汉语阅读中眼跳目标选择单元以及词汇加工方式:来自消失文本的实验证据

The Units Saccade Targeting Based on and Words Procession Style in Chinese Reading:Evidences from Disappearing Text

应用EyelinkⅡ眼动仪,通过两项消失文本实验分别考察了汉语阅读过程中眼跳的目标选择单元以及词汇加工方式。实验一操纵注视点上字和词的呈现方式,发现中文读者以词为基本单元对注视点及其右侧文本信息进行加工,且保持词的视知觉完整性对词内再注视眼跳和词间眼跳都有着非常重要的作用;汉语阅读的眼动模式符合认知控制模型的预测。实验二操纵注视点左侧和右侧单词的呈现与消失,结果显示在对词n注视持续50～55ms后词n?1消失将严重影响被试的阅读,词n+1和词n+2的消失均不影响总阅读时间,但会导致读者的眼动模式发生改变,说明中文读者可以并列加工阅读知觉广度内的词汇。

It is well known that words were most important for alphabetic scripts reading （O＇Regan ＆ Jacobs, 1992）. However, unlike alphabetic languages, Chinese texts consist of characters which take the same amount of horizontal extent, and there are no explicit boundaries between the words. Yang and McConkie （2004） proposed that Chinese readers developed oculomotor strategies that did not involve words. But recently, there were strong evidences supporting that word was the basic unit not only for comprehension of text but also for saccade target selecting （Bai, Yan, Liversedge, Zang, ＆ Rayner, 2008; Yan, Kliegl, Richter, Nuthman, ＆ Shu, 2010）. We employed two disappearing text experiments aimed to resolve following confuses： First, was target selection of saccade based on characters or words？ Second, if words, whether or not words in foveal and parafoveal vision, were identified serially or in parallel？ The sentences used in experiments were all composed of 7 to 10 two-character words. Our manipulations are as following： Experiment 1 contained four disappearing conditions and a control. In disappearing conditions, the fixated text disappeared after readers fixate on it 50-55ms. It reappeared immediately as the readers fixated on other text, and a refixation on the current text did not result in it reappearing. The disappearing conditions were （1） current character fixated disappeared, （2） current word fixated disappeared, （3） two adjacent characters （they were not belong to the same word） disappeared together when any of them was fixated, and （4） word n and word n＋1 disappeared together when word n was fixated. We also conducted the Experiment 2, in which the word n-I, word n, word n＋1, and the word n＋2 disappeared respectively when word n was fixated after 50~55 ms. The effects of the disappearing text manipulation on total reading times, number of fixations, and total runs of fixations were not reliable in the first experiment. There were significant effects of the presentation on mean saccade length, number of word refixated and skipped in the first experiment. The results of Experiment 2 have showed that readers spent more time on sentence reading when word n-1 disappearing than the normal. However, word n＋1 and word n＋2 disappearing conditions did not have any influence on the total reading time. The words refixated on word n disappearing condition was also less and words skipped on word n＋1 disappearing condition was more than the control. The gaze time, the number of words refixated and skipped supported the point of ＂saccade generating for target selection was word-based＂, thus, the result of first experiment were compatible to cognitive control models rather than vision/oculomotor models. According serial computation models, word n-1 disappearing condition do not interrupt reading, word n＋1 disappeared when word n was fixated after 50-55 ms does, however the results of both experiments showed were totally different from the predictions of serial computation models, such as E-Z Reader Model. The experiments were also largely been motivated by an important difference between Serial and parallel computation models. So the results of both experiments provided evidences to support parallel processing models.