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Although the span encompasses a significant number of letters to the right of fixation, the level of analysis drops off substantially from the fovea – from recognizing words to identifying letters to merely determining the length of the upcoming parafoveal word(s). For English, it is estimated to extend from three characters to the left of fixation (approximately the beginning of the fixated word) to around 14 characters to the right of fixation ( McConkie and Rayner, 1975 Miellet et al., 2009). The perceptual span – the region of text from which useful information can be extracted – has been functionally approximated from “moving window” studies. Under such conditions, when parafoveal preview is invalid, reading time is slowed, demonstrating the use of both foveal and parafoveal information during normal reading.
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In “moving window” studies, text outside a window defined around the fixated letter is altered in some way (e.g., valid text is replaced by strings of Xs). In these paradigms, changes are made in the text contingent on the reader’s eye position. The importance of parafoveal vision in reading was substantiated in classic eye movement reading studies using the “moving window” ( McConkie and Rayner, 1975) and “boundary” ( Rayner, 1975) paradigms. Readers are able to acquire information from the upcoming parafoveal word before its subsequent fixation. One of the key findings of eye movement reading research is that the information available on a single fixation is not limited to the currently fixated (foveal) word. The present study investigates the role of word-initial letters in reading. For example, words in text which are shorter in length, higher in frequency of occurrence, or more predictable from a prior context are fixated for less time and are skipped more often than words that are longer, lower in frequency, or less predictable. Such studies have identified several oculomotor, perceptual, and cognitive factors that modulate the reader’s decisions of where and when to move the eyes while processing text. The greatest advancements in understanding fluent reading over the past few decades have come from investigations that measure eye movement behavior (for reviews, see Rayner, 1998, 2009). Results are discussed in comparison to recent studies of lexical features involved in word recognition during reading. The overall pattern of findings suggests lexical access is facilitated by highly constraining word-initial letters. Moreover, in measures taken to reflect “early” lexical processing (i.e., first and single fixation duration), there was a significant interaction between constraint and context. Analyses of fixation duration data revealed significant main effects of constraint, frequency, and context.
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This 2 (constraint) × 2 (frequency) × 2 (context) design allowed us to examine the conditions under which a word’s initial letter sequence could facilitate processing. Third, targets were embedded in either biasing or neutral contexts (i.e., targets were high or low in their predictability). Second, targets were either high or low in frequency of occurrence (e.g., train or stain, respectively). First, target words had either high or low constraining word-initial letter sequences (e.g., dwarf or clown, respectively). Three factors were independently manipulated. Eye movements were monitored as participants read sentences containing target words. The present study examined how word-initial letters influence lexical access during reading.