Foveal Processing and Word Skipping during Reading Denis Drieghe

An eyetracking experiment is reported examining the assumption that a word is skipped during sentence reading because parafoveal processing during preceding fixations reached an advanced level in recognizing that word. Wordn was presented either with reduced contrast, with case alternation or normal. Reingold and Rayner (2006) reported that, compared to the normal condition, reduced contrast increased viewing times on wordn but not on wordn+1, whereas case alternation increased viewing times on both words. These patterns were reflected in the fixation times of the current experiment, but a striking dissociation was observed in the skipping of wordn+1: The reduced contrast of wordn decreased skipping of wordn+1, whereas case alternation did not. Besides the amount of parafoveal processing, the decision to skip wordn+1 is also influenced by the ease of processing wordn: Difficulties in processing wordn lead to a more conservative strategy in the decision to skip wordn+1.