Predictability Effects And Preview Processing For One- And Two- Character Word In Chinese Reading

Three eye tracking experiments were designed to investigate whether the global and local predictability affects preview processing.Exp1 investigated global predictability effect and preview processing on one-character word;Exp2 investigated global predictability effect and preview processing on two-character word;Exp3 investigated local predictability effect and preview processing on two-character word.We manipulated the predictability(high predictability and low predictability)and preview type(identical and dissimilar).The boundary paradigm(Rayner,1975)was used and the invisible boundary was positioned prior to the one-character word or the second character of the two-character word.In Exp1,we obtained the main effect of predictability and preview type in pretarget word(N-1)and target word(N)but,more importantly,an interaction between predictability and preview type was found in pretarget word: the preview effect was larger for high predictability condition than for low predictability condition.The results of Exp1 showed that preview processing of the one-character word was influenced by the preceding context.In Exp2,we also obtained the main effect of predictability and preview type in pretarget word(N-1)and target word(N)but,more importantly,an interaction between predictability and preview type was found in pretarget word: the preview effect was larger for high predictability condition than for low predictability condition.The results of Exp2 showed that preview processing of the two-character word was influenced by the preceding context.In Exp3,the local predictability effect on preview processing was investigated by comparing the preview effect which was triggered both by global and local predictability effect(Exp3),and only by global predictability(Exp1).In Exp3,we found the main effect of predictability and preview type was also significant in pretarget word(the first character of the two-character word,N-1),and target word(the second character of the two-character word,N),more importantly,an interaction between predictability and preview type was found in target word: the preview effect was larger for high predictability condition than for low predictability condition.Moreover,combined analysis of Exp3 and Exp1 showed that,there was a significant three-way interaction of word type,predictability and preview type: for high predictability condition,preview effect was larger for the two-character word than forone-character word;but for low predictability condition,there was no difference.The results of Exp3 showed that preview processing of the second character of a two-character word were not only influenced by the preceding context but also by constraints deriving from the first character.In sum,the present study shows that the predictability information both from preceding context(global predictability)and pretarget word(local predictability)is used on-line to moderate the preview processing of the upcoming characters.The data from these experiments fit better with the theoretical assumptions of parallel processing models of eye movement control in reading.