A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
The role of interword spacing in reading Japanese: An eye movement study
Authors: Sainio M, Hyona J, Bingushi K, Bertram R
Publisher: PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
Publication year: 2007
Journal: Vision Research
Journal name in source: VISION RESEARCH
Journal acronym: VISION RES
Volume: 47
Issue: 20
First page : 2575
Last page: 2584
Number of pages: 10
ISSN: 0042-6989
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2007.05.017(external)
Abstract
The present study investigated the role of interword spacing in a naturally unspaced language, Japanese. Eye movements were registered of native Japanese readers reading pure Hiragana (syllabic) and mixed Kanji-Hiragana (ideographic and syllabic) text in spaced and unspaced conditions. Interword spacing facilitated both word identification and eye guidance when reading syllabic script, but not when the script contained ideographic characters. We conclude that in reading Hiragana interword spacing serves as an effective segmentation cue. In contrast, spacing information in mixed Kanji-Hiragana text is redundant, since the visually salient Kanji characters serve as effective segmentation cues by themselves. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
The present study investigated the role of interword spacing in a naturally unspaced language, Japanese. Eye movements were registered of native Japanese readers reading pure Hiragana (syllabic) and mixed Kanji-Hiragana (ideographic and syllabic) text in spaced and unspaced conditions. Interword spacing facilitated both word identification and eye guidance when reading syllabic script, but not when the script contained ideographic characters. We conclude that in reading Hiragana interword spacing serves as an effective segmentation cue. In contrast, spacing information in mixed Kanji-Hiragana text is redundant, since the visually salient Kanji characters serve as effective segmentation cues by themselves. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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