Provisional Project Title: Investigating the Eye Movements of Very Skilled Readers

Systematic investigation of reading has played a vital role over the past decades in informing educators, and has included programs of research to understand reading development in children as well as research to understand the mental processes that are active during skilled reading (for a review, see Rayner, 2009). In the current research project, we will adopt a novel approach in the study of reading by examining eye movements that are made not within the traditionally well-studied populations of skilled adults or of struggling readers (e.g. dyslexic readers,...), but of skilled adults that are exceptionally good readers (i.e. fast while maintaining high levels of comprehension). A great amount of knowledge has been acquired about the cognitive processes active during reading by registering the eye movements that are being made whilst processing the text. Research indicates that besides the currently fixated word, readers do routinely pick up information from the upcoming word as well, a word that will typically be located in an area of the visual field called the parafovea (for a review, see Schotter, Angele, & Rayner, 2012). Parafoveal processing is considered a hallmark of skilled reading (Rayner, 2009). Indeed, research has shown that developing readers or readers with reading difficulties have reduced parafoveal processing compared to skilled, adult readers. However, very little is known about the parafoveal processing of exceptionally good readers. These readers will be selected by means of very high scores on standardised reading comprehension tests.