Studies of Psychology and Behavior

Studies of Psychology and Behavior >

2022 , Vol. 20 >Issue 2: 160 - 166

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12139/j.1672-0628.2022.02.003

Multi-Word Unit Processing for Chinese Older Readers: Evidence from Eye Movements

  • HE Liyuan ,
  • ZHAO Xing ,
  • BAI Yu ,
  • LIU Nina
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  • 1. Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387;
    2. Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387;
    3. Tianjin Social Science Laboratory of Students’ Mental Development and Learning, Tianjin 300387

Received date: 2021-10-14

  Online published: 2022-03-20

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Abstract

In order to explore the reasons underlying older readers’ inefficient reading, the present study selected three types of two two-character word combinations to investigate how Chinese older adults process multi-word units. Three types of word combinations included single-word combination (which was comprised of frequently co-occurred two words and was typically considered as single four-character word), ambiguous word combination (which expressed a complete idea but was considered as single word by roughly half of readers), and two-word combination (which was not able to convey a whole meaning and was also considered as two words). Younger and older participants were asked to read sentences containing critical word combinations while their eye movements were monitored. The results showed that: 1) older readers made more and longer fixations and less frequently skipped a word compared to young readers, showing typical reading difficulties; 2) both groups of participants spent shorter time on single four-character words and made fewer fixations during first-run reading than those on the ambiguous combinations as well as the two-word combinations. The same pattern also appeared in the first word and second word processing, indicating that multiple word units showed a processing advantage. However, there was no significant age difference in such processing advantage. These findings suggest that older readers process the multi-word units as a whole.

Key words： multi-word unit; older reader; Chinese reading; eye movement

Cite this article

HE Liyuan , ZHAO Xing , BAI Yu , LIU Nina . Multi-Word Unit Processing for Chinese Older Readers: Evidence from Eye Movements[J]. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 2022 , 20(2) : 160 -166 . DOI: 10.12139/j.1672-0628.2022.02.003

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