Parafoveal-on-foveal (POF) effects occur when reading time
on a fixated word in the fovea is influenced by the upcoming
word in the parafovea. Evidence for POF effects have been
inconsistent and met with methodological scrutiny (Drieghe,
2011), but recent research suggests that skill differences in
spelling may impact POF effects (Veldre & Andrews, 2014).
To extend this literature, the current study examines the
influence of spelling ability on POF effects by leveraging
semantic ambiguity. Participants read sentences containing an
ambiguous target immediately followed by a disambiguating
word as their eye movements were recorded. Disambiguating
words were manipulated to be either consistent or inconsistent
with the likely interpretation of the ambiguous word. Results
indicate that high-skilled spellers have longer reading times on
the target word when the disambiguating word is inconsistent.
These findings suggest that POF effects may be possible,
particularly within a highly-skilled subset of skilled readers.