EyeLink Reading and Language Eye-Tracking Publications
All EyeLink reading and language research publications up until 2019 (with some early 2020s) are listed below by year. You can search the publications using key words such as Visual World, Comprehension, Speech Production, etc. You can also search for individual author names. If we missed any EyeLink reading or language article, please email us!
All EyeLink reading and language publications are also available for download / import into reference management software as a single Bibtex (.bib) file.
2020 |
Elisabeth Beyersmann; Signy Wegener; Kate Nation; Ayako Prokupzcuk; Hua-chen Wang; Elisabeth Beyersmann; Signy Wegener; Kate Nation; Hua-chen Wang; Anne Castles Learning morphologically complex spoken words: Orthographic expectations of embedded stems are formed prior to print exposure Journal Article Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, pp. 1–13, 2020. @article{Beyersmann2020, title = {Learning morphologically complex spoken words: Orthographic expectations of embedded stems are formed prior to print exposure}, author = {Elisabeth Beyersmann and Signy Wegener and Kate Nation and Ayako Prokupzcuk and Hua-chen Wang and Elisabeth Beyersmann and Signy Wegener and Kate Nation and Hua-chen Wang and Anne Castles}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition}, pages = {1--13}, abstract = {It is well known that information from spoken language is integrated into reading processes, but the nature of these links and how they are acquired is less well understood. Recent evidence has suggested that predictions about the written form of newly learned spoken words are already generated prior to print exposure. We extend this work to morphologically complex words and ask whether the information that is available in spoken words goes beyond the mappings between phonology and orthography. Adults were taught the oral form of a set of novel morphologically complex words (e.g., “neshing”, “neshed”, “neshes”), with a 2nd set serving as untrained items. Following oral training, participants saw the printed form of the novel word stems for the first time (e.g., nesh), embedded in sentences, and their eye movements were monitored. Half of the stems were allocated a predictable and half an unpredictable spelling. Reading times were shorter for orally trained than untrained stems and for stems with predictable rather than unpredictable spellings. Crucially, there was an interaction between spelling predictability and training. This suggests that orthographic expectations of embedded stems are formed during spoken word learning. Reading aloud and spelling tests complemented the eye movement data, and findings are discussed in the context of theories of reading acquisition.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } It is well known that information from spoken language is integrated into reading processes, but the nature of these links and how they are acquired is less well understood. Recent evidence has suggested that predictions about the written form of newly learned spoken words are already generated prior to print exposure. We extend this work to morphologically complex words and ask whether the information that is available in spoken words goes beyond the mappings between phonology and orthography. Adults were taught the oral form of a set of novel morphologically complex words (e.g., “neshing”, “neshed”, “neshes”), with a 2nd set serving as untrained items. Following oral training, participants saw the printed form of the novel word stems for the first time (e.g., nesh), embedded in sentences, and their eye movements were monitored. Half of the stems were allocated a predictable and half an unpredictable spelling. Reading times were shorter for orally trained than untrained stems and for stems with predictable rather than unpredictable spellings. Crucially, there was an interaction between spelling predictability and training. This suggests that orthographic expectations of embedded stems are formed during spoken word learning. Reading aloud and spelling tests complemented the eye movement data, and findings are discussed in the context of theories of reading acquisition. |
Christophe Carlei; Dirk Kerzel Looking up improves performance in verbal tasks Journal Article Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, 25 (2), pp. 198–214, 2020. @article{Carlei2020, title = {Looking up improves performance in verbal tasks}, author = {Christophe Carlei and Dirk Kerzel}, doi = {10.1080/1357650X.2019.1646755}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition}, volume = {25}, number = {2}, pages = {198--214}, abstract = {Earlier research suggested that gaze direction has an impact on cognitive processing. It is likely that horizontal gaze direction increases activation in specific areas of the contralateral cerebral hemisphere. Consistent with the lateralization of memory functions, we previously showed that shifting gaze to the left improves visuo-spatial short-term memory. In the current study, we investigated the effect of unilateral gaze on verbal processing. We expected better performance with gaze directed to the right because language is lateralized in the left hemisphere. Also, an advantage of gaze directed upward was expected because local processing and object recognition are facilitated in the upper visual field. Observers directed their gaze at one of the corners of the computer screen while they performed lexical decision, grammatical gender and semantic discrimination tasks. Contrary to expectations, we did not observe performance differences between gaze directed to the left or right, which is consistent with the inconsistent literature on horizontal asymmetries with verbal tasks. However, RTs were shorter when observers looked at words in the upper compared to the lower part of the screen, suggesting that looking upwards enhances verbal processing.