Font size modulates saccade-target selection in Chinese reading.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Linguistics

Background:

• Saccade amplitude, a key indicator of reading speed, remains constant across font sizes in alphabetic writing systems.
• This invariance is often attributed to visual acuity changes with eccentricity.
• The role of inter-word spacing in maintaining consistent saccade amplitude is hypothesized.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether saccade amplitude invariance with font size extends to Chinese, a character-based writing system lacking explicit word spacing.
• To determine the impact of font size on reading Chinese text and compare it to alphabetic systems.

Main Methods:

• Participants read Chinese text presented in various font sizes.
• Eye movements, specifically saccade amplitude and fixation patterns, were recorded and analyzed.
• Comparison of reading behavior in Chinese versus previously studied alphabetic languages.

Main Results:

• Saccade amplitude significantly decreased as font size increased when reading Chinese.
• An increased number of fixations at the beginning of characters and more refixations were observed with larger font sizes.
• This contrasts with the font size invariance seen in alphabetic writing systems.

Conclusions:

• The presence of inter-word spaces in alphabetic writing systems may contribute to font size invariance of saccade amplitude.
• Reading Chinese, without explicit word boundaries, leads to font size-dependent saccade amplitudes.
• Findings support a model where word beginnings serve as default saccade targets when parafoveal word length information is unavailable.