A Development Study On The Role Of Nonfixated Word Characteristics In The Fixated Word's Processing

One of the main controversies in the field of eye movements in reading concerns the question of whether the processing of two adjacent words in reading occurs in sequence, or in parallel. This research tries to distinguish between these views by analyzing parafoveal-foveal effect in the course of lexical processing. Two eye movement experiments examined how lexical characteristics of the nonfixated word to the right of fixation influences readers' eye behaviour on the fixated word, tested the processing order of Chinese in the lexical process and its age character.Students in grade 1 of junior middle school, senior middle school and college participated experiment 1. The frequency and the number of strokes of the nonfixated words were manipulated to determine the parafoveal-foveal effect and its developmental characteristics.Students in grade 1 of junior middle school, senior middle school and college participated experiment 2. The frequency of the fixated word and nonfixated word were varied to further examine the modularity of fixated word frequency in the parafoveal-foveal effect.The experimental results showed as follows:(1) The main effect of the grades was significant on the viewing times. The fixation duration of lexical processing for students of junior middle school was longer than for students of senior middle school and college students. However, the parafoveal-foveal effect was not restricted to the grades.(2) The lexical processing was influenced by the stroke number and the frequency of the nonfixated word in Chinese sentence reading.(3) The nonfixated word frequency only effect on the processing of the low-frequency fixated words. (4) The positive parafoveal-foveal effect was obtained, and the parallel processing theory was supported by our findings.