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Earlier research suggested that gaze direction has an impact on cognitive processing. It is likely that horizontal gaze direction increases activation in specific areas of the contralateral cerebral hemisphere. Consistent with the lateralization of memory functions, we previously showed that shifting gaze to the left improves visuo-spatial short-term memory. In the current study, we investigated the effect of unilateral gaze on verbal processing. We expected better performance with gaze directed to the right because language is lateralized in the left hemisphere. Also, an advantage of gaze directed upward was expected because local processing and object recognition are facilitated in the upper visual field. Observers directed their gaze at one of the corners of the computer screen while they performed lexical decision, grammatical gender and semantic discrimination tasks. Contrary to expectations, we did not observe performance differences between gaze directed to the left or right, which is consistent with the inconsistent literature on horizontal asymmetries with verbal tasks. However, RTs were shorter when observers looked at words in the upper compared to the lower part of the screen, suggesting that looking upwards enhances verbal processing. |
Anna Kosovicheva; Peter J Bex What color was it? A psychophysical paradigm for tracking subjective progress in continuous tasks Journal Article Perception, 49 (1), pp. 21–38, 2020. @article{Kosovicheva2020, title = {What color was it? A psychophysical paradigm for tracking subjective progress in continuous tasks}, author = {Anna Kosovicheva and Peter J Bex}, doi = {10.1177/0301006619886247}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {Perception}, volume = {49}, number = {1}, pages = {21--38}, abstract = {When making a sequence of fixations, how does the timing of visual experience compare with the timing of fixation onsets? Previous studies have tracked shifts of attention or perceived gaze direction using self-report methods. We used a similar method, a dynamic color technique, to measure subjective timing in continuous tasks involving fixation sequences. Does the time that observers report reading a word coincide with their fixation on it, or is there an asynchrony, and does this relationship depend on the observer's task? Observers read sentences that continuously changed in hue and identified the color of a word at the time that they read it using a color palette. We compared responses with a nonreading condition, where observers reproduced their fixations, but viewed nonword stimuli. Results showed a delay between the color of stimuli at fixation onset and the reported color during perception. For nonword tasks, the delay was constant. However, in the reading task, the delay was larger for earlier compared with later words in the sentence. Our results offer a new method for measuring awareness or subjective progress within fixation sequences, which can be extended to other continuous tasks.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } When making a sequence of fixations, how does the timing of visual experience compare with the timing of fixation onsets? Previous studies have tracked shifts of attention or perceived gaze direction using self-report methods. We used a similar method, a dynamic color technique, to measure subjective timing in continuous tasks involving fixation sequences. Does the time that observers report reading a word coincide with their fixation on it, or is there an asynchrony, and does this relationship depend on the observer's task? Observers read sentences that continuously changed in hue and identified the color of a word at the time that they read it using a color palette. We compared responses with a nonreading condition, where observers reproduced their fixations, but viewed nonword stimuli. Results showed a delay between the color of stimuli at fixation onset and the reported color during perception. For nonword tasks, the delay was constant. However, in the reading task, the delay was larger for earlier compared with later words in the sentence. Our results offer a new method for measuring awareness or subjective progress within fixation sequences, which can be extended to other continuous tasks. |
