The effective visual field in reading Chinese

The size and shape of the effective visual field in Chinese reading was inv estigated by systematically manipulating the availability of meaningful inf ormation 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 r eading Chinese was asymmetric and skewed in the direction of scanning with a highly limited size, composing of the fixated character and two character s to its right.