Two stages of word processing during eye fixations in the reading of prose

Abstract

Two experiments explored word processing during the reading of prose. Word frequency and predictability were manipulated to assess lexical access and context-dependent word interpretation. A mask moved in synchrony with the reader's eyes. The effects of this mask combined additively with word frequency and predictability in the first fixation duration data. However, when the sums of the individual fixations on a word were computed, there was a consistent tendency toward a mask × predictability interaction, while the mask again combined additively with word frequency. It is argued that the on-line processing of individual words becomes increasingly differentiated as postlexical processing becomes implicated.