Reading text may seem like a straightforward process: your eyes scan the words on the page, and your brain turns them into an idea with meaning. But it turns out the process isn’t always that simple. Readers frequently skip words, even though they don’t realize it. New research out of the University of South Florida’s Eye Movements and Cognition Lab, and published in Psychophysiology, shows that the brain still processes those skipped words using peripheral vision.
Postdoctoral research fellow and first author of the study says, “Our findings suggest that readers aren’t simply guessing words; they rely on detailed visual and linguistic processing, [which] supports the importance of learning letter-sound relationships and spelling rather than relying solely on contextual guessing strategies.”[1]
While reading, eye movements occur about every 250 milliseconds, and many processes must happen at the same time to make comprehension possible. To track such movements, the team used an electroencephalogram (EEG) cap to measure participants’ brain waves.
They also used a camera-based eye-tracking system to monitor each person’s gaze as words appeared on the screen. This way, they could link eye movements directly to real-time brain activity and reveal readers’ split-second decisions about which words they engaged with.
The study included 55 participants, and the researchers tracked each of them while they read for about two hours. Participants silently read 180 sentences, which were presented one at a time on a screen. Sometimes, the researchers manipulated upcoming words to be expected, slightly modified, or unexpected. This allowed them to compare how people’s brains responded depending on whether they skipped a word or directly read it.
Milligan summarized the findings, saying, “We found clear brain responses showing that readers processed information about skipped words before ever fixating on them. When upcoming words didn’t make sense, the brain showed strong responses even when those words were skipped. This suggested that readers weren’t just guessing; they were analyzing those words in advance using peripheral vision.”[1]
Skipping a word doesn’t mean the word was ignored. The data demonstrated that the processing of skipped words can be deep enough to detect whether a word is expected or irregular. This means that people decide to skip before full word recognition and integration are complete—the brain functions on a predictive system that prioritizes efficiency.
Source:
[1] Garcia, Joey. (June 9, 2026). “How eye movements and brain activity shape reading comprehension.” The University of South Florida. Retrieved from: https://www.usf.edu/news/2026/eye-movements-and-brain-activity-shape-reading-comprehension.aspx.
