中国科学院行为科学重点实验室知识库

In two experiments, we explored attention deployment during the reading of Chinese words using a probe detection task. In both experiments, Chinese readers saw four simplified Chinese characters briefly, and then a probe was presented at one of the character positions. The four characters constituted either one word or two words of two characters each. Reaction time was shorter when the probe was at the character 2 position than the character 3 position in the two-word condition, but not in the one-word condition. In Experiment 2, there were more trials and the materials were more carefully controlled, and the results replicated that of Experiment 1. These results suggest that word boundary information affects attentional deployment in Chinese reading. Citation: Li X, Ma G (2012) Word Boundaries Affect Visual Attention in Chinese Reading. PLoS ONE 7(11): e48905. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0048905

This research was supported by the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KSCX2-YW-BR-6) and by a grant from the Natural Science Foundation of China (31070904). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.