The influence of contextual constraint and word length on eye movement control during Chinese reading

Weiqiong JinYang LiuSuiping Wang^*

• South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China

This manuscript presents an eye-tracking experiment examining how sentence context and word length influence eye movement control during Chinese reading. The authors manipulated sentence constraint (high vs. low) and word length (single-character vs. three-character) while Chinese readers read sentences naturally. Results revealed effects of contextual constraint and word length on fixation durations and landing positions, but no significant interaction between these factors was found. The authors conclude that sentence context does not modulate the word length effect in eye movement control, and that Chinese readers do not use a word-based strategy to select saccade targets. The discussion effectively extends current reading models, contributing valuable insights into the mechanisms of eye movement control in Chinese reading. The experiment was well-designed, and the results appear robust, incorporating Bayes factor analyses to provide strong evidence for the absence of an interaction effect. Several concerns need to be addressed before it can be considered for publication.