Reading Left-To-Right and Right-To-Left Orthographies: Ocular Prevalence, Similarities, Differences and the Reasons for Orthographic Conventions

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of participants.

Languages	Arabic		Hebrew		English		Chinese
	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%
Total sample	N = 28		N = 16		N = 42		N = 42
Age	Mean = 28.7		Mean = 30.1		Mean = 23.6		Mean = 26.1
Gender
Female	20	71	8	50	24	57	28	67
Male	8	29	8	50	18	43	14	33
Employment
Student	19	67	6	37	35	83	34	80
Employed	9	33	10	63	7	17	8	20

Figure 1. Typology of binocular fixation asynchronies. Left-priority types: T1, T6, T7. Right-priority types: T2, T3, T5. Note: lines are fixation durations. The three lines are ordered in terms of fixation onset: left, right and simultaneous.

Figure 2. The distribution of types of asynchrony in Arabic, Hebrew, English and Chinese readers (in left-to-right order within each set of bars).

Figure 3. Spatial distribution of types in Arabic readers. Left-priority types: T1, T6, T7. Right-priority types: T2, T3, T5. The three lines are ordered in terms of fixation onset: left, right and simultaneous.

Figure 4. Spatial distribution of types in Hebrew readers. Left-priority types: T1, T6, T7. Right-priority types: T2, T3, T5.

Figure 5. Spatial distribution of types in English readers. Left-priority types: T1, T6, T7. Right-priority types: T2, T3, T5.

Table 2. GLMER analysis of Screen differences in Hebrew and Arabic T6.

GLMER analysis of Screen differences in Hebrew T6
	The number of fixations
	null model(1)	sides of screen(2)
Left		-0.011 (0.546)
Right		-0.469 (<0.001)
Constant	1.114 (<0.001)	1.236 (<0.001)
Random effects
	Variance	Std.Dev.
Participant (16)	0.0762	0.2762
Article (119)	0.0275	0.1661
Observations	4,412	4,412
Log Likelihood	-8,559.832	-8,274.856
Akaike Inf. Crit.	17,125.660	16,559.710
Bayesian Inf. Crit.	17,144.840	16,591.670
GLMER analysis of Screen differences in Arabic T6
	The number of fixations
	null model(1)	sides of screen(2)
Left		0.077 (<0.001)
Right		-0.376 (<0.001)
Constant	1.068 (<0.001)	1.134 (<0.001)
Random effects
	Variance	Std.Dev.
Participant (28)	0.1359	0.3687
Article (120)	0.0270	0.1645
Observations	7,034	7,034
Log Likelihood	-13,944.200	-13,541.870
Akaike Inf. Crit.	27,894.400	27,093.730
Bayesian Inf. Crit.	27,914.970	27,128.020

Note: p value in parentheses.

Table 3. GLMER analysis of Screen differences in Hebrew and Arabic T2.

GLMER analysis of screen difference in Hebrew T2
	The number of fixations
	null model(1)	sides of screen(2)
Left		-0.340 (<0.001)
Right		-0.016 (0.515)
Constant	0.752 (<0.001)	0.840 (<0.001)
Random effects
	Variance	Std.Dev.
Participant (16)	0.0651	0.2552
Article (119)	0.0125	0.1122
Observations	3,696	3,696
Log Likelihood	-6,090.340	-6,004.389
Akaike Inf. Crit.	12,186.680	12,018.780
Bayesian Inf. Crit.	12,205.330	12,049.850
GLMER analysis of screen difference in Arabic T2
	The number of fixations
	null model(1)	sides of screen(2)
Left		-0.285 (<0.001)
Right		-0.023 (0.302)
Constant	0.600 (<0.001)	0.679 (<0.001)
Random effects
	Variance	Std.Dev.
Participant (28)	0.0828	0.2878
Article (120)	0.0084	0.0920
Observations	5,240	5,240
Log Likelihood	-8,155.412	-8,079.160
Akaike Inf. Crit.	16,316.820	16,168.320
Bayesian Inf. Crit.	16,336.510	16,201.140

Note: p value in parentheses.

Table 4. GLMER analysis of Screen differences in in Hebrew and Arabic T3.

