Stable preview difficulty effects in reading with an improved variant of the boundary paradigm

Abstract

Using gaze-contingent display changes in the boundary paradigm during sentence reading, it has recently been shown that parafoveal word-processing difficulties affect fixations on words to the right of the boundary. Current interpretations of this post-boundary preview difficulty effect range from delayed parafoveal-on-foveal effects in parallel word-processing models to forced fixations in serial word-processing models. However, these findings are based on an experimental design that, while allowing to isolate preview difficulty effects, might have established a bias with respect to asymmetries in parafoveal preview benefit for high-frequent and low-frequent target words. Here, we present a revision of this paradigm varying the preview's lexical frequency and keeping the target word constant. We found substantial effects of the preview difficulty in fixation durations after the boundary confirming that preview processing affects the oculomotor decisions not only via trans-saccadic integration of preview and target word information. An additional time-course analysis showed that the preview difficulty effect was significant across the full fixation duration distribution on the target word without any evidence on the pretarget word before the boundary. We discuss implications of the accumulating evidence of post-boundary preview difficulty effects for models of eye movement control during reading.