A developmental study of eye movements in Hebrew word reading: the effects of word familiarity, word length, and reading proficiency

Previous studies examining the link between visual word recognition and eye movements have shown that eye movements reflect the time-course of cognitive processes involved in reading. Whereas most studies have been undertaken in Western European languages written in the Roman alphabet, the present d...

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Main Authors: Hend Lahoud, David L. Share, Adi Shechter
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-07-01
Series:Frontiers in Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1052755/full
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author Hend Lahoud
Hend Lahoud
David L. Share
David L. Share
Adi Shechter
Adi Shechter
author_facet Hend Lahoud
Hend Lahoud
David L. Share
David L. Share
Adi Shechter
Adi Shechter
author_sort Hend Lahoud
collection DOAJ
description Previous studies examining the link between visual word recognition and eye movements have shown that eye movements reflect the time-course of cognitive processes involved in reading. Whereas most studies have been undertaken in Western European languages written in the Roman alphabet, the present developmental study investigates a non-European language—Hebrew, which is written in a non-alphabetic (abjadic) script. We compared the eye-movements of children in Grades 4 to 6 (N = 30) and university students (N = 30) reading familiar real words and unfamiliar (pseudo)words of 3 letters and 5 letters in length. Using linear mixed models, we focused on the effects of word familiarity, word length, and age group. Our results highlight both universal aspects of word reading (developmental and familiarity (lexicality) effects) as well as language-specific word length effect which appears to be related to the unique morphological and orthographic features of the Semitic abjad.
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spelling doaj.art-9ba684540e224e59b1cb5786b85cf41e2023-07-07T13:50:06ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782023-07-011410.3389/fpsyg.2023.10527551052755A developmental study of eye movements in Hebrew word reading: the effects of word familiarity, word length, and reading proficiencyHend Lahoud0Hend Lahoud1David L. Share2David L. Share3Adi Shechter4Adi Shechter5Department of Learning Disabilities, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa, IsraelEdmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, University of Haifa, Haifa, IsraelDepartment of Learning Disabilities, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa, IsraelEdmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, University of Haifa, Haifa, IsraelDepartment of Learning Disabilities, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa, IsraelEdmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, University of Haifa, Haifa, IsraelPrevious studies examining the link between visual word recognition and eye movements have shown that eye movements reflect the time-course of cognitive processes involved in reading. Whereas most studies have been undertaken in Western European languages written in the Roman alphabet, the present developmental study investigates a non-European language—Hebrew, which is written in a non-alphabetic (abjadic) script. We compared the eye-movements of children in Grades 4 to 6 (N = 30) and university students (N = 30) reading familiar real words and unfamiliar (pseudo)words of 3 letters and 5 letters in length. Using linear mixed models, we focused on the effects of word familiarity, word length, and age group. Our results highlight both universal aspects of word reading (developmental and familiarity (lexicality) effects) as well as language-specific word length effect which appears to be related to the unique morphological and orthographic features of the Semitic abjad.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1052755/fulleye movementHebrewword recognitionlexicalityreadingword length
spellingShingle Hend Lahoud
Hend Lahoud
David L. Share
David L. Share
Adi Shechter
Adi Shechter
A developmental study of eye movements in Hebrew word reading: the effects of word familiarity, word length, and reading proficiency
Frontiers in Psychology
eye movement
Hebrew
word recognition
lexicality
reading
word length
title A developmental study of eye movements in Hebrew word reading: the effects of word familiarity, word length, and reading proficiency
title_full A developmental study of eye movements in Hebrew word reading: the effects of word familiarity, word length, and reading proficiency
title_fullStr A developmental study of eye movements in Hebrew word reading: the effects of word familiarity, word length, and reading proficiency
title_full_unstemmed A developmental study of eye movements in Hebrew word reading: the effects of word familiarity, word length, and reading proficiency
title_short A developmental study of eye movements in Hebrew word reading: the effects of word familiarity, word length, and reading proficiency
title_sort developmental study of eye movements in hebrew word reading the effects of word familiarity word length and reading proficiency
topic eye movement
Hebrew
word recognition
lexicality
reading
word length
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1052755/full
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