A Psycholinguistic Investigation of Effects of Rapid Reading on Text Integration: Insights from Eye Movements and Online Self-paced Reading

The thesis reports six experiments which examined effects of rapid reading tasks as induced by skimming on text integration employing eye movements and online selfpaced methodology. Given that previous research has focused mainly on effects of reading for comprehension on text integration and comprehension, little is known about integration and comprehension during skimming for the gist. Accordingly, this thesis employed eye movement recording methods to provide insights into how skim reading modulates three different types of sentence integration: semantic plausibility (Experiment 1), syntactic ambiguity (Experiment 2), and sentence wrap-up (Experiment 3). Crucially, together these studies demonstrate that semantic and syntactic integration, and sentence wrap-up, can all occur during skim reading. Furthermore, Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrate that integration of syntactic ambiguity and sentence wrap-up are modulated by the reading task, consistent with different standards of coherence being employed across tasks. Importantly, superficial sentence integration is likely to contribute to poorer comprehension during skim reading. The thesis also employs online methodologies to examine effects of task demands on sentence reading times. Experiments 4, 5 and 6 examined integration across texts (a passage and subsequent sentence) by employing an online text consistency paradigm. Experiment 4 revealed that integration of key content across a passage and subsequent sentence can be demonstrated using the consistency paradigm, both when passages were read for comprehension, and crucially also when they are skimmed for gist. The consistency effect for passage skimming was replicated in Experiment 6. Finally, Experiments 5 and 6 explored whether typography (bolding) can facilitate integration of key content across texts, using the consistency paradigm. Overall, these experiments capture a wide range of topics that help further our understanding of integration processes during rapid reading. The thesis also explores implications for future research, models of eye movement control during reading and theories of comprehension during reading.