Abstract
Purpose :
Despite significant advancements in our understanding of reading performance through eye movement research, studies addressing children’s reading – particularly Chinese reading – are markedly limited. This study aims to investigate Chinese reading development in children by examining how luminance contrast and grade level impact their eye movement patterns.
Methods :
A total of 235 children, aged 7-12 years, from Grade 1 to 6 were randomly selected from 5 Hong Kong local primary schools. All participants had normal or corrected-to-normal near vision (logMAR < 0.2). They were instructed to read aloud 11 sentences written in Traditional Chinese at a viewing distance of 50 cm, while their eye movements were recorded using the Tobii Pro Fusion eye-tracker (sampling frequency: 250 Hz). The contrast level of each sentence was systematically reduced from 99.6 % to 0.3 % against a white background. Each sentence, consisting of 18 characters (size: 2.3°), was arranged horizontally from left to right over two lines (13 and 5 characters on the first and second line, respectively). Parameters such as the fixation number and duration, saccade number and amplitude, and regression number were extracted for analysis.
Results :
Irrespective of the grade level, children’s reading speed remained steady until the contrast level was reduced to 2%, after which it demonstrated a linear decline. As anticipated, children at higher grade levels read significantly faster, with an approximate increase of 0.38 character per second for each ascending grade level. Children at higher grades showed a significant decrease in fixation number and duration, saccade number, and regression number, along with an increase in saccade amplitude (two-way ANOVA, all p＜0.01). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that all eye movements parameters accounted for 69% of the variance in reading speed, while the fixation number alone accounted for 54%.
Conclusions :
This study provides insights into the performance of Chinese reading in children across different grade levels. Contrary to the eye movement patterns observed in reading other languages, the fixation number emerged as the most critical factor determining the speed of Chinese reading among children. Our findings may suggest unique characteristics intrinsic to the process of reading in the Chinese language.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.