Is the processing of words during eye fixations in reading strictly serial?

Abstract

Extant models of oculomotor control during reading maintain that allocation of attention confines word recognition to one (target) word at a time, and that an eye movement to a new (posttarget) word is computed before attention is shifted to it. To test these assumptions, properties of the posttarget’s preview were manipulated during the fixation of the preceding target word. The main results revealed longer target viewing durations when the posttarget preview was visually distinctive or when it was orthographically illegal. The meaning of posttarget text did not affect initial target word reading, although it affected the time spent rereading the target. To account for these findings, extant attention-shift models must assume that readers obtain at least visuospatial and orthographic information from a parafovelly visible word before it is attended. This view has shortcomings, however, and several considerations favor less restrictive model assumptions according to which attention can be allocated to more than one word at a time.