The Control of Eye Movements in Reading (Tutorial Paper)

Abstract

The first part of this paper reviews recent data on how the characteristics of eye movements in reading depend on three classes of experimental variables: those related to the reader (age, reading skill); those related to the material being read (overall appearance, difficulty, word length); and a third class, the attitude of the reader toward the text (search versus comprehension). In the second part, a distinction is made between global eye movement measures (average over a number of lines of text), and local ones (measures made for a single position on text). Local measures are of interest because of the psycholinguists hope that they will reflect ongoing sentence processing. For this hope to be realistic, it must be shown that the eye movement control mechanisms are sufficiently rapid to allow the eye’s course to be adjusted immediately on the basis of the information being gathered at every instant. The evidence presently available shows the possibility of immediate control of fixation duration, and “almost immediate” control of saccade size. Reading is a basic and constant occupation for most people. We are bombarded by written material, words pop out of posters and signs and, even if we try to avoid them, our eyes seem driven to read them.