Abstract
It has recently been reported that reading fluency goes beyond accuracy and speed. Efficient processing of word sequences has also been found to be a prerequisite for fluent reading. Processing successive words involves to some extent readers’ ability to process not only the currently fixated word but also the upcoming words at a single glance. Parafoveal processing facilitates reading efficiency by partially preprocessing upcoming words during the preceding fixation leading to shorter subsequent fixations on these words. However, recent studies on single word recognition, using a flanking design resembling multi-element contexts encountered in sentence reading, have documented interference effects induced by adjacent words. These findings suggest that parafoveal processing comes with an intrinsic cost, at least at a word level. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether spatial proximity between parafoveal and foveal words further modulate the interference effects induced by adjacent words on single word recognition. To do so, a flanking-word Visual World Paradigm is used. Eye-tracking data from a sample of 54 Norwegian-speaking adult skilled readers were collected and analysed. Through subject and item Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) spacing was found to have a statistically significant main effect on processing individual, yet non-isolated, words. Closer proximity between foveal and parafoveal words led to slower and more fragile word recognition as compared to normal (default) spacing. Target words were equally divided into two frequency groups, the high-frequency and the low-frequency group. No statistical interaction was found between spacing and frequency, suggesting that spacing effects do not vary as a function of word frequency. The study findings suggest that as the spatial proximity between parafoveal and foveal words increases, processing costs in the recognition of the fixated word also increase. Parafoveal processing comes with an intrinsic cost and interword spaces further modulate such interference effects. Exploring the optimal spacing in novice and skilled readers can provide valuable insights into the underlying processes of visual word recognition.