Interword Spacing Research Articles

The effects of interword spacing on the eye movements of young and older readers

Recent evidence indicates that older adults (aged 65+) are more disrupted by removing interword spaces than young adults (aged 18–30). However, it is not known whether older readers also show greater sensitivity to the more subtle changes to this spacing that frequently occur during normal reading. In the present study the eye movements of young and older adults were examined when reading texts for which interword spacing was normal, condensed to half its normal size or expanded to 1.5 times its normal size. Although these changes in interword spacing affected eye movement behaviour, this influence did not differ between young and older adults. Furthermore, a word frequency manipulation showed that these changes did not affect word identification for either group. The results indicate that older adults can adapt their eye moment behaviour to accommodate subtle changes in the spatial layout of text equally effectively as young adults.

A Hybrid Method of Hiding The Text Information Using Stegnography

The Often Distribution of encrypted messages will depict the concentration of third parties. The attempts can be made to break and expose the actual messages by the hackers and cracker crackers. To conceal the subsistence of message steganography is introduced by hiding a secret message inside another credulous message.Steganography along with cryptograph y is used and offers suitable amount of privacy and security over the communication cha channel. nnel. In this paper along with various existing text text-based steganography techniques, an overview of text steganography and a concise history of steganography can be presented. The problems present in the text steganography and issues with existing solution solutionss are highlighted. In information hiding, a novel approach is proposed by using inter-word word spacing and inter inter-paragraph paragraph spacing as a hybrid method. Based on the length of the secret message, the proposed method provides dynamic generated stego stego-text with six ix options of maximum capacity. The considerable drawbacks of every existing method and how our new approach might be recommended as a solution can be analyzed in this paper.

Effects of intraword and interword spacing on eye movements during reading: Exploring the optimal use of space in a line of text

Two eye movement experiments investigated intraword spacing (the space between letters within words) and interword spacing (the space between words) to explore the influence these variables have on eye movement control during reading. Both variables are important factors in determining the optimal use of space in a line of text, and fonts differ widely in how they employ these spaces. Prior research suggests that the proximity of flanking letters influences the identification of a central letter via lateral inhibition or crowding. If so, decrements in intraword spacing may produce inhibition in word processing. Still other research suggests that increases in intraword spacing can disrupt the integrity of word units. In English, interword spacing has a large influence on word segmentation and is important for saccade target selection. The results indicate an interplay between intra- and interword spacing that influences a font's readability. Additionally, these studies highlight the importance of word segmentation processes and have implications for the nature of lexical processing (serial vs. parallel).

Interword spacing effects on the acquisition of new vocabulary for readers of Chinese as a second language

We examined whether interword spacing would facilitate acquisition of new vocabulary for second language learners of Chinese. Participants' eye movements were measured as they read new vocabulary embedded in sentences during a learning session and a test session. In the learning session, participants read sentences in traditional unspaced format and half‐read sentences with interword spacing. In the test session, all participants read unspaced sentences. Participants in the spaced learning group read the target words more quickly than those in the unspaced learning group. This benefit was maintained at test, indicating that the manipulation enhanced learning of the novel words and was not a transient effect limited to occasions when interword spacing was present in the printed text. The insertion of interword spaces may allow readers to form a more fully specified representation of the novel word, or to strengthen connections between representations of the constituent characters and the multi‐character word.

Interword spacing and landing position effects during Chinese reading in children and adults.

The present study examined children and adults' eye movement behavior when reading word spaced and unspaced Chinese text. The results showed that interword spacing reduced children and adults' first pass reading times and refixation probabilities indicating spaces between words facilitated word identification. Word spacing effects occurred to a similar degree for both children and adults, though there were differential landing position effects for single and multiple fixation situations in both groups; clear preferred viewing location effects occurred for single fixations, whereas landing positions were closer to word beginnings, and further into the word for adults than children for multiple fixation situations. Furthermore, adults targeted refixations contingent on initial landing positions to a greater degree than did children. Overall, the results indicate that some aspects of children's eye movements during reading show similar levels of maturity to adults, while others do not.

On the flexibility of letter position coding during lexical processing: Evidence from eye movements when reading Thai

Previous research supports the view that initial letter position has a privileged role in comparison to internal letters for visual-word recognition in Roman script. The current study examines whether this is the case for Thai. Thai is an alphabetic script in which ordering of the letters does not necessarily correspond to the ordering of a word's phonemes. Furthermore, Thai does not normally have interword spaces. We examined whether the position of transposed letters (internal, e.g., porblem, vs. initial, e.g., rpoblem) within a word influences how readily those words are processed when interword spacing and demarcation of word boundaries (using alternating bold text) is manipulated. The eye movements of 54 participants were recorded while they were reading sentences silently. There was no apparent difference in degree of disruption caused when reading initial and internal transposed-letter nonwords. These findings give support to the view that letter position encoding in Thai is relatively flexible and that actual identity of the letter is more critical than letter position. This flexible encoding strategy is in line with the characteristics of Thai--that is, the flexibility in the ordering of the letters and the lack of interword spaces, which creates a certain level of ambiguity in relation to the demarcation of word boundaries. These findings point to script-specific effects operating in letter encoding in visual-word recognition and reading.

