Parafoveal processing in reading Chinese sentences: Evidence from event-related brain potentials

Natural reading involves the preprocessing of upcoming words, resulting in shorter fixations on words visible in the parafovea during preceding fixations. While this preview benefit is established in behavior, its brain-electric correlates have only recently been investigated. Using fixation-related potentials, an attenuation of the occipitotemporal N1 component for words that were parafoveally visible during preceding fixations has been demonstrated. In contrast, another study, using an RSVP paradigm with parafoveal flanker words, observed no such general preview benefit in ERPs, but instead reported N400 effects triggered by semantically incongruous parafoveal words. To follow up on these discrepant findings and to extend them to a nonalphabetic writing system, we conducted two ERP experiments with Chinese readers using the RSVP-with-flankers paradigm and rigorous fixation control via eye tracking. We replicate robust parafoveal N400 semantic congruency effects in Chinese participants. Additionally, we found that, once a word was directly looked at, words after a valid preview elicited a smaller N1 and a weaker N400 than those after an invalid preview. Results underline the importance of considering parafoveal vision in ERP studies on reading.