Word ambiguity and the optimal viewing position in reading
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Using Eye Movements to Evaluate the Cognitive Processes Involved in Text Comprehension
Published on: January 10, 2014
1Department of Electrical Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, Que., Canada. clark@cim.mcgill.ca
Abstract:
The optimal viewing position phenomenon discovered by (O'Regan, J. K., Lévy-Schoen, A., Pynte, J., Brugaillère, B. (1984). Convenient fixation location within isolated words of different length and structure. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and performance. 10 (2), 250-257) is characterized by a minimization of gaze duration on a word and maximization of word recognition rates when the eye fixates a word near its center. Subsequent studies (Holmes, V. M., & O'Regan, J. K. (1987). Decomposing french words. In J. K. O'Regan, & A. Lévy-Schoen, Eye movements: from physiology to cognition, North-Holland, Amsterdam, 459-466; O'Regan, J. K., & Lévy-Schoen, A. (1987). Eye movement strategy and tactics in word recognition and reading. In M. Coltheart, Attention and performance XII: the psychology of reading, Erlbaum, Hillsdale N.J., 363-383) have shown that lexical structure can affect the location of the optimal viewing position. In this paper we show that the optimal viewing position is near to the position which minimizes word ambiguity arising from incomplete recognition of the letters in the word. This conclusion is supported by a statistical analysis based on inter-letter correlations in English and French word corpuses.
More Related Videos
07:36Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects
Published on: November 30, 2018
05:54Eye-tracking to Distinguish Comprehension-based and Oculomotor-based Regressive Eye Movements During Reading
Published on: October 18, 2018
Related Concept Videos
Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity
Anatomy of the Eyeball
Focusing of Light in the Eye
Depth Perception and Spatial Vision
Gestalt Principles of Perception