The Effects of Pre-Idiom Semantic Cues and Post-Idiom Meaning Bias on Chinese Three-Character Idiom Comprehension: An Eye-Tracking Study

Abstract

Context plays a crucial role in understanding the mechanisms of idiom comprehension. Previous studies of idiom processing have achieved mixed results through orthogonally manipulating preceding context and subsequent resolution; however, how these two factors jointly influence Chinese three-character idiom processing remains unexplored. To address this gap, we used an eye-tracking experiment that orthogonally manipulated pre-idiom cue type and post-idiom meaning bias. Cue type included figurative, literal, and unrelated conditions, whereas meaning bias was either figurative or literal. Results showed a reliable main effect of cue type in the cue region: literally related cues elicited shorter total reading times than both figuratively related and unrelated cues. No reliable main effect of meaning bias was found, and no strong evidence supported an interaction between cue type and meaning bias. Exploratory analyses separately examined the effect of cue type on literally and figuratively biased sentences in the disambiguation region. A tentative congruency pattern emerged: literal congruency appeared in gaze duration, whereas figurative congruency appeared in total reading time. These findings are relevant to theories of idiom comprehension, although future studies with larger sample sizes are needed to confirm the observed patterns, particularly the congruency patterns identified in the exploratory analyses.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Behavioral Sciences, 2026 · DOI ↗