Global measures of syntactic and lexical complexity are not strong predictors of eye-movement patterns in sentence and passage reading
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11320%2F26%3ADXKJ7F2H" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11320/26:DXKJ7F2H - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/17470218251317372" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/17470218251317372</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/17470218251317372" target="_blank" >10.1177/17470218251317372</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Global measures of syntactic and lexical complexity are not strong predictors of eye-movement patterns in sentence and passage reading
Original language description
The link between the cognitive effort of word processing and the eye-movement patterns elicited by that word is well established in psycholinguistic research using eye-tracking. Yet less evidence or consensus exists regarding whether the same link exists between linguistic complexity measures of a sentence or passage and eye movements registered at the sentence or passage level. This article focuses on “global” measures of syntactic and lexical complexity, i.e., the measures that characterise the structure of the sentence or passage rather than aggregate lexical properties of individual words. We selected several commonly used global complexity measures and tested their predictive power against sentence- and passage-level eye movements in samples of text reading from 13 languages represented in the Multilingual Eye Movement Corpus (MECO). While some syntactic or lexical complexity measures elicited statistically significant effects, they were negligibly small and not of practical relevance for predicting the processing effort either in individual languages or across languages. These findings suggest that the “eye-mind” link known to be valid at the word level may not scale up to larger linguistic units. © Experimental Psychology Society 2025.
Czech name
—
Czech description
—
Classification
Type
J<sub>SC</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the SCOPUS database
CEP classification
—
OECD FORD branch
10201 - Computer sciences, information science, bioinformathics (hardware development to be 2.2, social aspect to be 5.8)
Result continuities
Project
—
Continuities
—
Others
Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
ISSN
1747-0218
e-ISSN
—
Volume of the periodical
2025
Issue of the periodical within the volume
2025
Country of publishing house
US - UNITED STATES
Number of pages
16
Pages from-to
1675 - 1690
UT code for WoS article
—
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-105000008402