A theory of reading: From eye fixations to comprehension.

Carnegie-Mellon University This article presents a model of reading comprehension that accounts for the allocation of eye fixations of college students reading scientific passages. The model deals with processing at the level of words, clauses, and text units. Readers make longer pauses at points where processing loads are greater. Greater loads occur while readers are accessing infrequent words, integrating information from important clauses, and making inferences at the ends of sen-tences. The model accounts forthe gaze duration on each word of text as a func-tion of the involvement of the various levels of processing. The model is em-bedded in a theoretical framework capable of accommodating the flexibility of reading. Although readers go through many of the same processes as listeners, there is one striking difference between reading and listening comprehension—a reader can