K. Rayner et Mh. Fischer, MINDLESS READING REVISITED - EYE-MOVEMENTS DURING READING AND SCANNING ARE DIFFERENT, Perception & psychophysics, 58(5), 1996, pp. 734-747
In an extension of a study by Vitu, O'Regan, Inhoff, and Topolski (199
5), we compared global and local characteristics of eye movements duri
ng (1) reading, (2) the scanning of transformed text (in which each le
tter was replaced with a z), and (3) visual search. Additionally, we e
xamined eye behavior with respect to specific target words of high or
low frequency. Globally, the reading condition led to shorter fixation
s, longer saccades, and less frequent skipping of target strings than
did scanning transformed text. Locally, the manipulation of word frequ
ency affected fixation durations on the target word during reading, bu
t not during visual search or z-string scanning. There were also more
refixations on target words in reading than in scanning. Contrary to V
itu et al.'s (1995) findings, our results show that eye movements are
not guided by a global strategy and local tactics, but by immediate pr
ocessing demands.