of fixation durations to fixation sequences where a single fixation on word n was followed by a first fixation on word n + 1
Summary
In experiments using the boundary paradigm, readers show differences in fixation durations as a function of the preview condition in which the sentence was presented. Fixation durations on word n + 1 are longer when an invalid preview was presented and shorter when the valid (identical) word was displayed before its fixation[13]. The SWIFT m odel[22] provides a conceptually convenient architecture in the context of implementing mechanisms for the contributions of foveal and parafoveal processing on eye-movement control; the model provides a platform for studying interactions between foveal and parafoveal processing without major changes of the model principles. Another prerequisite for the investigation of quantitative predictions is a reliable framework for statistical inference. The display change was implemented as a reset of the target word’s activation values to zero, and would restart processing with the first fixation after the boundary during invalid preview conditions
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