title: Lack of visual field asymmetries for spatial cueing in reading parafoveal Chinese characters.
abstract: In two experiments, we investigated whether visual field (VF) asymmetries of spatial cueing are involved in reading parafoveal Chinese characters. These characters are different from linearly arranged alphabetic words in that they are logograms that are confined to a constant, square-shaped area and are composed of only a few radicals. We observed a cueing effect, but it did not vary with the VF in which the Chinese character was presented, regardless of whether the cue validity (the ratio of validly to invalidly cued targets) was 1:1 or 7:3. These results suggest that VF asymmetries of spatial cueing do not affect the reading of parafoveal Chinese characters, contrary to the reading of alphabetic words. The mechanisms of spatial attention in reading parafoveal English-like words and Chinese characters are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 16 Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China. luocm@psych.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Chunming
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Padua, Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dell'Acqua
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
authors.forename: Robert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Proctor
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 16 Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China.
authors.forename: Xingshan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002681:China; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005584:Fovea Centralis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011932:Reading; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attention; Chinese characters; Parafoveal processing