Leanne Nagels; Roelien Bastiaanse; Deniz Başkent; Anita Wagnera Individual differences in lexical access among cochlear implant users Journal Article Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 63 , pp. 286–304, 2020. @article{Nagels2020, title = {Individual differences in lexical access among cochlear implant users}, author = {Leanne Nagels and Roelien Bastiaanse and Deniz Başkent and Anita Wagnera}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research}, volume = {63}, pages = {286--304}, abstract = {Purpose: The current study investigates how individual differences in cochlear implant (CI) users' sensitivity to word–nonword differences, reflecting lexical uncertainty, relate to their reliance on sentential context for lexical access in processing continuous speech. Method: Fifteen CI users and 14 normal-hearing (NH) controls participated in an auditory lexical decision task (Experiment 1) and a visual-world paradigm task (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 tested participants' reliance on lexical statistics, and Experiment 2 studied how sentential context affects the time course and patterns of lexical competition leading to lexical access. Results: In Experiment 1, CI users had lower accuracy scores and longer reaction times than NH listeners, particularly for nonwords. In Experiment 2, CI users' lexical competition patterns were, on average, similar to those of NH listeners, but the patterns of individual CI users varied greatly. Individual CI users' word–nonword sensitivity (Experiment 1) explained differences in the reliance on sentential context to resolve lexical competition, whereas clinical speech perception scores explained competition with phonologically related words. Conclusions: The general analysis of CI users' lexical competition patterns showed merely quantitative differences with NH listeners in the time course of lexical competition, but our additional analysis revealed more qualitative differences in CI users' strategies to process speech. Individuals' word–nonword sensitivity explained different parts of individual variability than clinical speech perception scores. These results stress, particularly for heterogeneous clinical populations such as CI users, the importance of investigating individual differences in addition to group averages, as they can be informative for clinical rehabilitation.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Purpose: The current study investigates how individual differences in cochlear implant (CI) users' sensitivity to word–nonword differences, reflecting lexical uncertainty, relate to their reliance on sentential context for lexical access in processing continuous speech. Method: Fifteen CI users and 14 normal-hearing (NH) controls participated in an auditory lexical decision task (Experiment 1) and a visual-world paradigm task (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 tested participants' reliance on lexical statistics, and Experiment 2 studied how sentential context affects the time course and patterns of lexical competition leading to lexical access. Results: In Experiment 1, CI users had lower accuracy scores and longer reaction times than NH listeners, particularly for nonwords. In Experiment 2, CI users' lexical competition patterns were, on average, similar to those of NH listeners, but the patterns of individual CI users varied greatly. Individual CI users' word–nonword sensitivity (Experiment 1) explained differences in the reliance on sentential context to resolve lexical competition, whereas clinical speech perception scores explained competition with phonologically related words. Conclusions: The general analysis of CI users' lexical competition patterns showed merely quantitative differences with NH listeners in the time course of lexical competition, but our additional analysis revealed more qualitative differences in CI users' strategies to process speech. Individuals' word–nonword sensitivity explained different parts of individual variability than clinical speech perception scores. These results stress, particularly for heterogeneous clinical populations such as CI users, the importance of investigating individual differences in addition to group averages, as they can be informative for clinical rehabilitation. |
Chie Nakamura; Manabu Arai; Yuki Hirose; Suzanne Flynn Frontiers in Psychology, 10 , pp. 1–14, 2020. @article{Nakamura2020, title = {An extra cue is beneficial for native speakers but can be disruptive for second language learners: Integration of prosody and visual context in syntactic ambiguity resolution}, author = {Chie Nakamura and Manabu Arai and Yuki Hirose and Suzanne Flynn}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02835}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {10}, pages = {1--14}, abstract = {It has long been debated whether non-native speakers can process sentences in the same way as native speakers do or they suffer from certain qualitative deficit in their ability of language comprehension. The current study examined the influence of prosodic and visual information in processing sentences with a temporarily ambiguous prepositional phrase (“Put the cake on the plate in the basket”) with native English speakers and Japanese learners of English. Specifically, we investigated (1) whether native speakers assign different pragmatic functions to the same prosodic cues used in different contexts and (2) whether L2 learners can reach the correct analysis by integrating prosodic cues with syntax with reference to the visually presented contextual information. The results from native speakers showed that contrastive accents helped to resolve the referential ambiguity when a contrastive pair was present in visual scenes. However, without a contrastive pair in the visual scene, native speakers were slower to reach the correct analysis with the contrastive accent, which supports the view that the pragmatic function of intonation categories are highly context dependent. The results from L2 learners showed that visually presented context alone helped L2 learners to reach the correct analysis. However, L2 learners were unable to assign contrastive meaning to the prosodic cues when there were two potential referents in the visual scene. The results suggest that L2 learners are not capable of integrating multiple sources of information in an interactive manner during real-time language comprehension.