Reading numbers is harder than reading words: An eye-tracking study.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Psycholinguistics
• Reading Science

Background:

• Reading involves complex cognitive processes, including visual perception and language processing.
• Arabic numerals, unlike words, may engage different reading mechanisms.
• Understanding numeral processing sheds light on the flexibility and limitations of the reading system.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the eye movement patterns of adults reading Arabic numerals versus words and pseudowords.
• To compare the cognitive load associated with reading numerals of varying lengths.
• To determine if numeral reading relies on automatized processes or explicit conversion rules.

Main Methods:

• Recorded eye movements (fixations, saccades) of adults reading aloud short and long Arabic numerals, words, and pseudowords.
• Presented stimuli individually on screen.
• Collected reading aloud and subsequent key press data.

Main Results:

• Adults made significantly more fixations and saccades reading numerals than words, especially for longer numerals.
• Fixation duration increased, and saccade amplitude decreased when reading long numerals compared to long words.
• Reading long numerals exhibited patterns indicative of a cognitively costly, unautomatized process.

Conclusions:

• Reading long Arabic numerals is a cognitively demanding task, unlike reading words.
• Numeral processing appears to involve a step-by-step conversion to an oral form, utilizing sublexical rules.
• Expert readers do not fully automatize the reading of Arabic numerals.