title: Contextual predictability enhances reading performance in patients with schizophrenia.
abstract: In the present work we analyzed fixation duration in 40 healthy individuals and 18 patients with chronic, stable SZ during reading of regular sentences and proverbs. While they read, their eye movements were recorded. We used lineal mixed models to analyze fixation durations. The predictability of words N-1, N, and N+1 exerted a strong influence on controls and SZ patients. The influence of the predictabilities of preceding, current, and upcoming words on SZ was clearly reduced for proverbs in comparison to regular sentences. Both controls and SZ readers were able to use highly predictable fixated words for an easier reading. Our results suggest that SZ readers might compensate attentional and working memory deficiencies by using stored information of familiar texts for enhancing their reading performance. The predictabilities of words in proverbs serve as task-appropriate cues that are used by SZ readers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study using eyetracking for measuring how patients with SZ process well-defined words embedded in regular sentences and proverbs. Evaluation of the resulting changes in fixation durations might provide a useful tool for understanding how SZ patients could enhance their reading performance.
authors.affiliation: Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS), Bahía Blanca, Argentina, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica (IIIE) (UNS-CONICET), Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Electronic address: gerardo.fernandez@uns.edu.ar.
authors.forename: Gerardo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.affiliation: FLENI, Department of Psychiatry, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Salvador
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Guinjoan
authors.affiliation: Clínica Privada Bahiense, Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Marcelo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sapognikoff
authors.affiliation: Clínica Privada Bahiense, Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Orozco
authors.affiliation: Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS), Bahía Blanca, Argentina, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica (IIIE) (UNS-CONICET), Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Osvaldo
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Agamennoni
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005133:Eye Movements; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011932:Reading; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology
keywords: Eye movements; Fixation duration; Reading; Schizophrenia; Semantic-context effect