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } It has long been debated whether non-native speakers can process sentences in the same way as native speakers do or they suffer from certain qualitative deficit in their ability of language comprehension. The current study examined the influence of prosodic and visual information in processing sentences with a temporarily ambiguous prepositional phrase (“Put the cake on the plate in the basket”) with native English speakers and Japanese learners of English. Specifically, we investigated (1) whether native speakers assign different pragmatic functions to the same prosodic cues used in different contexts and (2) whether L2 learners can reach the correct analysis by integrating prosodic cues with syntax with reference to the visually presented contextual information. The results from native speakers showed that contrastive accents helped to resolve the referential ambiguity when a contrastive pair was present in visual scenes. However, without a contrastive pair in the visual scene, native speakers were slower to reach the correct analysis with the contrastive accent, which supports the view that the pragmatic function of intonation categories are highly context dependent. The results from L2 learners showed that visually presented context alone helped L2 learners to reach the correct analysis. However, L2 learners were unable to assign contrastive meaning to the prosodic cues when there were two potential referents in the visual scene. The results suggest that L2 learners are not capable of integrating multiple sources of information in an interactive manner during real-time language comprehension. |
Vincent Porretta; Lori Buchanan; Juhani Järvikivi When processing costs impact predictive processing: The case of foreign-accented speech and accent experience Journal Article Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, pp. 1–8, 2020. @article{Porretta2020, title = {When processing costs impact predictive processing: The case of foreign-accented speech and accent experience}, author = {Vincent Porretta and Lori Buchanan and Juhani Järvikivi}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics}, pages = {1--8}, publisher = {Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics}, abstract = {Listeners use linguistic information and real-world knowledge to predict upcoming spoken words. However, studies ofpredictive processing have focused on prediction under optimal listening conditions. We examined the effect offoreign-accented speech on predictive processing. Furthermore, we investigated whether accent-specific experience facilitates predictive processing. Using the visual world paradigm, we demonstrated that although the presence of an accent impedes predictive processing, it does not preclude it. We further showed that as listener experience increases, predictive processing for accented speech increases and begins to approximate the pattern seen for native speech. These results speak to the limitation of the processing resources that must be allocated, leading to a trade-offwhen listeners are faced with increased uncertainty and more effortful recognition due to a foreign accent.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Listeners use linguistic information and real-world knowledge to predict upcoming spoken words. However, studies ofpredictive processing have focused on prediction under optimal listening conditions. We examined the effect offoreign-accented speech on predictive processing. Furthermore, we investigated whether accent-specific experience facilitates predictive processing. Using the visual world paradigm, we demonstrated that although the presence of an accent impedes predictive processing, it does not preclude it. We further showed that as listener experience increases, predictive processing for accented speech increases and begins to approximate the pattern seen for native speech. These results speak to the limitation of the processing resources that must be allocated, leading to a trade-offwhen listeners are faced with increased uncertainty and more effortful recognition due to a foreign accent. |
