关键词: 词跳读, 副中央凹预视, 语境, 词汇加工, 眼跳目标选择

Abstract: The fact that word skipping occurs quite frequently during natural reading efficiently promotes our reading without any disruption on comprehension. This is because the skipped word can be pre-processed based on information obtained from parafovea or/and context. It has been proved that word skipping is associated with the both aspects of eye movements control (i.e., when and where to move the eye). However, it is still unclear about the mechanism of determining word skipping. Currently, one of the controversial issues of word skipping is whether and how syntactic and semantic plausibility of the context information influence word skipping. By reviewing recent studies about word skipping, it would be helpful for understanding the relationship among the factors that influence word skipping, and for resolving theoretical issues on word skipping. The factors influencing word skipping can be classified into three types, that is, parafoveal preview, context information, and foveal processing load. Among these factors, parafoveal preview and context information affect word skipping in a direct way, while foveal processing load is assumed to affect word skipping via modulating the amount of parafoveal preview. On the other hand, studies in relation to word skipping have provided very weak evidence for the foveal load modulatory effect. Thus, the present study mainly discussed the effects of parafoveal preview and context information. Recent research focused on the issue regarding which one takes a dominant role in determining skipping, parafoveal preview or context information? By reviewing studies on word skipping from both alphabetic language reading and logographic - Chinese reading, it can be concluded that although the processing of context does affect word skipping, information obtained from parafoveal words (especially word length) takes priority in the decision of word skipping. Due to the unique characteristics of Chinese text (e.g., no visual cue for word segmentation, densely packed information), there are some specific effects or issues in Chinese reading comparing to alphabetic language reading, such as the uncertain issue of the unit of word skipping and a “conservative” reading strategy adopted by older adults. These findings have shed light on current eye movement control models, such as E-Z Reader model and SWIFT model, which neglected syntactic and semantic plausibility effects on word skipping. An ideal account for word skipping should consider and distinguish effect sizes caused by parafoveal information and different aspects from context (i.e., predictability, semantic and syntactic plausibility). In future, as Chinese is comprised of characters that occupies a square unit of space, Chinese would be an optimal language to manipulate visual and linguistic information within a certain lexical space which could then minimize possible disruption caused by word length while exploring word skipping. Expending studies of word skipping in Chinese can inspire us with novel thoughts on theoretical issues.

Key words: word skipping, parafoveal preview, context, lexical processing, saccadic targeting