Eye-Tracking Corpus Research on Reading Cognition: Progress, Challenges, and Future Directions

Eye-tracking corpora integrate authentic linguistic materials from natural reading contexts with eye-movement data. They provide a new methodological paradigm for investigating cognitive processing during reading with relatively high ecological validity. At present, significant progress has been made internationally in both the development and application of eye-tracking corpora. In China, however, research in this area began relatively late. A clear and comprehensive understanding of this field is still lacking, which has constrained the further development of related research in China. Therefore, this article systematically reviews the basic characteristics of eye-tracking corpora, major research advances, and key methodological issues. It also discusses future directions for the field. The review aims to provide researchers in China with a comprehensive overview of the field and methodological guidance for developing eye-tracking corpora for Chinese and minority languages spoken in China, while drawing on these regional examples to illustrate broader international challenges in data harmonization, cross-linguistic comparability, and reproducibility.