TY - JOUR
T1 - Attention demands during reading and the occurrence of brief (express) fixations
AU - Inhoff, Albrecht Werner
AU - Topolski, Richard
AU - Vitu, Françoise
AU - O'Regan, J. Kevin
PY - 1993/11
Y1 - 1993/11
N2 - Eye movements were recorded while subjects read passages of text repeatedly (Experiment 1) and while normal text and strings ofhomogeneous letters were fixated (Experiment 2). Text repetition decreased fixation durations and increased saccade size, presumably because it decreased attention demands. Irrespective ofrepetition, however, no distinct distribution of brief (express) fixations emerged. In Experiment 2, fixation durations were shorter and saccades were larger when strings of homogeneous letters were "read," indicating that this condition decreased attention demands. Again, however, no distinct distribution of express fixations emerged. These findings pose problems for the view that attentional processes determine the occurrence of brief (express) fixation durations in reading. Supplementary analyses of Experiments 1 and 2 suggested that visuospatial processing affected fixation durations, irrespective of linguistic processing demands.
AB - Eye movements were recorded while subjects read passages of text repeatedly (Experiment 1) and while normal text and strings ofhomogeneous letters were fixated (Experiment 2). Text repetition decreased fixation durations and increased saccade size, presumably because it decreased attention demands. Irrespective ofrepetition, however, no distinct distribution of brief (express) fixations emerged. In Experiment 2, fixation durations were shorter and saccades were larger when strings of homogeneous letters were "read," indicating that this condition decreased attention demands. Again, however, no distinct distribution of express fixations emerged. These findings pose problems for the view that attentional processes determine the occurrence of brief (express) fixation durations in reading. Supplementary analyses of Experiments 1 and 2 suggested that visuospatial processing affected fixation durations, irrespective of linguistic processing demands.
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U2 - 10.3758/BF03211806
DO - 10.3758/BF03211806
M3 - Article
C2 - 8134251
AN - SCOPUS:0027754741
VL - 54
SP - 814
EP - 823
JO - Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics
JF - Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics
SN - 1943-3921
IS - 6
ER -