The effective visual field in reading Chinese

Abstract

The size and shape of the effective visual field in Chinese reading was investigated by systematically manipulating the availability of meaningful information on both sides of a fixated character. A self-paced, moving-window technique (Chen 1992) was adopted to measure the viewing time of individual characters as an on-line indicator of reading effectiveness under various display conditions. The results showed that the effective visual field in reading Chinese was asymmetric and skewed in the direction of scanning with a highly limited size, composing of the fixated character and two characters to its right. © 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers.