Startseite Does subtitle segmentation via spaces facilitate Chinese viewers’ reading? An eye-tracking study on the Chinese subtitling of English documentaries
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Does subtitle segmentation via spaces facilitate Chinese viewers’ reading? An eye-tracking study on the Chinese subtitling of English documentaries

  • Ying Cui und Xiao Liu EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 6. Juni 2025

Abstract

Interlingual subtitle reading is cognitively demanding, with audio information being in viewers’ foreign language. Chinese subtitle reading is particularly effortful, as the lack of inter-word markers intensifies viewers’ effort to delineate linguistic units. This study aims to explore whether segmenting Chinese subtitles with spaces may impact viewers’ processing effort, viewing experience, and comprehension via an eye-tracking experiment. It focuses on the Chinese subtitling of English documentaries, which are information intensive. Eighty-six participants took part in the experiment. Two parallel versions of a documentary clip were prepared, one with unspaced subtitles and the other with spaced subtitles. In the spaced version, spaces were inserted between subtitle segments which were within Chinese viewers’ perceptual span and were semantically coherent. Participants were randomly assigned to watch one version. Data analyses show that the group of participants watching the spaced version demonstrate lower total fixation duration, first-pass gaze duration, and fixation count, larger saccade amplitude, and fewer regressions, and there is no significant difference between the two groups’ comprehension scores. It suggests that the exploratory method of subtitle segmentation reduces Chinese viewers’ processing effort, improves their viewing experience, and does not hamper their comprehension.

摘要

阅读匹配外语音频的语际字幕,于观众而言认知负荷较高。因中文无词间空格,阅读中文字幕时识别语言单位会格外耗费认知资源。本研究聚焦信息性明确的纪录片字幕,通过眼动实验探讨用空格切分中文字幕是否影响观众认知努力、观影体验及语义理解。本次实验共招募86名被试,实验材料为英文纪录片选段。视频匹配的中文字幕含两个版本,一版不用空格,另一版插入空格,所切分语言单位不超过中文观众知觉广度且语义连贯。实验中,随机分配被试观看其中一版视频。数据分析显示,观看空格组的被试总注视时长、首轮注视时长、注视次数较低,眼跳幅度更大,回看次数更少,且两组阅读测试得分没有显著差异。这一结果说明,切分字幕可降低中文观众认知努力,改善观影体验,且不影响理解效果。


Corresponding author: Xiao Liu, Shandong University at Weihai, 180, Wenhuaxi Road, Weihai, China, E-mail:

Funding source: Humanities and Social Sciences Project Fund of Ministry of Education of China

Award Identifier / Grant number: 23YJC740007

Funding source: Guangdong Philosophy and Social Science Research Programme

Award Identifier / Grant number: GD25CWY20

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Humanities and Social Sciences Project Fund of Ministry of Education of China under Grant [23YJC740007] and Guangdong Philosophy and Social Science Research Programme under Grant [GD25CWY20]. The eye-tracking data were collected at the Bilingual Cognition and Development Lab, Center for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.

  1. Ethical approval: The study was approved by Bilingual Cognition and Development Lab, Center for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.

  2. Author contributions: The first author designed the study and drafted the paper. The second author implemented the experiment, processed data, conducted data analyses, and revised the paper.

  3. Conflict of interest: The authors declare none.

  4. Data availability: The experiment materials and comprehension test are publicly available at: https://github.com/2236117534/Subtitling-experimental-materials.git. The data generated in this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Appendix

See Tables A1–A6.

Table A1:

Final model of total fixation duration.

Fixed effects
Coefficient SE 95 % CI z χ2 p
Intercept 1.68 0.08 [1.53, 1.83] 21.33 0.000
Subtitle Type −0.14 0.04 [−0.23, −0.05] −3.16 9.96 0.002

Random effects

Variance SD

Participants’ English Level (Intercept) 1.38e-33 3.18e-18
Individual Subtitle (Intercept) 0.60 0.09

Model fit

AIC BIC df

6,202.57 6,225.14 4
  1. Model equation: meglm FixationDuration i.SubtitleType || Participants’ English level: || Individual Subtitle:

Table A2:

Final model of fixation count.

Fixed effects
Coefficient SE 95 % CI z χ2 p
Intercept 7.58 0.33 [6.93, 8.23] 22.78 0.000
Subtitle Type −0.70 0.18 [−1.05, −0.35] −3.95 15.57 0.000

Random effects

Variance SD

Participants’ English Level (Intercept) 4.63e-29 9.19e-15
Individual Subtitle (Intercept) 0.91 0.56

Model fit

AIC BIC df

12,000.29 12,022.86 4
  1. Model equation: meglm FixationCount i.SubtitleType || Participants’ English level: || Individual Subtitle:

Table A3:

Final model of first-pass gaze duration.

Fixed effects
Coefficient SE 95 % CI z χ2 p
Intercept 1.08 0.06 [0.96, 1.20] 17.8 0.000
Subtitle Type −0.14 0.04 [−0.21, −0.06] −3.45 11.90 0.000

Random effects

Variance SD

Participants’ English Level (Intercept) 0.005 0.01
Individual Subtitle (Intercept) 0.20 0.03

Model fit

AIC BIC df

5,636.29 5,664.50 5
  1. Model equation: meglm First-passGazeDuration i.SubtitleType || Participants’ English level: || Individual Subtitle:

Table A4:

Final model of progressive saccade amplitude.

Fixed effects
Coefficient SE 95 % CI z χ2 p
Intercept 3.38 0.13 [3.11, 3.64] 25.23 0.000
Subtitle Type 0.41 0.09 [0.24, 0.58] 4.81 23.14 0.000

Random effects

Variance SD

Participants’ English Level (Intercept) 0.05 0.04
Individual Subtitle (Intercept) 0.29 0.07

Model fit

AIC BIC df

6,840.61 6,867.81 5
  1. Model equation: meglm ProgressiveSaccadeAmplitude i.SubtitleType || Participants’ English level: || Individual Subtitle:

Table A5:

Final model of regressive saccade count.

Fixed effects
Coefficient SE 95 % CI z χ2 p
Intercept 5.14 0.21 [4.73, 5.55] 24.70 0.000
Subtitle Type −0.37 0.11 [−0.59, −0.15] −3.24 10.52 0.001

Random effects

Variance SD

Participants’ English Level (Intercept) 3.39e-32 6.52e-17
Individual Subtitle (Intercept) 0.23 0.61

Model fit

AIC BIC df

9,979.51 10,002.02 4
  1. Model equation: meglm RegressiveSaccadeCount i.SubtitleType || Participants’ English level: || Individual Subtitle:

Table A6:

Final model of comprehension score.

Fixed effects
Coefficient SE 95 % CI z χ2 p
Intercept 14.68 0.33 [14.03, 15.33] 44.46 0.000
Subtitle Type −0.64 0.40 [−1.42, 0.13] −1.63 2.66 0.103

Random effects

Variance SD

Participants’ Major (Intercept) 1.25e-09 3.01e-08
Individual Subtitle (Intercept) 0.30 0.28

Model fit

AIC BIC df

356.64 368.85 5
  1. Model equation: mixed ComprehensionScore i.SubtitleType || Participants’ Major: || Individual Subtitle:

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Received: 2024-12-27
Accepted: 2025-05-11
Published Online: 2025-06-06
Published in Print: 2025-09-25

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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