Word skipping as an indicator of individual reading style during literary reading
Decades of research have established that the content of language (e.g. lexical characteristics of words) predicts eye movements during reading. Here we investigate whether there exist individual differences in ‘stable’ eye movement patterns during narrative reading. We computed Euclidean distances...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-02-01
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| Series: | Journal of Eye Movement Research |
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| Online Access: | https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/5865 |
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| author | Myrthe Faber Marloes Mak Roel Willems |
| author_facet | Myrthe Faber Marloes Mak Roel Willems |
| author_sort | Myrthe Faber |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Decades of research have established that the content of language (e.g. lexical characteristics of words) predicts eye movements during reading. Here we investigate whether there exist individual differences in ‘stable’ eye movement patterns during narrative reading. We computed Euclidean distances from correlations between gaze durations time courses (word level) across 102 participants who each read three literary narratives in Dutch. The resulting distance matrices were compared between narratives using a Mantel test. The results show that correlations between the scaling matrices of different narratives are relatively weak (r ≤ .11) when missing data points are ignored. However, when including these data points as zero durations (i.e. skipped words), we found significant correlations between stories (r > .51). Word skipping was significantly positively associated with print exposure but not with self-rated attention and story-world absorption, suggesting that more experienced readers are more likely to skip words, and do so in a comparable fashion. We interpret this finding as suggesting that word skipping might be a stable individual eye movement pattern. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-8c544e02e82040e4986ff69025ceb8bb |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1995-8692 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Eye Movement Research |
| spelling | doaj-art-8c544e02e82040e4986ff69025ceb8bb2025-08-20T03:09:59ZengMDPI AGJournal of Eye Movement Research1995-86922020-02-0113310.16910/jemr.13.3.2Word skipping as an indicator of individual reading style during literary readingMyrthe Faber0Marloes Mak1Roel Willems2Donders Centre for Cognitive NeuroimagingCentre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, The NetherlandsCentre for Language Studies & Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The NetherlandsDecades of research have established that the content of language (e.g. lexical characteristics of words) predicts eye movements during reading. Here we investigate whether there exist individual differences in ‘stable’ eye movement patterns during narrative reading. We computed Euclidean distances from correlations between gaze durations time courses (word level) across 102 participants who each read three literary narratives in Dutch. The resulting distance matrices were compared between narratives using a Mantel test. The results show that correlations between the scaling matrices of different narratives are relatively weak (r ≤ .11) when missing data points are ignored. However, when including these data points as zero durations (i.e. skipped words), we found significant correlations between stories (r > .51). Word skipping was significantly positively associated with print exposure but not with self-rated attention and story-world absorption, suggesting that more experienced readers are more likely to skip words, and do so in a comparable fashion. We interpret this finding as suggesting that word skipping might be a stable individual eye movement pattern.https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/5865Eye movementsgaze durationsword skippingnarrativesliterary readingindividual differences |
| spellingShingle | Myrthe Faber Marloes Mak Roel Willems Word skipping as an indicator of individual reading style during literary reading Journal of Eye Movement Research Eye movements gaze durations word skipping narratives literary reading individual differences |
| title | Word skipping as an indicator of individual reading style during literary reading |
| title_full | Word skipping as an indicator of individual reading style during literary reading |
| title_fullStr | Word skipping as an indicator of individual reading style during literary reading |
| title_full_unstemmed | Word skipping as an indicator of individual reading style during literary reading |
| title_short | Word skipping as an indicator of individual reading style during literary reading |
| title_sort | word skipping as an indicator of individual reading style during literary reading |
| topic | Eye movements gaze durations word skipping narratives literary reading individual differences |
| url | https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/5865 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT myrthefaber wordskippingasanindicatorofindividualreadingstyleduringliteraryreading AT marloesmak wordskippingasanindicatorofindividualreadingstyleduringliteraryreading AT roelwillems wordskippingasanindicatorofindividualreadingstyleduringliteraryreading |