GLMER analysis of screen difference in Hebrew T3
	The number of fixations
	null model(1)	sides of screen(2)
Left		-0.119 (<0.001)
Right		0.662 (<0.001)
Constant	0.850 (<0.001)	0.502 (<0.001)
Random effects
	Variance	Std.Dev.
Participant (16)	0.0502	0.2241
Article (119)	0.0146	0.1210
Observations	3,380	3,380
Log Likelihood	-6,160.798	-5,647.221
Akaike Inf. Crit.	12,327.600	11,304.440
Bayesian Inf. Crit.	12,345.970	11,335.070
GLMER analysis of screen difference in Arabic T3
	The number of fixations
	null model(1)	sides of screen(2)
Left		-0.223 (<0.001)
Right		0.489 (<0.001)
Constant	0.930 (<0.001)	0.712 (<0.001)
Random effects
	Variance	Std.Dev.
Participant (28)	0.0869	0.2949
Article (120)	0.0217	0.1476
Observations	5,456	5,456
Log Likelihood	-10,009.990	-9,390.262
Akaike Inf. Crit.	20,025.970	18,790.520
Bayesian Inf. Crit.	20,045.780	18,823.550

Note: p value in parentheses.

Table 5. GLMER analysis of differences in direction of reading T6.

	The number of fixations
	reading direction	sides of screen-reading direction
	(1)	(2)
Right to Left	0.275 (<0.001)	0.375 (<0.001)
Left		0.695 (<0.001)
Middle		0.161 (<0.001)
RTL:Left		−0.242 (<0.001)
RTL:Middle		0.248 (<0.001)
Constant	0.820 (<0.001)	0.397 (<0.001)
Random effects
	Variance	Std.Dev.
Participant(128)	0.0848	0.2912
Article(82)	0.0220	0.1483
Screen(5–9)	0.0010	0.0331
Observations	27,550	27,550
Log Likelihood	−51,161.450	−48,750.650
Akaike Inf. Crit.	102,334.900	97,521.300
Bayesian Inf. Crit.	102,384.200	97,603.540

Note: Screens differ for the article and as random slope.

Table 6. GLMER analysis of differences in direction of reading T3.

	The number of fixations
	reading direction	sides of screen-reading direction
	(1)	(2)
Right to Left	−0.055 (0.309)	−0.288 (<0.001)
Middle		0.255 (<0.001)
Right		0.328 (<0.001)
RTL:Middle		−0.070 (<0.001)
RTL:Right		0.406 (<0.001)
Constant	0.957 (<0.001)	0.744 (<0.001)
Random effects
	Variance	Std.Dev.
Participant(128)	0.0748	0.2735
Article(82)	0.0221	0.1486
Screen(5–9)	0.0019	0.0441
Observations	29,349	29,349
Log Likelihood	−53,546.840	−51,934.880
Akaike Inf. Crit.	107,105.700	103,889.800
Bayesian Inf. Crit.	107,155.400	103,972.600

Note: Screens as random slope.

Table 7. GLMER analysis of differences in direction of reading T2.

	The number of fixations
	reading direction	sides of screen-reading direction
	(1)	(2)
Right to Left	0.303 (<0.001)	0.182 (<0.001)
Middle		0.021 (0.328)
Right		0.198 (<0.001)
RTL:Middle		0.287 (<0.001)
RTL:Right		0.090 (<0.001)
Constant	0.367 (<0.001)	0.263 (<0.001)
Random effects
	Variance	Std.Dev.
Participant(128)	0.0469	0.2166
Article(82)	0.0022	0.0474
Observations	19,899	19,899
Log Likelihood	−28,822.090	−28,591.260
Akaike Inf. Crit.	57,652.190	57,198.530
Bayesian Inf. Crit.	57,683.780	57,261.720

Note: p value in parentheses.

Table 8. GLMER analysis of differences in direction of reading T1.

	The number of fixations
	reading direction	sides of screen-reading direction
	(1)	(2)
Right to Left	−0.061 (0.103)	−0.157 (<0.001)
Left		0.065 (<0.001)
Right		−0.246 (<0.001)
RTL:Left		0.081 (<0.001)
RTL:Right		0.280 (<0.001)
Constant	0.441 (<0.001)	0.460 (<0.001)
Random effects
	Variance	Std.Dev.
Participant(128)	0.0323	0.1799
Article(82)	0.0016	0.0411
Observations	18,392	18,392
Log Likelihood	−25,060.780	−24,909.780
Akaike Inf. Crit.	50,131.570	49,835.570
Bayesian Inf. Crit.	50,170.670	49,898.120

Note: p value in parentheses.

Data availability statement

All materials and data are openly available: (see https://osf.io/wk89e/?view_only=77337de874ad4189a428b201e2d5095c)