DO IRREGULAR LETTER COMBINATIONS ATTRACT READERS ATTENTION - EVIDENCE FROM FIXATION LOCATIONS IN WORDS

J. Hyona, P. Niemi, and G. Underwood (1989) provided evidence suggesting that in reading, the initial fixation lands farther into a word has an informative as opposed to a redundant ending. The finding points to the potential importance of the within-word information distribution in determining fixation locations in words. However, the reliability of the effect has been recently challenged by K. Rayner and R. Morris (1992). The current study did not find much support for the notion that the relative informativeness of word endings would be a relevant factor in eye guidance. On the other hand, it did show that a highly irregular letter cluster in the beginning of a word attracts a fixation closer toward the word beginning, particularly to the space prior to the word. This finding is discussed in light of visual guidance models that emphasize the relevance of word length and spacing information for governing the eyes through a text.