Johannes Rennig; Kira Wegner-Clemens; Michael S Beauchamp Face viewing behavior predicts multisensory gain during speech perception Journal Article Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 27 , pp. 70–77, 2020. @article{Rennig2020, title = {Face viewing behavior predicts multisensory gain during speech perception}, author = {Johannes Rennig and Kira Wegner-Clemens and Michael S Beauchamp}, doi = {10.3758/s13423-019-01665-y}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {Psychonomic Bulletin & Review}, volume = {27}, pages = {70--77}, publisher = {Psychonomic Bulletin & Review}, abstract = {Visual information from the face of an interlocutor complements auditory information from their voice, enhancing intelligibility. However, there are large individual differences in the ability to comprehend noisy audiovisual speech. Another axis of individual variability is the extent to which humans fixate the mouth or the eyes of a viewed face. We speculated that across a lifetime of face viewing, individuals who prefer to fixate the mouth of a viewed face might accumulate stronger associations between visual and auditory speech, resulting in improved comprehension of noisy audiovisual speech. To test this idea, we assessed interindividual variability in two tasks. Participants (n = 102) varied greatly in their ability to understand noisy audiovisual sentences (accuracy from 2–58%) and in the time they spent fixating the mouth of a talker enunciating clear audiovisual syllables (3–98% of total time). These two variables were positively correlated: a 10% increase in time spent fixating the mouth equated to a 5.6% increase in multisensory gain. This finding demonstrates an unexpected link, mediated by histories of visual exposure, between two fundamental human abilities: processing faces and understanding speech.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Visual information from the face of an interlocutor complements auditory information from their voice, enhancing intelligibility. However, there are large individual differences in the ability to comprehend noisy audiovisual speech. Another axis of individual variability is the extent to which humans fixate the mouth or the eyes of a viewed face. We speculated that across a lifetime of face viewing, individuals who prefer to fixate the mouth of a viewed face might accumulate stronger associations between visual and auditory speech, resulting in improved comprehension of noisy audiovisual speech. To test this idea, we assessed interindividual variability in two tasks. Participants (n = 102) varied greatly in their ability to understand noisy audiovisual sentences (accuracy from 2–58%) and in the time they spent fixating the mouth of a talker enunciating clear audiovisual syllables (3–98% of total time). These two variables were positively correlated: a 10% increase in time spent fixating the mouth equated to a 5.6% increase in multisensory gain. This finding demonstrates an unexpected link, mediated by histories of visual exposure, between two fundamental human abilities: processing faces and understanding speech. |
Anastasia Ulicheva; Hannah Harvey; Mark Aronoff; Kathleen Rastle Skilled readers' sensitivity to meaningful regularities in English writing Journal Article Cognition, 195 , pp. 103810, 2020. @article{Ulicheva2020, title = {Skilled readers' sensitivity to meaningful regularities in English writing}, author = {Anastasia Ulicheva and Hannah Harvey and Mark Aronoff and Kathleen Rastle}, doi = {10.1016/j.cognition.2018.09.013}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {Cognition}, volume = {195}, pages = {103810}, publisher = {Elsevier}, abstract = {Substantial research has been undertaken to understand the relationship between spelling and sound, but we know little about the relationship between spelling and meaning in alphabetic writing systems. We present a computational analysis of English writing in which we develop new constructs to describe this relationship. Diagnosticity captures the amount of meaningful information in a given spelling, whereas specificity estimates the degree of dispersion of this meaning across different spellings for a particular sound sequence. Using these two constructs, we demonstrate that particular suffix spellings tend to be reserved for particular meaningful functions. We then show across three paradigms (nonword classification, spelling, and eye tracking during sentence reading) that this form of regularity between spelling and meaning influences the behaviour of skilled readers, and that the degree of this behavioural sensitivity mirrors the strength of spelling-to-meaning regularities in the writing system. We close by arguing that English spelling may have become fractionated such that the high degree of spelling-sound inconsistency maximises the transmission of meaningful information.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Substantial research has been undertaken to understand the relationship between spelling and sound, but we know little about the relationship between spelling and meaning in alphabetic writing systems. We present a computational analysis of English writing in which we develop new constructs to describe this relationship. Diagnosticity captures the amount of meaningful information in a given spelling, whereas specificity estimates the degree of dispersion of this meaning across different spellings for a particular sound sequence. Using these two constructs, we demonstrate that particular suffix spellings tend to be reserved for particular meaningful functions. We then show across three paradigms (nonword classification, spelling, and eye tracking during sentence reading) that this form of regularity between spelling and meaning influences the behaviour of skilled readers, and that the degree of this behavioural sensitivity mirrors the strength of spelling-to-meaning regularities in the writing system. We close by arguing that English spelling may have become fractionated such that the high degree of spelling-sound inconsistency maximises the transmission of meaningful information. |
