Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 March 2004
We question the assumption of serial attention shifts and the assumption that saccade programs are initiated or canceled only after stage one of word identification. Evidence: (1) Fixation durations prior to skipped words are not consistently higher compared to those prior to nonskipped words. (2) Attentional modulation of microsaccade rate might occur after early visual processing. Saccades are probably triggered by attentional selection.
1. We replicated longer fixation durations following a skipped word. Also, skipping saccades started closer to the end of wordn and landed closer to the beginning of wordn+2 compared with matched movements from wordn to wordn+1, as expected from oculomotor control theories.