Comparative patterns of reading eye movement in Chinese and English.

Two very different language codes are exemplified by printed Chinese and English texts. Skilled native readers of each language have similar eye-movement patterns when care is taken to compare identical reading tasks and material and also to consider the Chinese multicharacter word. The similarity implies that both printed languages have been optimized to fit visual and oculomotor physiology and also higher level cognitive processes. Eye-movement recordings taken while subjects read from horizontal Chinese text, now widespread, and classical vertical text suggest that modern readers are now more at home with horizontal text; indeed, continued updating of reading skill appears necessary.