汉语老年读者的多词单元加工:来自眼动研究的证据

Multi-Word Unit Processing for Chinese Older Readers:Evidence from Eye Movements

选取由两个双字词组成的多词组合(单词组合、模糊词组合、双词组合),比较老年人和青年人对多词单元的加工情况。结果发现,相比于其他两类组合,所有被试在单词组合上的注视时间更短,第一遍注视次数更少,成分词上的注视时间更短,跳读率更高,表现出多词单元的加工优势,而且这一加工优势不存在显著的年龄差异。结果表明,汉语老年读者同样将多词单元作为整体进行加工。

In order to explore the reasons underlying older readers’ inefficient reading, the present study selected three types of two twocharacter word combinations to investigate how Chinese older adults process multi-word units. Three types of word combinations included single-word combination(which was comprised of frequently co-occurred two words and was typically considered as single four-character word), ambiguous word combination(which expressed a complete idea but was considered as single word by roughly half of readers), and two-word combination(which was not able to convey a whole meaning and was also considered as two words).Younger and older participants were asked to read sentences containing critical word combinations while their eye movements were monitored. The results showed that: 1) older readers made more and longer fixations and less frequently skipped a word compared to young readers, showing typical reading difficulties;2) both groups of participants spent shorter time on single four-character words and made fewer fixations during first-run reading than those on the ambiguous combinations as well as the two-word combinations.The same pattern also appeared in the first word and second word processing, indicating that multiple word units showed a processing advantage. However, there was no significant age difference in such processing advantage. These findings suggest that older readers process the multi-word units as a whole.