Predictability effects and parafoveal processing of compound words in natural Chinese reading

• Published in: Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) Vol. 75; no. 1; pp. 18 - 29
• Main Authors: Cui, Lei, Zang, Chuanli, Xu, Xiaochen, Zhang, Wenxin, Su, Yuhan, Liversedge, Simon P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.01.2022; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Original; preview effects; compound word; Predictability; Chinese reading
• ISSN: 1747-0218; 1747-0226
• DOI: 10.1177/17470218211048193

We report a boundary paradigm eye movement experiment to investigate whether the predictability of the second character of a two-character compound word affects how it is processed prior to direct fixation during reading. The boundary was positioned immediately prior to the second character of the target word, which itself was either predictable or unpredictable. The preview was either a pseudocharacter (nonsense preview) or an identity preview. We obtained clear preview effects in all conditions, but more importantly, skipping probability for the second character of the target word and the whole target word from pretarget was greater when it was predictable than when it was not predictable from the preceding context. Interactive effects for later measures on the whole target word (gaze duration and go-past time) were also obtained. These results demonstrate that predictability information from preceding sentential context and information regarding the likely identity of upcoming characters are used concurrently to constrain the nature of lexical processing during natural Chinese reading.