Effects of removing morphemic information and adding interword spacing on reading in Chinese experienced and inexperienced readers

Two experiments tested the role of morphemic information and interword spacing in reading in experienced and inexperienced Chinese readers. Chinese is normally written in hanzi, or characters, which mostly represent monosyllabic morphemes, but it can also be written in pinyin, or romanised Chinese, which represents phonemes and is word-spaced. While previous research has shown that Chinese readers are slower with pinyin than hanzi materials, this has mostly been explained in terms of lack of proficiency in pinyin reading. The present study aimed at testing whether pinyin reading may be slow because morphemic information is needed for fluent Chinese reading, and phonemic information alone is not sufficient; for this purpose, the study included not only adults but also primary school students, who are experienced pinyin readers and unproficient hanzi readers. Participants performed a sentence-picture verification task. Sentences were written with morphemic or phonemic information (in hanzi or pinyin, respectively), and with interword or inter-morpheme spacing. Removing morphemic information had strong negative effects on all readers, including children. Adding interword spacing had no facilitative effects, and had some negative effects, especially with children. Results reveal the important role of morphemic information in Chinese reading, and fail to support the universality of the facilitative effects of interword spacing.

Interword spacing effects on reading Mandarin Chinese as a second language

This study tested the effects of interword spacing on the speed and comprehension of readers of Mandarin Chinese as a second language (CSL) of different proficiency levels and from typologically different orthographic backgrounds. Unspaced and spaced reading tasks were used to examine whether participants whose first languages (L1) were written in a spaced fashion read texts differently than those whose L1 was written in an unspaced fashion, and to determine whether interword spacing had different effects on the performance of CSL intermediate and advanced readers. The results showed that readers whose L1s were written in spaced fashion were not affected by the interword spaces, while readers whose L1 was written in unspaced fashion, especially those at the advanced level, were slowed down by the artificially added interword spacing in texts in Chinese as a second language (L2). It is hypothesized that the different effects of interword spacing on participants from different orthographic backgrounds are due to cross-language transfer from L1 to L2 reading.

Effects of adding interword spacing on Chinese reading: A comparison of Chinese native readers and English readers of Chinese as a second language

ABSTRACTEnglish is written with interword spacing, and eliminating it negatively affects English readers. Chinese is written without interword spacing, and adding it does not facilitate Chinese readers.Pinyin(romanized Chinese) is written with interword spacing. This study investigated whether adding interword spacing facilitates reading in Chinese native readers and English readers of Chinese as a second language. Participants performed two sentence–picture verification tasks with sentences written withpinyinorhanzi(characters). Interword spacing facilitated pinyin reading in English readers but not in Chinese readers; it did not affect hanzi reading in either group. The effects of interword spacing on second language reading appear to be determined by characteristics of both readers' first language writing system and the writing system being read.

Sylexiad. A typeface for the adult dyslexic reader

The investigation concerns a series of typeface legibility and readability studies which have resulted in the creation of a number of new typefaces including Sylexiad. Sylexiad is grounded and informed from a dyslexic viewpoint and is a typeface for the adult dyslexic reader. Sylexiad was developed by means of comparative typeface testing. This involved a series of formative and summative small-scale tests that accommodated two established word recognition models word shape and parallel letter recognition. This novel method of measuring legibility and readability is called developmental typeface testing. The data was gathered by means of qualitative and quantitative techniques from dyslexic and non-dyslexic groups based at Norwich University College of the Arts and The University of East Anglia. These techniques included questionnaires, interviews and observations. The research was inductive and practice-based in approach. The findings identify which typographic characteristics adult dyslexic and non-dyslexic readers preferred and why. For the majority of non-dyslexic readers tested, it was the combination of serif-style, lowercase forms, large x-heights, medium weight, variable strokes and normal inter-word spacing that was preferred. The non-dyslexic readers also favoured the form of Times New Roman. Conversely, for the majority of dyslexic readers tested it was the combination of handwritten style, uppercase forms, long ascenders and descenders, light weight, uniform strokes, perpendicular design and generous inter-word spacing that was preferred. The dyslexic readers also favoured the form of Serif Sylexiad. The conclusions have raised issues that confirm and contradict current typographic principles of legibility. In particular, from a dyslexic perspective, the word shape model has been challenged. The outcomes and issues that have been identified as a result of developmental typeface testing have therefore contributed to new knowledge within the field of dyslexia typographic research.

The role of interword spacing in reading Japanese: An eye movement study

The present study investigated the role of interword spacing in a naturally unspaced language, Japanese. Eye movements were registered of native Japanese readers reading pure Hiragana (syllabic) and mixed Kanji–Hiragana (ideographic and syllabic) text in spaced and unspaced conditions. Interword spacing facilitated both word identification and eye guidance when reading syllabic script, but not when the script contained ideographic characters. We conclude that in reading Hiragana interword spacing serves as an effective segmentation cue. In contrast, spacing information in mixed Kanji–Hiragana text is redundant, since the visually salient Kanji characters serve as effective segmentation cues by themselves.

