Rapid and seemingly effortless word recognition is a virtually unquestioned characteristic of skilled reading, yet the definition and operationalization of the concept of cognitive effort have proven elusive. We investigated the cognitive effort involved in oral and silent word reading using pupillometry among adults (Experiment 1, N = 30; Experiment 2, N = 20) and fourth through sixth graders (Experiment 3, N = 30; Experiment 4, N = 18). We compared multiple pupillary measures (mean, peak, and peak latency) for reading familiar words (real words) and unfamiliar letter strings (pseudowords) varying in length. Converging with the behavioral data for accuracy and response times, pupillary responses demonstrated a greater degree of cognitive effort for pseudowords compared with real words and stronger length effects for pseudowords than for real words. These findings open up new possibilities for studying the issue of effort and effortlessness in the field of word recognition and other fields of skill learning.

中文翻译：

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关注努力：视觉单词识别中努力和轻松的瞳孔测量研究

快速且看似毫不费力的单词识别实际上是熟练阅读的一个毋庸置疑的特征，但认知努力概念的定义和操作化已被证明难以捉摸。我们调查了成人（实验 1，N = 30；实验 2，N = 20）和四年级至六年级学生（实验 3，N = 30；实验 4，N = 18）在口语和默读单词中涉及的认知努力）。我们比较了多种瞳孔测量（平均、峰值和峰值延迟），用于阅读长度不同的熟悉单词（真实单词）和不熟悉的字符串（伪单词）。与行为数据融合以提高准确性和响应时间，瞳孔反应表明，与真实单词相比，伪单词的认知努力程度更高，并且伪单词的长度效应比真实单词更强。这些发现为研究单词识别领域和其他技能学习领域的努力和轻松问题开辟了新的可能性。