Eye Movement and Miscue Analysis  

EMMA Lab and Research

We have brought two research traditions together to study how perception relates to comprehension in reading. Eye movement research has for a century been used to understand how perception in reading provides the brain with sensory input.  Miscue analysis, with over 40 years of history, provides a “window on the reading process” and reveals the knowledge and strategies readers use as they comprehend written texts. By a close examination of the relationships of the expected and observed responses (miscues) in oral reading we get strong insights into the reader’s process of making sense of written language.

We call the merged research methodology Eye Movement and Miscue Analysis (EMMA). By tracking eye movements of readers while we record their oral reading, we produce a powerful database for the study of readers’ construction of meaning. The data is both a continuous record of the eye fixations and movements over an entire text and a continuous record of the oral reading of that text and the miscues readers produce.

EMMA Laboratories in the United States
(click names on map)

Studies on Eye Movement and EMMA research

Duckett, P. (In press). All eyes have it. NH: Heinemann.

Duckett, P. (2003).  Envisioning story: The eye movements of beginning readers.    
    Literacy Teaching and Learning, 7, (1&2), 77-89.

Duckett, P. (2002).  New insights: Eye fixations and the reading process. Talking Points,
    13 (2), 16-20.

Duckett, P. (2001). First-grade beginning reader’s use of pictures and print as they read.
    Unpublished doctoral dissertation: University of Arizona .

Freeman, A. (2001).  The eyes have it: Oral miscue and eye movement analysis of the
    reading of fourth grade Spanish/English bilinguals. Unpublished doctoral
    dissertation: University of Arizona .

Kim, K., Knox, M., and Brown, J. (2007). Eye movements and strategic reading. In
    Critical Issues in Literacy Development. NY: Erlbaum.

Meirseitova, S. & Paulson, E.J. (2001). What does the machine reveal about the
    reading process? Based on Russian text material with the use of an eye movement  
    fixation apparatus. (In Russian) 1st National Kazakhstan Reading Conference Yearbook,  131-142.

Paulson, E. (July, 2005). “Viewing eye movements during reading through the lens of
   chaos theory: How reading is like the weather.” Reading Research Quarterly, 40 (3).

Paulson, E., Flurkey, A., Goodman, Y., & Goodman, K. (2003). Eye movements and
    miscue analysis: Reading from a constructivist perspective. The Fifty-Second
    Yearbook of the National Reading Conference, 52, 343-355.

Paulson, E. and Freeman, A. (2003). Insight from the eyes: The science of effective
   reading instruction. NH: Heinemann.

Paulson, E. & Henry, J. (2002). Does the degree of reading power assessment reflect the
    reading process? An eye-movement examination. Journal of Adolescent & Adult
   Literacy, 46 (3), 234-244.

Paulson, E. (2002). Are oral reading word omissions and substitutions caused by careless
    eye movements? The Journal of Reading Psychology, 23 (1), 45-66.

Paulson, E. (2000). Adult readers’ eye movement during the production of oral miscues.
    Unpublished doctoral dissertation: University of Arizona .

Paulson, E. & Goodman, K. (January 1999). Influential studies in eye movement
    research. Reading Online, www.readingonline.org.

Paulson, E.  & Goodman, K. (1999) “Eye movements and miscue analysis: What do the
    eyes do when a reader makes a miscue?” Southern Arizona Review, 1, 55-62.

Yamashita, Y. (2003). The processing of the Japanese particles Wa and Ga using eye
    movement research and miscue analysis: Reading comprehension of a Japanese story
    by Japanese English bilinguals. Canadian Association for Japanese Language
   Education, vol.5, 103-116.

Research in progress focuses on  
Varied ages and languages: Elementary school readers, adolescent readers, adult readers, Chinese readers, Japanese readers, Russian readers, Bilingual Spanish-English readers, Bilingual French-English readers and speakers of other languages, EMMA in sight singing (MEMMA).  
Varied materials and other features: illustrated texts, multiple genre text, nonfiction, The Boat in the Basement, musical notation, effect of font size on EMMA readings, perceptual units, Retrospective Eye Movement and Miscue Analysis (REMMA).

Support for LRC Courses and Professional Development  
Demonstrations for and involvement of LRC students and faculty at request.

Main Items in the EMMA Lab
Model 504 Eye tracker, pan/tilt eye camera, eye camera remote control, *Micron computers and flat screen monitor, speakers, specialty monitors, microphone connected to audio tape recorder, *HP laser Jet 3100 fax/printer/copier/scanner, *Toshiba VCR. (*Supplied by the Goodmans).