Reading a dynamic presentation of Chinese text on a single-line display

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of presentation method and presentation rate on reading a dynamic presentation of Chinese text on a single-line display. A novel presentation concept that Chinese word as a presentation unit was examined. Twenty-four subjects completed 12 experimental treatments composed of four presentation methods (i.e., leading format with conventional layout or LC, rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) format with conventional layout or RC, leading format with inter-word spacing or LW, and RSVP format with word or RW) and three presentation rates (120-, 240- and 500-character-per-minute). The results revealed that recall accuracy and satisfaction score for the leading format were better than the RSVP format. Furthermore, the layouts that used words as presentation units were better than the conventional layout in which characters were the presentation units. Subjects’ performance deteriorated when presentation rate was at a high speed of 500 characters per minute, particularly for the RSVP method with conventional layout. The implications of the results on reading a dynamic presentation of Chinese text are discussed.

Dynamic Chinese Text on a Single-Line Display: Effects of Presentation Mode

There are many technologies with which users must read text from small-screen electronic devices. So, understanding the constraints and optimization of humans' use of these devices is important. In the present study, the optimal ways to display Chinese text on a single-line display were explored. 64 Chinese-speaking Taiwanese undergraduates participated in a 4x2 mixed design in which the presentation mode was a between-subjects factor and the text difficulty was a within-subjects factor. Four presentation modes in which two presentation formats, i.e., leading and rapid serial visual presentation, combined with two text layouts, i.e., convention and Interword spacing, were investigated. Chinese texts of High Difficulty and Low Difficulty were compared. The results showed that the leading format with Interword spacing resulted in greater reading efficiency and faster preferred reading speed than other presentation modes. Although the reading efficiency and preferred reading speed for Low Difficulty materials were significantly greater than for High Difficulty materials, the interaction between the presentation mode and text difficulty was not significant. The applications for presenting moving Chinese text on a single-line display are briefly discussed.

Interword spacing in Chinese text layout.

Three experiments using Chinese text were conducted to investigate word spacing and its effect on reading performance. In Exp. 1, a sonogram detector was used to analyze interword and intercharacter (within a word) time intervals from text read aloud by professional TV broadcasters versus college graduates. The results showed interword intervals were significantly longer than intercharacter intervals, indicating that interword spacing has psychological reality in speech. Exp. 2 examined the effect on reading performance due to separating the characters that compose a word. Separating the characters of a word did not decrease reading accuracy but did result in significantly longer reading times. Exp. 3 explored the effect of word spacing in Chinese sentences on reading performance. Analysis showed that word spacing did not affect reading accuracy, but half character and whole-character spacing significantly reduced reading time. The results of the present study suggest that word spacing in Chinese text layout enhances reading performance. Word spacing may help the reader to segment more quickly a string of characters into words and reduce the likelihood of misinterpretation. Also, ambiguity of sentence structure severely degraded reading accuracy. The implications of the results for word spacing design in Chinese text are discussed.

INTERWORD SPACING IN CHINESE TEXT LAYOUT

Three experiments using Chinese text were conducted to investigate word spacing and its effect on reading performance. In Exp. 1, a sonogram detector was used to analyze interword and intercharacter (within a word) time intervals from text read aloud by professional TV broadcasters versus college graduates. The results showed interword intervals were significantly longer than intercharacter intervals, indicating that interword spacing has psychological reality in speech. Exp. 2 examined the effect on reading performance due to separating the characters that compose a word. Separating the characters of a word did not decrease reading accuracy but did result in significantly longer reading times. Exp. 3 explored the effect of word spacing in Chinese sentences on reading performance. Analysis showed that word spacing did not affect reading accuracy, but half-character and whole-character spacing significantly reduced reading time. The results of the present study suggest that word spacing in Chinese text layout enhances reading performance. Word spacing may help the reader to segment more quickly a string of characters into words and reduce the likelihood of misinterpretation. Also, ambiguity of sentence structure severely degraded reading accuracy. The implications of the results for word spacing design in Chinese text are discussed.

Word Shape as a Cue to the Identity of a Word: An Analysis of the Kučera and Francis (1967) Word List

A word printed in lower-case letters has a characteristic shape as a result of the pattern created by its ascending, descending and neutral letters. The importance of word shape as a cue in word recognition, though debated for many years, has still to be satisfactorily resolved. On the assumption that the utility of a word's shape will depend on the extent to which it precludes all but a relative small set of candidate words, a promising approach to the issue compares reading performance for words with rare versus common shapes. As a prerequisite to this experimental approach, however, the distinctiveness of different word shapes needs to be determined. To this end, all of the three- to seven-letter words from the Kučera and Francis (1967) corpus were analysed. This revealed that although word shape in itself is rarely adequate to uniquely identify a word, when it is combined with knowledge of other orthographic features its potential utility is enhanced considerably. Examination of the distribution of letter types across letter positions within words revealed a potential source of information concerning word boundaries. It is suggested that this information may contribute to reading when, for example, the interword spacing is tight. The association of word-shape distinctiveness with a number of other word features is also reported.