Children's Eye Movements in Reading: A Commentary

Abstract.

Issues related to research on children's eye movements during reading are discussed. Specifically, the following topics are addressed: (1) basic methodological issues, (2) prior research findings on children's reading, (3) research that is missing in the literature regarding children's eye movements during reading, (4) applied issues, (5) implications for practice, and (6) the potential utility of recording children's eye movements during reading when conducting future applied research. In the latter two sections, the articles in this special issue are discussed.

Notes

1 Blythe and Joseph (2011) rightfully point out that age and grade of the children need to be distinguished. As they noted, children begin reading instruction at different ages in different countries. In the United Kingdom, children generally start kindergarten at age 4 and formal instruction on reading can be as early as this. In the United States, children typically start formal reading instruction in the first grade (when they are usually 5–6 years old). In Finland, formal reading education usually begins when children are 6–7 years old. Blythe and Joseph (2011) chose to review the literature in terms of age, whereas we discuss the data primarily in terms of grade in school. Our suspicion is that the number of years of formal reading instruction is the key variable, rather than age per se.

2 When the window was defined in terms of letter spaces, the second- and fourth-graders did not differ, with the perceptual span extending about 11 letter spaces to the right of fixation, whereas for sixth-graders and adults, the span extended 14 letter spaces to the right of fixation. When the window was defined in terms of words available to the right of fixation, the span was then 1 word to the right for second-graders and 2 words for the other three groups.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Keith Rayner

Keith Rayner, PhD, is the Atkinson Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of California, San Diego. His research interests focus on reading and language processing, and he uses eye movement data to investigate various issues on these topics. He has published over 300 articles (including chapters) and is the author of two books and the editor of seven additional books. He was previously the editor of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition and Psychological Review. He has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the first Outstanding Researcher Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, the Sir Frederick Bartlett Award from the Experimental Psychology Society, an Alexander von Humbolt Research Award, and a Carnegie Professor for Scotland Award. His research has continuously been funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development or the National Science Foundation since 1974.

Scott P. Ardoin

Scott P. Ardoin, PhD, is Professor in the School Psychology program within the College of Education at the University of Georgia. His research activities focus on applying the principals of behavioral analysis to improving the quality of assessment and interventions provided to students in elementary schools. Specifically, the three areas in which he has conducted research include (a) improving the accuracy and treatment utility of progress monitoring procedures used in the assessment of students' response to instruction, (b) increasing the extent to which supplemental reading interventions generalize across materials and time, and (c) improving the generalization and external utility of behaviorally based interventions into the regular education classroom.

Katherine S. Binder

Katherine Binder, PhD, is Professor in the Psychology and Education Department at Mount Holyoke College. Her research interests include how skilled readers use various sources of contextual information in the service of word recognition and comprehension, how functionally illiterate adults acquire literacy skills, and more recently, how children learn to read. She has published more than 20 articles across these areas. Her research with adult literacy students is supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and her work with beginning readers is supported by a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences.