An oculomotor-based model of eye movements in reading: The competition/interaction model

Earlier models of eye–mind interface in reading often favored the view of the “direct measurement position”, which assumes that the time spent fixating on a word reflects the processing time of that word. Recent advances on oculomotor research have led to models that either abandoned or modified this position. The current paper briefly reviewed the positions of these models on certain assumptions of the eye–mind interface in reading, with the emphasis on the Competition/Interaction (or the C/I) model [Yang, S.-N., & McConkie, G. W. (2001). Eye movements during reading: a theory of saccade initiation times. Vision Research, 41, 3567–3585; Yang, S.-N. & McConkie, G. W. (2004). Saccade generation during reading: Are words necessary? European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 16(1/2), 226–261]. Computational simulations based on the C/I model were implemented to help understand the neurophysiological/computational properties underlying eye movement control in reading.