Reading Time Analysis

Eye-tracking reading time measures map to processing stages: first-pass captures early lexical access, go-past reflects syntactic integration, and total reading time indicates discourse-level processing. This Skill provides a decision tree linking fixation metrics to cognitive stages using Rayner citations.

Fixation cleaning cutoffs require reporting trial and participant exclusion thresholds to preserve cognitive validity. This Skill specifies recommended cutoffs for fixation durations, trial removals, and participant exclusions that satisfy rigorous psycholinguistic publication standards.

Regions of interest (ROIs) in eye-tracking reading studies are defined at word-level or multi-word boundaries with spillover and parafoveal considerations. This Skill outlines ROI definition protocols and spillover handling to ensure valid early versus late processing contrasts.

Mixed-effects models for reading time analysis should use crossed random effects for participants and items. This Skill recommends transformation strategies, convergence workarounds, and effect-size benchmarks to keep inferential claims trustworthy in psycholinguistic studies.

Separating critical and spillover regions is necessary when measuring delayed processing effects in psycholinguistic sentence reading. This Skill guides defining these regions to capture early versus late processing contrasts across critical and spillover areas.

Regression probabilities capture re-reading behavior while gaze duration measures initial processing time, and choosing between them depends on the cognitive stage under investigation. This Skill clarifies when each fixation-based measure preserves cognitive validity for your research question.