Eye movements during text reading align with the rate of speech production

Benjamin Gagl (), Klara Gregorova, Julius Golch, Stefan Hawelka, Jona Sassenhagen, Alessandro Tavano, David Poeppel and Christian J. Fiebach
Additional contact information
Benjamin Gagl: Goethe University Frankfurt
Klara Gregorova: Goethe University Frankfurt
Julius Golch: Goethe University Frankfurt
Stefan Hawelka: University of Salzburg
Jona Sassenhagen: Goethe University Frankfurt
Alessandro Tavano: Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics
David Poeppel: Ernst Struengmann Institute for Neuroscience
Christian J. Fiebach: Goethe University Frankfurt

Nature Human Behaviour, 2022, vol. 6, issue 3, 429-442

Abstract: Abstract Across languages, the speech signal is characterized by a predominant modulation of the amplitude spectrum between about 4.3 and 5.5 Hz, reflecting the production and processing of linguistic information chunks (syllables and words) every ~200 ms. Interestingly, ~200 ms is also the typical duration of eye fixations during reading. Prompted by this observation, we demonstrate that German readers sample written text at ~5 Hz. A subsequent meta-analysis of 142 studies from 14 languages replicates this result and shows that sampling frequencies vary across languages between 3.9 Hz and 5.2 Hz. This variation systematically depends on the complexity of the writing systems (character-based versus alphabetic systems and orthographic transparency). Finally, we empirically demonstrate a positive correlation between speech spectrum and eye movement sampling in low-skilled non-native readers, with tentative evidence from post hoc analysis suggesting the same relationship in low-skilled native readers. On the basis of this convergent evidence, we propose that during reading, our brain’s linguistic processing systems imprint a preferred processing rate—that is, the rate of spoken language production and perception—onto the oculomotor system.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01215-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nathum:v:6:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1038_s41562-021-01215-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/nathumbehav/

DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01215-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Human Behaviour is currently edited by Stavroula Kousta

More articles in Nature Human Behaviour from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().