An Eye Movement Study Of Information Integration In Text-Reading

A primary focus in the study of text-reading has been the reactive and integration of the background information. During reading, when the current information is partly different with the background information in working memory, information integration will happen to maintain global coherence. Some psychologists call it "integration reading" . Eye-tracking method to investigate the information integration in text-reading is used in this study to discuss the process of information integration in text-reading.It included three experiments, forty-five individuals were recruited for each experiment, and fifteen a group. According to whether the elaboration on a characteristic of the protagonist was consistent with subsequent target action carried out by the protagonist, the experimental materials were divided into three categories: consistent condition, inconsistent condition and qualified condition. The first Experiment is to study whether the process of information integration in text-reading happens immediately by comparing the reading time in three conditions. The second experiment is to further study the information integration process by adding a filler paragraph. For the third experiment, one more filler paragraph and another target sentence were added in consistent condition and qualified condition to study whether the integration is a constructive coordinating integration. The results were demonstrated as following:1. Information integration doesn't happen immediately in text-reading, it occurs at later stage in information processing.2. Information integration is a kind of coordinating integration.