Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T13:11:11.011Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Does Extra Interletter Spacing Help Text Reading in Skilled Adult Readers?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2016

Manuel Perea ,
Lourdes Giner ,
Ana Marcet  and
Pablo Gomez
Manuel Perea*
Affiliation:
Universitat de València (Spain)
Lourdes Giner
Affiliation:
Universitat de València (Spain)
Ana Marcet
Affiliation:
Universitat de València (Spain)
Pablo Gomez
Affiliation:
DePaul University (USA)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Manuel Perea. Universitat de València. Metodología. Valencia (Spain). E-mail: mperea@uv.es
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A number of experiments have shown that, in skilled adult readers, a small increase in interletter spacing speeds up the process of visual word recognition relative to the default settings (i.e., judge faster than judge). The goal of the present experiment was to examine whether this effect can be generalized to a more ecological scenario: text reading. Each participant read two stories (367 words each) taken from a standardized reading test. The stories were presented with the standard interletter spacing or with a small increase in interletter spacing (+1.2 points to default) in a within-subject design. An eyetracker was used to register the participants’ eye movements. Comprehension scores were also examined. Results showed that, on average, fixation durations were shorter while reading the text with extra spacing than while reading the text with the default settings (237 vs. 245 ms, respectively; η2 =. 41, p = .01). However, the number of fixations (while nonsignificant) was slightly higher in the text with extra spacing than in the text with the default spacing, and cancelled out the effect of interletter spacing in total reading times (F < 1). Comprehension scores were similar in the two spacing conditions (F < 1). Thus, at least for skilled adult readers, interletter spacing does not seem to play a consistently facilitative role during text reading.

