| Literature DB >> 30475051 |
Chuanli Zang1, Ying Fu1, Xuejun Bai1, Guoli Yan1, Simon P Liversedge2.
Abstract
A word's length in English is fundamental in determining whether readers fixate it, and how long they spend processing it during reading. Chinese is unspaced, and most words are two characters long: Is word length an important cue to eye guidance in Chinese reading? Eye movements were recorded as participants read sentences containing a one-, two-, or three-character word matched for frequency. Results showed that longer words took longer to process (primarily driven by refixations). Furthermore, skips were fewer, incoming saccades longer, and landing positions further to the right of long than short words. Additional analyses of a three-character region (matched stroke number) showed an incremental processing cost when character(s) belonged to different, rather than the same, word. These results demonstrate that word length affects both lexical identification and saccade target selection in Chinese reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).Entities:
Mesh:
Year: 2018 PMID: 30475051 PMCID: PMC6254471 DOI: 10.1037/xhp0000589
Source DB: PubMed Journal: J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform ISSN: 0096-1523 Impact factor: 3.332
Figure 1An example of Chinese sentences employed in the experiment (target words are in bold). The translation for this sentence is “Today Doudou learned the pear/ pineapple/ potato’s shape and main characteristics in the kindergarten.”
Eye Movement Measures for the Target Word
| Word length | FFD | SFD | GD | TFD | ReP | SP | MLPsingle | MLPmultiple | ISL | Launch site |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One-character word | 247 (83) | 249 (84) | 261 (103) | 321 (175) | .04 (.19) | .48 (.50) | .54 (.28) | .45 (.33) | 2.16 (.86) | 1.29 (.90) |
| Two-character word | 240 (78) | 241 (79) | 284 (124) | 365 (196) | .20 (.40) | .14 (.35) | .98 (.52) | .53 (.52) | 2.36 (.85) | 1.42 (.95) |
| Three-character word | 234 (74) | 238 (74) | 325 (146) | 428 (230) | .41 (.49) | .04 (.20) | 1.41 (.65) | .74 (.52) | 2.47 (.94) | 1.38 (.95) |
LMM Analyses on the Target Word With its Number of Strokes as a Covariate
| Contrast | FFD | SFD | GD | TFD | ReP | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CI | CI | CI | CI | CI | ||||||||||||||||
| One vs. Two | −.02 | [−.06, .02] | .02 | −.99 | −.03 | [−.07, .01] | .02 | −1.40 | .03 | [−.03, .09] | .03 | 1.07 | .10 | [.03, .17] | .03 | 1.76 | [1.21, 2.31] | .28 | ||
| Two vs. Three | −.02 | [−.05, .02] | .02 | −.93 | −.03 | [−.07, .02] | .02 | −1.15 | .07 | [.02, .13] | .03 | .10 | [.03, .16] | .04 | .78 | [.49, 1.08] | .15 | |||
| Number of strokes | −8e-4 | [−.00, .00] | .00 | −.57 | 3e-4 | [−.00, .00] | .00 | .17 | 6e-3 | [.00, .01] | .00 | 7e-3 | [.00, .01] | .00 | 6e-2 | [.04, .08] | .01 | |||
| SP | MLPsingle | MLPmultiple | ISL | Launch site | ||||||||||||||||
| Contrast | CI | CI | CI | CI | CI | |||||||||||||||
| One vs. Two | −1.75 | [−2.05, −1.45] | .15 | .44 | [.36, .51] | .04 | .15 | [−.11, .40] | .13 | 1.14 | .10 | [.05, .14] | .02 | .10 | [−.01, .21] | .06 | ||||
| Two vs. Three | −1.24 | [−1.68, −.79] | .23 | .42 | [.33, .51] | .05 | .15 | [−.00, .30] | .08 | .06 | [.02, .10] | .02 | −.01 | [−.13, .11] | .06 | −.14 | ||||
| Number of strokes | −3e-2 | [−.06, −.00] | .01 | −1e-3 | [−.01, .00] | .00 | −.37 | 8e-5 | [−.01, .01] | .00 | .02 | −5e-3 | [−.01, −.00] | .00 | −2e-3 | [−.01, .01] | .00 | −.39 | ||
Figure 2A pirate plot of gaze duration (A) and refixation probability (B) for different word length conditions.
