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This empirical study examined whether the visual complexities of the first and second characters in two-character words play similar roles in modulating the fixation time and saccade target selection during un-spaced Chinese reading. Consistent with prior research, words with low-complexity characters were fixated for shorter times than words with high-complexity characters. Critically, saccade target selection was primarily influenced by the visual complexity of the first character of a two-character word: words with low-complexity first characters were skipped more frequently, and fixation was localized nearer to the center of the word compared with the words with high-complexity first characters. These results are important for understanding the mechanisms of eye movement control in Chinese reading and thus provide benchmark data to test models of eye movement control in Chinese reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eye movements of native Chinese readers were monitored when they read sentences containing single-character target words orthogonally manipulated for frequency and visual complexity (number of strokes). Both factors yielded strong main effects on skipping probability but no interaction, with readers skipping visually simple and high frequency words more often. However, an interaction between frequency and complexity was observed on the fixation times on the target words with longer fixations for the low frequency, visually complex words. The results demonstrate that visual complexity and frequency have independent influences on saccadic targeting behaviour during Chinese reading but jointly influence fixation durations and that these two factors differently impact fixation durations and saccade targeting during reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]