| Abstract | The primary characteristics of eye movements during reading are reviewed and 4 areas are summarized: (a) the span of effective vision, (b) integration of information across eye movements, (c) the decision of where to fixation next, and (d) the decision of when to move the eyes. In addition, some current controversies about eye movements and reading are discussed.
In his article, McConkie (this issue) describes some historical and personal reflections on our initial work using eye movements to study the reading process. In this article, I review the major findings that have emerged over the past 25 years of research on eye movements in reading. My own bias is that understanding eye movements during reading is vitally important for understanding the reading process. The results of many studies using eye movement data have placed severe constraints on the direction a theory of reading should go. In addition, eye movement data have proved to be very useful in adjudicating between alternative theoretical accounts of how different processes operate during skilled reading. I shall return at the end of the article to further discuss why understanding eye movement behavior is important in understanding reading.
|