Contextual Interference within the Perceptual Span in Reading Japanese Text

In two experiments, we investigated the contextual interference effect within the perceptual span in reading Japanese text by using the moving window paradigm (McConkie & Rayner, 1975). There were four conditions involving different kinds of peripheral text: asterisk, random string, sentence, and control. The results revealed that the efficiency of reading the central text was degraded when the peripheral text consisted of characters irrelevant to the central text (random strings or sentences, Experiment 1). The interference effect was greater when the peripheral text constituted a sentence than when it was a random string (Experiment 2). A word recognition test showed that the words in the peripheral text were processed to some extent. These results suggest that the mere presence of characters in the peripheral region of the perceptual span interferes with the processing of the central text. Furthermore, whether the peripheral text constitutes a sentence also influences eye movements in reading.