The Effects Of Landing Position And Semantic Bias For Lexical Processing

Previous studies have found the Optimal viewing position (OVP) effects in alphabetic languages, that when the eyes initially fixate the center of the word, the word are identified most quickly and have a lowest probability of refixation. However, whether the different landing positions will have different effects on lexical processing in Chinese reading? Unlike compound word in alphabetic languages, the Chinese two-character words are constituted by two independent units, which each word has its own meaning. Whether semantic information biased focus move will affect behavior in reading? The research was designed to explore whether there is an Optimal viewing position (OVP) effects in Chinese two-character words, and tried to investigate the effects of landing position and semantic bias for lexical processing.Three experiments were included in the research:In the Experiment1,2(landing position: the first word>last word) X3(semantic bias:left-headed、biheaded、right-headed)ANOVAs were carried out to explore the influence of landing position and semantic bias on lexical processing by using the lexical decision task.14college students were tested in Tianjin (mean age24.9years). In Experiment2, on the basis of Experiment1, In addition to using the perceptual identification task, the purpose of the experiment and experimental design is consistent with the experiment1.20college students were tested (mean age23.5years). In Experiment3, the experimental material is the sentence that contains different semantic bias target word.30college students were tested (mean age25.1years).By manipulating the semantic bias, we explored whether the landing position and the semantic bias influenced lexical processing during Chinese reading. To sum up, we can draw the conclusion as follows:(1) Whether the lexical decision task or the perceptual identification task, the landing position had no influences on the gaze duration and the refixation rate.(2) The first fixation duration when the initially fixation position fell on the first word was longer than the initially fixation position fell on the last word’ in the experiment1and2. The results suggested that the landing position had the influence on lexical processing in the early stages of word processing.(3) The high-level language factors, semantic had no influences on the word processing in the lexical decision task.(4) There are differences between the coordinative compound words and the modified compound words. The meanings of constituent morphemes were promoted mutually in the coordinative compound words, but the modified compound words on lexical processing played a catalytic role, specially in the last word.(5) There was a great advantage on word processing when the readers’eyes fell on the rich information region in Chinese reading. The landing position and the semantic bias had the influence on the word processing.Conclusions:It showed that there were no optimal viewing position (OVP) effects in Chinese two-character words. The landing position had the influence on lexical processing in the early stages of word processing. However, the contextual could contribute to extract the semantic information, the landing position and the semantic bias had the influence on the word processing. The time is shorter on word processing when the readers’eyes fell on the rich information region in Chinese reading.