Psychological Development and Education ›› 2023, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (6): 781-787.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2023.06.03

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Effects of Spacing and Word Frequency on the Reading of Young and Older Adults: An Eye Movement Study

WANG Jingxin1, ZHAO Sainan1, XU Qianqian2   

  1. 1. Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387;
    2. Normal College, Weifang Institute of Technology, Weifang 262500
  • Published:2023-11-11

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Abstract: An EyeLink 2000 eye-tracker recorded each participant's right-eye gaze location while they were reading inter-character spacing text. Participants were 24 young adults aged 18~26 years (M=21 years) and 24 older adults aged 65~76 years (M=66 years) from the Tianjin Normal University and community near the university. The results showed that there was no significant difference in reading time between increased inter-character spacing and normal condition, and there was no significant difference in the effect of inter-character spacing on high and low frequency words. What's more, significant interactions between age-group and spacing condition were found for average fixation durations, forward saccade length and number of forward saccade fixations. Under the condition of decreased and normal inter-character spacing, older adults had great differences in eye movements than young adults, and had longer fixation durations. Therefore, the results indicate that increase inter-character spacing had no significant influence on reading, and decrease inter-character spacing will had greater disrupt for older than young adults. It shows that older adults are more sensitive to visual changes, and visual rather than lexical processing is disrupted more for older adults.

Key words: inter-character spacing, word frequency, Chinese reading, eye movement study

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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