Perceptual Span during Silent Reading in Russian Adults and School Students in Grades 3-4

P. 9–12.

Staroverova V., Lopukhina A.

One of the indicators of reading proficiency is the size of the perceptual span which is the amount of information that people can perceive within one fixation. Previous studies on the perceptual span have often been focused on English, and it is unclear whether the results can be replicated in other languages and in scripts other than Latin. In our study, we address this question by investigating the perceptual span in Russian adults and children. Russian-speaking young adults, third graders, and fourth graders participated in an eye-tracking-during-reading experiment with a moving window paradigm (McConkie & Rayner, 1975) and completed a battery of language tests. We found that perceptual span was larger in adults compared to children and its size was 14 characters to the right of the fixation point, similarly to English adult readers. Children’s perceptual span consisted of 10 characters to the right of the fixation point. Finally, we showed that individual differences in language skills did not correlate with the size of the perceptual span.

Keywords: айтрекинг, чтение взрослых, developing reading skills

In book

Общетеоретические и типологические проблемы языкознания. Материалы VII Международной научной конференции

Бийск: АГГПУ им. В.М. Шукшина, 2022.