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Updated: Oct 9, 2025

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects
Published on: November 30, 2018
Semantic parafoveal processing in natural reading: Insight from fixation-related potentials & eye movements
Martín Antúnez1, Sara Milligan2, Juan Andrés Hernández-Cabrera1
1Cognitive Psychology Department, Universidad de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.
Abstract:
Prior research suggests that we may access the meaning of parafoveal words during reading. We explored how semantic-plausibility parafoveal processing takes place in natural reading through the co-registration of eye movements (EM) and fixation-related potentials (FRPs), using the boundary paradigm. We replicated previous evidence of semantic parafoveal processing from highly controlled reading situations, extending their findings to more ecologically valid reading scenarios. Additionally, and exploring the time-course of plausibility preview effects, we found distinct but complementary evidence from EM and FRPs measures. FRPs measures, showing a different trend than EM evidence, revealed that plausibility preview effects may be long-lasting. We highlight the importance of a co-registration set-up in ecologically valid scenarios to disentangle the mechanisms related to semantic-plausibility parafoveal processing.
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