Realizing eye movement in reading

A feature of human viewpoint movement in reading English has been pointed out from the psychological aspect, namely, that the first viewpoint on the word concentrates at the center of the word. This paper focuses on the three factors that seem to induce the above feature of viewpoint movement in reading English, which are the use of foveal vision, the use of the edge density of letters (characters), and the use of the space between words. The movement of the viewpoint is realized on a computer, and the major factor responsible for the feature that the viewpoint concentrates at the center of the word is examined. The attention region is defined in realizing viewpoint movement that is restricted. The viewpoint is actually moved for the cases where each of the three factors is followed or not followed, and the features of viewpoint movement are examined. The features of viewpoint movement realized on the basis of each factor are compared to those of previously reported human viewpoint movement. Based on the comparison, it is shown that the three factors are actually inducing the feature that the viewpoint concentrates at the center of the word. By varying the size of the attention region, the effect on the viewpoint movement is examined, and it is shown that the size of the attention region is the factor that manifests the features of human viewpoint movement. (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.