Margreet Vogelzang; Francesca Foppolo; Maria Teresa Guasti; Hedderik van Rijn; Petra Hendriks Reasoning about alternative forms is costly: The processing of null and overt pronouns in Italian using pupillary responses Journal Article Discourse Processes, 57 (2), pp. 158–183, 2020. @article{Vogelzang2020, title = {Reasoning about alternative forms is costly: The processing of null and overt pronouns in Italian using pupillary responses}, author = {Margreet Vogelzang and Francesca Foppolo and Maria Teresa Guasti and Hedderik van Rijn and Petra Hendriks}, doi = {10.1080/0163853X.2019.1591127}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {Discourse Processes}, volume = {57}, number = {2}, pages = {158--183}, publisher = {Routledge}, abstract = {Different words generally have different meanings. However, some words seemingly share similar meanings. An example are null and overt pronouns in Italian, which both refer to an individual in the discourse. Is the interpretation and processing of a form affected by the existence of another form with a similar meaning? With a pupillary response study, we show that null and overt pronouns are processed differently. Specifically, null pronouns are found to be less costly to process than overt pronouns. We argue that this difference is caused by an additional reasoning step that is needed to process marked overt pronouns but not unmarked null pronouns. A comparison with data from Dutch, a language with overt but no null pronouns, demonstrates that Italian pronouns are processed differently from Dutch pronouns. These findings suggest that the processing of a marked form is influenced by alternative forms within the same language, making its processing costly.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Different words generally have different meanings. However, some words seemingly share similar meanings. An example are null and overt pronouns in Italian, which both refer to an individual in the discourse. Is the interpretation and processing of a form affected by the existence of another form with a similar meaning? With a pupillary response study, we show that null and overt pronouns are processed differently. Specifically, null pronouns are found to be less costly to process than overt pronouns. We argue that this difference is caused by an additional reasoning step that is needed to process marked overt pronouns but not unmarked null pronouns. A comparison with data from Dutch, a language with overt but no null pronouns, demonstrates that Italian pronouns are processed differently from Dutch pronouns. These findings suggest that the processing of a marked form is influenced by alternative forms within the same language, making its processing costly. |
Anke Weidmann; Laura Richert; Maximilian Bernecker; Miriam Knauss; Kathlen Priebe; Benedikt Reuter; Martin Bohus; Meike Müller-Engelmann; Thomas Fydrich Dwelling on verbal but not pictorial threat cues: An eye-tracking study with adult survivors of childhood interpersonal violence Journal Article Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 12 (1), pp. 46–54, 2020. @article{Weidmann2020, title = {Dwelling on verbal but not pictorial threat cues: An eye-tracking study with adult survivors of childhood interpersonal violence}, author = {Anke Weidmann and Laura Richert and Maximilian Bernecker and Miriam Knauss and Kathlen Priebe and Benedikt Reuter and Martin Bohus and Meike Müller-Engelmann and Thomas Fydrich}, doi = {10.1037/tra0000424}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy}, volume = {12}, number = {1}, pages = {46--54}, abstract = {Objective: Previous studies have found evidence of an attentional bias for trauma-related stimuli in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using eye-tracking (ET) technlogy. However, it is unclear whether findings for PTSD after traumatic events in adulthood can be transferred to PTSD after interpersonal trauma in childhood. The latter is often accompanied by more complex symptom features, including, for example, affective dysregulation and has not yet been studied using ET. The aim of this study was to explore which components of attention are biased in adult victims of childhood trauma with PTSD compared to those without PTSD. Method: Female participants with (n = 27) or without (n = 27) PTSD who had experienced interpersonal violence in childhood or adolescence watched different traumarelated stimuli (Experiment 1: words, Experiment 2: facial expressions). We analyzed whether traumarelated stimuli were primarily detected (vigilance bias) and/or dwelled on longer (maintenance bias) compared to stimuli of other emotional qualities. Results: For trauma-related words, there was evidence of a maintenance bias but not of a vigilance bias. For trauma-related facial expressions, there was no evidence of any bias. Conclusions: At present, an attentional bias to trauma-related stimuli cannot be considered as robust in PTSD following trauma in childhood compared to that of PTSD following trauma in adulthood. The findings are discussed with respect to difficulties attributing effects specifically to PTSD in this highly comorbid though understudied population.