Eye Guidance in Reading: Fixation Locations within Words

TLDR

Eye movement guidance in reading has been categorized into three models: one posits no stimulus or cognitive control, while the other two involve cognitive or stimulus-driven processes. The study performed descriptive analyses of fixation locations within words, conditional fixation probabilities, and saccade length relative to the length of the following word. The analyses support nonrandom models of eye guidance, indicating that next fixation locations are determined by systematic factors.

Abstract

Three broad categories of models of eye movement guidance in reading are described. According to one category, eye movements in reading are not under stimulus or cognitive control; the other two categories indicate that cognitive activities or stimulus characteristics are involved in eye guidance. In this study a number of descriptive analyses of eye movements in reading were carried out. These analyses dealt with fixation locations on letters within words of various lengths, conditional probabilities that a word will be fixated given that a prior word was or was not fixated, and average saccade length as a function of the length of the word to the right of the fixated word. The results of these analyses were supportive of models which suggest that determining where to look next while reading is made on a nonrandom basis.