The role of eye movements in learning to read and reading disability is reviewed. Characteristics of eye movements during reading for skilled, beginning, and disabled readers are discussed. It is argued that eye movements are not a cause of reading problems and that training children with reading problems to make smooth, efficient eye movements will not increase their reading ability. Rather, eye movement characteristics during reading reflect the difficulty that children have understanding written text.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Black, J. L., Collins, D. W. K., DeRoach, J. N., & Zubrick, S. (1984). Dyslexia: Saccadic eye movements. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 58, 903–910.
2.
Brown, B., Haegerstrom-Portnoy, G., Adams, A., Yingling, C., Galin, D., Herron, J., & Marcus, M. (1983). Predictive eye movements do not discriminate between dyslexic and control children. Neuropsychologia, 21, 121–128.
3.
Buswell, G. T. (1922). Fundamental reading habits: A study of their development.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
4.
Eskanzi, B. & Diamond, S. P. (1983). Visual exploration of non-verbal material by dyslexic children. Cortex, 19, 345–370.
5.
Fisher, D. F. (1979). Dysfunctions in reading disability: There's more than meets the eye. In L. B. Resnick & P. A. Weaver (Eds.), Theory and practice of early reading (Vol. 1, pp. 109–135). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
6.
Fisher, D. F., & Lefton, L. A. (1976). Peripheral information extraction: A developmental examination. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology21, 77–93.
7.
Fisher, D. F., & Montanary, W. E. (1977). Spatial and contextual factors in beginning reading: Evidence for PSG-CSG complements to developing automaticity?. Memory & Cognition, 5, 247–251.
8.
Hochberg, J. (1970). Components of literacy: Speculation and exploratory research. In H. Levin, & J. P. Williams (Eds.), Basic studies on reading (pp. 74–89). New York: Basic Books.
9.
Huey, E. B. (1908). The psychology and pedagogy of reading.New York: Macmillan.
10.
LaBerge, D. & Samuels, S. J. (1974). Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading. Cognitive Psychology, 6, 293–323.
11.
McConkie, G. W., & Rayner, K. (1975). The span of the effective stimulus during a fixation in reading. Perception & Psychophysics, 17, 578–586.
12.
Nodine, C. F., & Evans, J. D. (1969). Eye movements of pre-readers to pseudowords containing letters of high and low confusability. Perception & Psychophysics, 6, 39–41.
13.
Nodine, D. F., & Lang. N. J. (1971). The development of visual scanning strategies for differentiating words. Developmental Psychology, 5, 221–232.
14.
Nodine, C. F., & Simmons, F. G. (1974). Processing distinctive features in the differentiation of letterlike symbols. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 103, 21–28.
15.
Nodine, C. F., & Stuerle, N. L. (1973). Development of perceptual and cognitive strategies for differentiating graphemes. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 97, 158–166.
16.
Olson, R. K., & Kliegl, R., & Davidson, B. J. (1983). Dyslexic and normal readers' eye movements. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 9, 816–825.
17.
Pavlidis, G. T. (1981). Do eye movements hold the key to dyslexia?. Neuropsychologia, 19, 57–64.
18.
Pavlidis, G. T. (1983). The “dyslexia syndrome” and its objective diagnosis by erratic eye movements. In K. Rayner (Ed.), Eye movements in reading: Perceptual and language processes (pp. 441–466). New York: Academic Press.
19.
Pirozzolo, F. J., & Rayner, K. (1978). The neural control of eye movements in acquired and developmental reading disorders. In H. A. Whitaker & H. A. Whitaker (Eds.), Studies in neurolinguistics (Vol. 4, pp. 97–123). New York: Academic Press.
20.
Pollatsek, A., & Rayner, K. (1982). Eye movement control in reading: The role of word boundaries. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 8, 817–833.
21.
Rayner, K. (1975). The perceptual span and peripheral cues in reading. Cognitive Psychology, 7, 65–81.
22.
Rayner, K. (1978). Eye movements in reading and information processing. Psychological Bulletin, 85, 618–660.
23.
Rayner, K. (1983). Eye movements in reading: Perceptual and language processes.New York: Academic Press.
24.
Rayner, K. (1984). Visual selection in reading, picture perception, and visual search: A tutorial review. In H. Bouma, & D. G. Bouwhuis (Eds.), Attention and performance 10 (pp. 67–96). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
25.
Rayner, K., (1985). Do faulty eye movements cause dyslexia?Developmental Neuropsychology, 1.
26.
Rayner, K. & Bettera, J. H. (1979). Reading without a fovea. Science, 206, 468–469.
27.
Spragins, A. B., Lefton, L. A., & Fisher, D. F. (1976). Eye movements while reading and searching spatially transformed text: A developmental examination. Memory & Cognition, 4, 36–42.
28.
Stanley, G., Smith, G. A., & Howell, E. A. (1983). Eye movements and sequential tracking in dyslexic and control children. British Journal of Psychology, 74, 181–187.
29.
Taylor, S. E. (1965). Eye movements while reading: Facts and fallacies. American Educational Research Journal, 2, 187–202.
30.
Tinker, M. A. (1958). Recent studies of eye movements in reading. Psychological Bulletin, 55, 215–231.
31.
Zangwill, O. L., & Blakemore, C. (1972). Dyslexia: Reversal of eye-movements during reading. Neuropsychologia, 10, 371–373.
