Cognitive Processes and Eye Movements During Reading

Abstract

(From the chapter) For the past century, researchers have struggled to unravel the complexities of cognitive processes involved in reading. In this chapter, the authors discuss some of the remarkable progress being made in the field of reading research, and they show how eye movement measures have become instrumental in revealing the moment-to-moment activity of the mind during reading. The primary goal is to demonstrate that where readers look and how long they look there can provide valuable insights into the nature of the mental processes that are involved in the comprehension of printed text. The authors first briefly describe some basic empirical facts about eye movements as they pertain to the reading process, and they discuss evidence from prior studies which indicate that eye movements can be used to infer moment-to-moment cognitive processes. The remainder of the chapter will focus on some recent work from the authors' lab which illustrates the relation of eye movements to on-line cognitive processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA )