Individual Differences in Eye-Movements During Reading: Working Memory and Speed-of-Processing Effects

  • Matthew J. Traxler University of California Davis
  • Clinton L. Johns University of California Davis
  • Debra L. Long University of California Davis
  • Megan Zirnstein University of California Davis
  • Kristen M. Tooley University of California Davis
  • Eunike Jonathan University of California Davis
Keywords: eye-movements, reading, individual differences, working memory

Abstract

Mathematical models of eye-movement control do not yet incorporate individual differences as a source of variation in reading. These models nonetheless provide an excellent foundation for describing and explaining how and why patterns of eye-movements differ across readers (e.g., Rayner et al., 2006). We focus in this article on two aspects of individual variation: global processing speed (e.g., Salthouse, 1996) and working-memory capacity (e.g., Just & Carpenter, 1992). Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) (Raudenbush & Bryk, 2001), we tested the extent to which overall reading speed and working-memory capacity moderate the degree to which syntactic and semantic information affect fixation times. We found that working-memory capacity interacted with sentence-characteristic variables only when processing speed was not included in the model.
Published
2012-04-02
How to Cite
Traxler, M. J., Johns, C. L., Long, D. L., Zirnstein, M., Tooley, K. M., & Jonathan, E. (2012). Individual Differences in Eye-Movements During Reading: Working Memory and Speed-of-Processing Effects. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.5.1.5
Section
Articles