Abstract
Parafoveal processing, the ability to extract linguistic information from locations beyond the currently fixated word, is a core component of skilled reading. Recent theoretical debate on this topic is focused on the question of whether the acquisition of parafoveal word information occurs in a strictly sequential or limited parallel fashion. According to recent findings (e.g. Glover, Radach, & Vorstius, submitted) it appears as if some parafoveal information can be extracted from word N + 2 while fixating word N, which favors parallel word processing within a limited region around the current fixation. To further explore the extent and limits of the phenomenon, a new experiment was designed to provide optimal conditions for parafoveal processing within the perceptual span. To this end target words were embedded in sentences with high versus low contextual constraint. This design builds on a considerable amount of prior research showing that the predictability of a word in context influences the time needed to process that word. Generally, the more predictable a word is given the context, the faster or easier that word is processed, including the benefit derived from parafoveal preview (Balota, Pollatsek & Rayner, 1985; Rayner & Well, 1996). Our results indicate that under highly predictable sentence frames, the parafoveal preview benefit from N + 2 also occurs, providing further support for distant parallel word processing when conditions are at an optimum.
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