Keywords

lexical accessreadingword recognition
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 19 , 2016 , E26
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bouma, H. (1970). Interaction effects in parafoveal letter recognition. Nature, 226, 177–178. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/226177a0 Google Scholar
Chung, S. T. L. (2002). The effect of letter spacing on reading speed in central and peripheral vision. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, 43, 1270–1276.Google Scholar
Engbert, R., Nuthmann, A., Richter, E. M., & Reinhold, K. (2005). SWIFT: A dynamical model of saccade generation during reading. Psychological Review, 112, 777–813. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.112.4.777 Google Scholar
Facoetti, A., Corradi, N., Ruffino, M., Gori, S., & Zorzi, M. (2010). Visual spatial attention and speech segmentation are both impaired in preschoolers at familial risk for developmental dyslexia. Dyslexia, 16, 226–239. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/dys.413 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Franceschini, S., Gori, S., Ruffino, M., Pedrolli, K., & Facoetti, A. (2012). A causal link between visual spatial attention and reading acquisition. Current Biology, 22, 814–819. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2012.03.013 Google Scholar
Franceschini, S., Gori, S., Ruffino, M., Viola, S., Molteni, M., & Facoetti, A., (2013). Action video games make dyslexic children read better. Current Biology, 23, 462–466. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.01.044 Google Scholar
Gomez, P., & Perea, M. (2014). Decomposing encoding and decisional components in visual-word recognition: A diffusion model analysis. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 67, 2455–2466. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2014.937447 Google Scholar
Gori, S., Cecchini, P., Bigoni, A., Molteni, M., & Facoetti, A. (2014). Magnocellular-dorsal pathway and sub-lexical route in developmental dyslexia. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 460. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00460 Google Scholar
Gori, S., Mascheretti, S., Giora, E., Ronconi, L., Ruffino, M., Quadrelli, E., ... Marino, C. (2015). The DCDC2 intron 2 deletion impairs illusory motion perception unveiling the selective role of magnocellular-dorsal stream in reading (dis)ability. Cerebral Cortex, 25, 1685–1695. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhu234 Google Scholar
Gori, S., & Facoetti, A. (2014). Perceptual learning as a possible new approach for remediation and prevention of developmental dyslexia. Vision Research, 99, 78–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2013.11.011 Google Scholar
Gori, S., & Facoetti, A. (2015). How the visual aspects can be crucial in reading acquisition? The intriguing case of crowding and developmental dyslexia. Journal of Vision, 15, 8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1167/15.1.8 Google Scholar
Jeffreys, H. (1961).Theory of probability. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press Google Scholar
Martínez, T., Vidal-Abarca, E., Sellés, P., & Gilabert, R. (2008). Evaluación de las estrategias y los procesos de comprensión: El test de procesos de comprensión (TPC) [Evaluation of comprehension strategies and processes: Test of Comprehension Processes]. Infancia y Aprendizaje: Journal for the Study of Education and Development, 31, 319–332. http://dx.doi.org/10.1174/021037008785702956 Google Scholar
McCandliss, B. D. (2012). Helping dyslexic children attend to letters within visual word forms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America, 109, 11064–11065. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1209921109 Google Scholar
McLeish, E. (2007). A study of the effect of letter spacing on the reading speed of young readers with low vision. British Journal of Visual Impairment, 25,133–143. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0264619607075995 Google Scholar
Montani, V., Facoetti, A., & Zorzi, M. (2015). The effect of decreased interletter spacing on orthographic processing. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 22, 824–832. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-014-0728-9 Google Scholar
Moores, E., Cassim, R., & Talcott, J. B. (2011). Adults with dyslexia exhibit large effects of crowding, increased dependence on cues, and detrimental effects of distracters in visual search tasks. Neuropsychologia, 49, 3881–3890. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.10.005 Google Scholar
Perea, M., & Gomez, P. (2012a). Increasing interletter spacing facilitates encoding of words. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 19, 332–338. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-011-0214-6 Google Scholar
Perea, M., & Gomez, P. (2012b). Subtle increases in interletter spacing facilitate the encoding of words during normal reading. PLOS ONE, 7, e47568. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047568 Google Scholar
Perea, M., Moret-Tatay, C., & Gomez, P. (2011). The effects of interletter spacing in visual-word recognition. Acta Psychologica, 137, 345–351. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.04.003 Google Scholar
Perea, M., Panadero, V., Moret-Tatay, C., & Gomez, P. (2012). The effects of inter-letter spacing in visual-word recognition: Evidence with young normal readers and developmental dyslexics. Learning and Instruction, 22, 420–430. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2012.04.001 Google Scholar
Ratcliff, R., Gomez, P., & McKoon, G. (2004). A diffusion model account of the lexical decision task. Psychological Review, 111, 159–182. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.111.1.159 Google Scholar
Reichle, E. D., Pollatsek, A., Fisher, D. L., & Rayner, K. (1998). Toward a model of eye movement control in reading. Psychological Review, 105, 125–157. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.105.1.125 Google Scholar
Risko, E. F., Lanthier, S. N., & Besner, D. (2011). Basic processes in reading: The effect of interletter spacing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 37, 1449–1457. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0024332 Google Scholar
Rouder, J. N., Speckman, P. L., Sun, D., Morey, R. D., & Iverson, G. (2009). Bayesian t tests for accepting and rejecting the null hypothesis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 225–237. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/pbr.16.2.225 Google Scholar
Schneps, M. H., Thomson, J. M., Chen, C., Sonnert, G., & Pomplun, M. (2013). E-readers are more effective than paper for some with dyslexia. PLoS ONE, 18, e75634 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075634 Google Scholar
Schneps, M. H., Thomson, J. M., Sonnert, G., Pomplun, M., Chen, C., & Heffner-Wong, A. (2013). Shorter lines facilitate reading in those who struggle. PLoS ONE, 5, e71161 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071161 Google Scholar
Slattery, T. J., & Rayner, K. (2013). Effects of intraword and interword spacing on eye movements during reading: Exploring the optimal use of space in a line of text. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 75, 1275–1292. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13414-013-0463-8 Google Scholar
Spinelli, D., de Luca, M., Judica, A., & Zoccolotti, P. (2002). Crowding effects on word identification in developmental dyslexia. Cortex, 38, 179–200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0010-9452(08)70649-X Google Scholar
Stein, J., & Walsh, V. (1997). To see but not to read; the magnocellular theory of dyslexia. Trends in Neurosciences, 20, 147–152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0166-2236(96)01005-3 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tai, Y. C., Sheedy, J., & Hayes, J. (2009, June). The effect of interletter spacing on reading. Paper presented at the Computer Displays & Vision conference. Forest Grove, OR.Google Scholar
van den Boer, M., & Hakvoort, B. E. (2015). Default spacing is the optimal spacing for word reading. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68, 697–709. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2014.964272 Google Scholar
Vidyasagar, T. R., & Pammer, K. (2010). Dyslexia: A deficit in visuo-spatial attention, not in phonological processing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14, 57–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2009.12.003 Google Scholar
Vinckier, F., Qiao, E., Pallier, C., Dehaene, S., & Cohen, L. (2011). The impact of letter spacing on reading: A test of the bigram coding hypothesis. Journal of Vision, 11, 8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1167/11.6.8 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zorzi, M., Barbiero, C., Facoetti, A., Lonciari, I., Carrozzi, M., Montico, M., ... Ziegler, J. C. (2012). Extra-large letter spacing improves reading in dyslexia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109, 11455–11459. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1205566109 Google Scholar