Emojis elicit semantic parafoveal-on-foveal (PoF) effects during reading

Semantic parafoveal-on-foveal (PoF) effects, in which the meaning of a parafoveal word influences the processing of the foveal word, indicate that readers engage in extensive parafoveal processing of upcoming words. To test if emojis elicit semantic PoF effects, we examined eye movements while participants read sentences containing a target word (e.g., coffee in “I enjoyed my tall coffee”) that was followed either by a semantically congruent emoji (e.g., (Figure presented.); Alt text: “coffee emoji”), an incongruent emoji (e.g., (Figure presented.); Alt text: “beer mug emoji”), or no emoji. First-pass fixation durations were shorter on the foveal target word when the parafoveal emoji was semantically congruent rather than incongruent. Furthermore, the presence of an emoji (compared to no emoji) led to faster first-pass fixation durations for the preceding target word, which indicates that emojis can modulate the processing of preceding words.