The Effect of Word Length on Saccade Target Selection in Chinese Reading: Eye Movement Evidence

Abstract

Abstract: Research has shown that word length plays an important role on the selection of the saccade targeting during English reading. When the word length becomes shorter, the preferred saccade length is also shorter. However, there are no interword spaces marking word boundaries in Chinese text, so it is unclear whether or not the results based on English reading are applicable to Chinese reading. In the present study, a uniform-word-length sentence reading paradigm was used to investigate how word length influences saccade target selection in Chinese reading. The uniform-word-length sentence which composed entirely of one or two-character word and mixed sentences which composed of words of various lengths were used as experimental materials. The results showed that the saccade length in Chinese reading varied with word length. The incoming and outcoming saccade length of two-character word sentences were significantly longer than that of one-character word sentences, which supported the Centre-Based Saccade Length hypothesis. And, we found that there was no significant difference in outcoming saccade length and incoming saccade length of two-character word between mixed sentences and two-character word sentences, which supported the processing-based strategy of saccade target selection. Combining the two strategies, it could be concluded that saccade target selection may be based on the processing of word-length information on the parafoveal in Chinese reading.

Key words: saccade target selection, Chinese reading, word length, eye movement

摘要： 英文阅读研究发现词长对眼跳目标选择有重要影响，阅读等词长的句子时，长词的偏好眼跳长度比短词更长。但是中文文本没有词间空格，读者难以从副中央凹获取词长信息，所以基于英文阅读得出的结果是否适用于中文阅读尚不清楚。本研究采用等词长句子阅读范式，使用全部由单字词或双字词组成的句子或由各种词长的词汇组成的混合句作为实验材料，考察词长对中文阅读眼跳目标选择的影响。结果发现，中文阅读中的眼跳长度会随词长变化而变化，双字词句的眼跳入长度和眼跳出长度均显著长于单字词句，支持了基于词中心的眼跳长度假设；同时，实验也发现混合句中的双字词的眼跳长度和双字词句中双字词的眼跳长度没有显著差异，支持了基于加工情况的眼跳目标选择策略；综合二者，说明中文阅读中，读者眼跳目标选择可能建立在副中央凹对词长信息加工的基础之上。

关键词: 眼跳目标选择, 中文阅读, 词长, 眼动

CLC Number:

B842

TONG Wen, REN Mengxue, LIU Zhifang, FENG Xiao. The Effect of Word Length on Saccade Target Selection in Chinese Reading: Eye Movement Evidence[J]. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 2020, 18(2): 168-175.

仝文, 任梦雪, 刘志方, 冯笑. 词长对中文阅读眼跳目标选择的影响：眼动证据[J]. 心理与行为研究, 2020, 18(2): 168-175.

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