Abstract
The present study investigates effects of conventionally metered and rhymed poetry on eyemovements
in silent reading. Readers saw MRRL poems (i.e., metrically regular, rhymed
language) in two layouts. In poem layout, verse endings coincided with line breaks. In prose
layout verse endings could be mid-line. We also added metrical and rhyme anomalies. We
hypothesized that silently reading MRRL results in building up auditive expectations that
are based on a rhythmic “audible gestalt” and propose that rhythmicity is generated through
subvocalization. Our results revealed that readers were sensitive to rhythmic-gestalt-anomalies
but showed differential effects in poem and prose layouts. Metrical anomalies in particular
resulted in robust reading disruptions across a variety of eye-movement measures in
the poem layout and caused re-reading of the local context. Rhyme anomalies elicited
stronger effects in prose layout and resulted in systematic re-reading of pre-rhymes. The
presence or absence of rhythmic-gestalt-anomalies, as well as the layout manipulation, also
affected reading in general. Effects of syllable number indicated a high degree of subvocalization.
The overall pattern of results suggests that eye-movements reflect, and are closely
aligned with, the rhythmic subvocalization of MRRL.
This study introduces a two-stage approach to the analysis of long MRRL stimuli and contributes
to the discussion of how the processing of rhythm in music and speech may overlap.
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