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'The-skipping' revisited in French: programming saccades to skip the article 'les'
V Gautier1, J K O'Regan, J F Le Gargasson
1Laboratoire de Biophysique de la Vision, Faculté de Médecine Lariboisière Saint-Louis, INSERM, Université Paris VII, 10 Avenue de Verdun, 75010, Paris, France. vgautier@ext.jussieu.fr
French reading studies confirm that eye movements land further on the article "les" than on three-letter verbs. This "les-skipping" effect persists even with short fixation durations.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psycholinguistics
- Reading Science
Background:
- O'Regan (1979) identified a reading phenomenon where eye movements differ based on the target word.
- Previous research indicated longer forward eye movements towards the English word 'THE' compared to three-letter verbs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate O'Regan's findings in the French language.
- To determine if the 'THE'-verb effect translates to the French article 'les' and three-letter verbs.
- To explore the influence of fixation duration and launch position on this reading behavior.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments were conducted using French text.
- Participants' eye movements were tracked during reading tasks.
- The study compared fixation landing positions on the French article 'les' versus various three-letter verbs.
Main Results:
- The study confirmed that eye movements landed approximately 1.5 letters further on the article 'les' compared to three-letter verbs.
- This 'les-skipping' effect was observed even with short prior fixation durations (around 200 ms).
- The effect showed a tendency to disappear when the launch position was far from the word and fixation was short.
Conclusions:
- The forward eye movement effect observed with 'THE' in English is replicated with the French article 'les'.
- Short fixation durations and specific launch positions can modulate or eliminate the 'les-skipping' effect.
- This research contributes to understanding the subtle control mechanisms governing eye movements in reading.
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