Eye Movement Measures for the Three-Character Region in the Analyses of Processing Cost
| Word length | FFD | SFD | GD | TFD | ReP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1+2 Region | 251 (85) | 253 (88) | 405 (215) | 549 (306) | .51 (.50) |
| 1+1 Region | 241 (77) | 245 (75) | 364 (178) | 484 (271) | .46 (.50) |
| 1 Region | 234 (75) | 238 (74) | 333 (159) | 444 (252) | .41 (.49) |
LMM Analyses on the Three-Character Region in the Analyses of Processing Cost
| Contrast | FFD | SFD | GD | TFD | ReP | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CI | CI | CI | CI | CI | ||||||||||||||||
| “1+2” vs. “1+1” | −.03 | [−.06, −.01] | .01 | −.03 | [−.07, .02] | .02 | −1.17 | −.09 | [−.14, −.04] | .03 | −.12 | [−.18, −.06] | .03 | −.21 | [−.43, .01] | .11 | ||||
| “1+1” vs. “1” | −.03 | [−.06, .00] | .01 | −.03 | [−.07, .00] | .02 | −.08 | [−.13, −.04] | .02 | −.10 | [−.16, −.03] | .03 | −.29 | [−.50, −.08] | .11 | |||||
Word Length Effect in Reading of Alphabetic Scripts and Chinese
| Study | Measures | Word length (Number of letters) | Word length effect | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | |||
| Gaze duration | 230 | 230 | 230 | 235 | 230 | 240 | 250 | 270 | 300 | 320 | 340 | 373 | Effect was more pronounced for words with > 6–8 letters | |
| RefixP | .04 | .06 | .08 | .10 | .12 | .16 | .20 | .30 | .38 | .46 | .50 | .64 | >6 letters | |
| SkipP | .64 | .48 | .32 | .22 | .18 | .12 | .10 | .02 | .00 | .02 | .02 | .06 | <8 letters | |
| Gaze duration | 260 | 290 | 30 ms | |||||||||||
| RefixP | .20 | .25 | .05 | |||||||||||
| SkipP | .12 | .09 | ns | |||||||||||
| Gaze duration | 208 | 219 | 11 ms | |||||||||||
| RefixP | .08 | .09 | ns | |||||||||||
| SkipP | .35 | .09 | .26 | |||||||||||
| Short (4–6 letters) | Medium (7–9 letters) | Long (10–12 letters) | ||||||||||||
| Gaze duration | 217 | 222 | 234 | Difference appears between Medium and Long words | ||||||||||
| SkipP | .32 | .20 | .14 | all | ||||||||||
| Chinese | ||||||||||||||
| 1-character word | 2-character word | 3-character word | 4-character word | 2 2-character words | Word length effect | |||||||||
| Gaze duration | 266 | 355 | 89 ms | |||||||||||
| SkipP | .34 | .07 | .27 | |||||||||||
| Gaze duration | 502 | 585 | 83 ms | |||||||||||
| RefixP | .69 | .77 | .08 | |||||||||||
Fixation Times and Saccade Length for the Target Word (Log-Transformed Data)
| Word length | FFD | SFD | GD | TFD | ISL | OSL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One-character word | 5.47 (.34) | 5.48 (.34) | 5.51 (.37) | 5.66 (.50) | .72 (.37) | .62 (.43) |
| Two-character word | 5.44 (.32) | 5.45 (.32) | 5.58 (.42) | 5.78 (.51) | .80 (.36) | .79 (.39) |
| Three-character word | 5.41 (.32) | 5.43 (.32) | 5.71 (.46) | 5.94 (.55) | .85 (.37) | .85 (.37) |
LMM Analyses on the Target Word With its Number of Strokes as a Covariate (Log-Transformed Data)
| Contrast | FFD | SFD | GD | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CI | CI | CI | ||||||||||
| One vs. Two | −.03 | [−.07, .01] | .02 | −1.39 | −.04 | [−.08, .01] | .02 | −1.65 | .04 | [−.02, .10] | .03 | 1.37 |
| Two vs. Three | −.03 | [−.06, .01] | .02 | −1.36 | −.04 | [−.08, .00] | .02 | .09 | [.03, .15] | .03 | ||
| Number of strokes | −8e-5 | [−.00, .00] | .00 | −.06 | 1e-3 | [−.00, .00] | .00 | .67 | 6e-3 | [.00, .01] | .00 | |
| TFD | ISL | OSL | ||||||||||
| Contrast | CI | CI | CI | |||||||||
| One vs. Two | .09 | [.02, .16] | .04 | .09 | [.05, .13] | .02 | .17 | [.11, .23] | .03 | |||
| Two vs. Three | .11 | [.03, .18] | .04 | .07 | [.03, .11] | .02 | .08 | [.03, .12] | .02 | |||
| Number of strokes | 8e-3 | [.00, .01] | .00 | −5e-3 | [−.01, −.00] | .00 | −4e-3 | [−.01, −.00] | .00 | |||