Eye movements when reading disappearing text: The importance of the word to the right of fixation

In a series of experiments, the currently fixated word (word n) and/or the word to the right of fixation (word n + 1) either disappeared or was masked during readers’ eye fixations. Consistent with prior research, when only word n disappeared or was masked, there was little disruption to reading. However, when word n + 1 either disappeared or was masked (either at the onset of fixation on word n or after 60 ms), there was considerable disruption to reading. Independent of whether word n and/or word n + 1 disappeared or was masked, there were robust frequency effects on the fixation on word n. These results not only confirm the robust influence of cognitive/linguistic processing on fixation times in reading, but also again confirm the importance of preprocessing the word to the right of fixation for fluent reading.