Deaf readers may have larger perceptual spans than ability-matched hearing native English readers, allowing them to read more efficiently (Belanger & Rayner, 2015). To further test the hypothesis that deaf and hearing readers have different perceptual spans, the current study uses eye-movement data from two experiments in which deaf American Sign Language–English bilinguals, hearing native English speakers, and hearing Chinese–English bilinguals read semantically unrelated sentences and answered comprehension questions after a proportion of them. We analyzed skip rates, fixation times, and accuracy on comprehension questions. In addition, we analyzed how lexical properties of words affected skipping behavior and fixation durations. Deaf readers skipped words more often than native English speakers, who skipped words more often than Chinese–English bilinguals. Deaf readers had shorter first-pass fixation times than the other two groups. All groups’ skipping behaviors were affected by lexical frequency. Deaf readers’ comprehension did not differ from hearing Chinese–English bilinguals, despite greater skipping and shorter fixation times. Overall, the eye-tracking findings align with Belanger’s word processing efficiency hypothesis. Effects of lexical frequency on skipping behavior indicated further that eye movements during reading remain under cognitive control in deaf readers.

中文翻译：

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聋人和听力双语者的单词跳跃：对眼球运动的认知控制仍然随着感知跨度的增加

聋人读者可能有更大的知觉跨度与听力相当的英语母语读者相比，他们的阅读效率更高（Belanger & Rayner, 2015）。为了进一步检验聋人和听力读者具有不同感知跨度的假设，目前的研究使用来自两个实验的眼动数据，其中聋人美国手语-英语双语，听力以英语为母语的人，以及听力中英双语者阅读语义上不相关句子并在其中一部分之后回答理解问题。我们分析了理解问题的跳过率、注视时间和准确性。此外，我们分析了单词的词汇特性如何影响跳跃行为和注视持续时间。聋人读者比以英语为母语的人更频繁地跳过单词，后者比中英双语者更频繁地跳过单词。聋人读者的首次注视时间比其他两组短。所有组的跳跃行为都受到词汇频率的影响。聋人读者的理解与听到中英双语的人没有区别，尽管跳过更多且注视时间更短。总体而言，眼动追踪结果与 Belanger 的文字处理效率假设一致。词汇频率对跳跃行为的影响进一步表明，阅读过程中的眼球运动仍处于聋读者的认知控制之下。眼动追踪结果与 Belanger 的文字处理效率假设一致。词汇频率对跳跃行为的影响进一步表明，阅读过程中的眼球运动仍处于聋读者的认知控制之下。眼动追踪结果与 Belanger 的文字处理效率假设一致。词汇频率对跳跃行为的影响进一步表明，阅读过程中的眼球运动仍处于聋读者的认知控制之下。