Vitu F, McConkie G W, Kerr P, O'Regan J K
CNRS, Université René Descartes, EPHE Laboratoire de Psychologie Expérimentale, 71 avenue Edouard Vaillant, 92774, Cedex, Boulognr-Bilancourt, France.
Vision Res. 2001;41(25-26):3513-33. doi: 10.1016/s0042-6989(01)00166-3.
Previous research has found that words are identified most quickly when the eyes are near their center (the Optimal Viewing Position effect). A study was conducted to determine whether this same phenomenon is observed during reading, as revealed by a relationship between fixation position in a word and the duration of the fixation. An analysis of three large existing corpora of eye movement data, two from adults and one from children, showed a surprising inverted Optimal Viewing Position curve: mean fixation duration is greatest, rather than lowest, when the eyes were at the centers of words. From this phenomenon, we suggest an alternative explanation to the fixation duration trade-off effect in word refixations [O'Regan & Lévy-Schoen, Attention and performance XII: the psychology of reading (1987)]; the phenomenon also contradicts expectations of both oculomotor and cognitive theories of eye movement control. Attempts to test alternative explanations led to the discovery of another phenomenon, the Saccade Distance effect: mean fixation durations vary with the distance of the prior fixation from the currently-fixated word, being longer with greater distances. The durations of fixations in reading are complexly determined, with influences both from language and perceptual/oculomotor levels.
先前的研究发现，当眼睛靠近单词中心时（最佳注视位置效应），单词识别速度最快。一项研究旨在确定在阅读过程中是否也能观察到同样的现象，这可通过单词中的注视位置与注视持续时间之间的关系来揭示。对三个现有的大型眼动数据语料库进行分析，其中两个来自成年人，一个来自儿童，结果显示出惊人的倒U型最佳注视位置曲线：当眼睛位于单词中心时，平均注视持续时间最长，而非最短。基于这一现象，我们对单词重读中的注视持续时间权衡效应提出了另一种解释[奥雷根和勒维 - 舍恩，《注意力与表现十二：阅读心理学》（1987年）]；该现象也与眼动控制的动眼神经理论和认知理论的预期相矛盾。对其他解释进行测试的尝试导致发现了另一种现象，即扫视距离效应：平均注视持续时间随前一次注视点与当前注视单词的距离而变化，距离越远持续时间越长。阅读中注视的持续时间是由语言和感知/动眼神经层面的影响复杂决定的。