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Objective: Previous studies have found evidence of an attentional bias for trauma-related stimuli in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using eye-tracking (ET) technlogy. However, it is unclear whether findings for PTSD after traumatic events in adulthood can be transferred to PTSD after interpersonal trauma in childhood. The latter is often accompanied by more complex symptom features, including, for example, affective dysregulation and has not yet been studied using ET. The aim of this study was to explore which components of attention are biased in adult victims of childhood trauma with PTSD compared to those without PTSD. Method: Female participants with (n = 27) or without (n = 27) PTSD who had experienced interpersonal violence in childhood or adolescence watched different traumarelated stimuli (Experiment 1: words, Experiment 2: facial expressions). We analyzed whether traumarelated stimuli were primarily detected (vigilance bias) and/or dwelled on longer (maintenance bias) compared to stimuli of other emotional qualities. Results: For trauma-related words, there was evidence of a maintenance bias but not of a vigilance bias. For trauma-related facial expressions, there was no evidence of any bias. Conclusions: At present, an attentional bias to trauma-related stimuli cannot be considered as robust in PTSD following trauma in childhood compared to that of PTSD following trauma in adulthood. The findings are discussed with respect to difficulties attributing effects specifically to PTSD in this highly comorbid though understudied population. |
2019 |
Chun-Ting Hsu; Roy Clariana; Benjamin Schloss; Ping Li Neurocognitive signatures of naturalistic reading of scientific texts: A fixation-related fMRI study Journal Article Scientific Reports, 9 , pp. 1–16, 2019. @article{Hsu2019, title = {Neurocognitive signatures of naturalistic reading of scientific texts: A fixation-related fMRI study}, author = {Chun-Ting Hsu and Roy Clariana and Benjamin Schloss and Ping Li}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-019-47176-7}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-12-01}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {9}, pages = {1--16}, publisher = {Nature Publishing Group}, abstract = {How do students gain scientific knowledge while reading expository text? This study examines the underlying neurocognitive basis of textual knowledge structure and individual readers' cognitive differences and reading habits, including the influence of text and reader characteristics, on outcomes of scientific text comprehension. By combining fixation-related fMRI and multiband data acquisition, the study is among the first to consider self-paced naturalistic reading inside the MRI scanner. Our results revealed the underlying neurocognitive patterns associated with information integration of different time scales during text reading, and significant individual differences due to the interaction between text characteristics (e.g., optimality of the textual knowledge structure) and reader characteristics (e.g., electronic device use habits). Individual differences impacted the amount of neural resources deployed for multitasking and information integration for constructing the underlying scientific mental models based on the text being read. Our findings have significant implications for understanding science reading in a population that is increasingly dependent on electronic devices.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } How do students gain scientific knowledge while reading expository text? This study examines the underlying neurocognitive basis of textual knowledge structure and individual readers' cognitive differences and reading habits, including the influence of text and reader characteristics, on outcomes of scientific text comprehension. By combining fixation-related fMRI and multiband data acquisition, the study is among the first to consider self-paced naturalistic reading inside the MRI scanner. Our results revealed the underlying neurocognitive patterns associated with information integration of different time scales during text reading, and significant individual differences due to the interaction between text characteristics (e.g., optimality of the textual knowledge structure) and reader characteristics (e.g., electronic device use habits). Individual differences impacted the amount of neural resources deployed for multitasking and information integration for constructing the underlying scientific mental models based on the text being read. Our findings have significant implications for understanding science reading in a population that is increasingly dependent on electronic devices. |
Dexiang Zhang; Jukka Hyönä; Lei Cui; Zhaoxia Zhu; Shouxin Li Effects of task instructions and topic signaling on text processing among adult readers with different reading styles: An eye-tracking study Journal Article Learning and Instruction, 64 , pp. 1–15, 2019. @article{Zhang2019b, title = {Effects of task instructions and topic signaling on text processing among adult readers with different reading styles: An eye-tracking study}, author = {Dexiang Zhang and Jukka Hyönä and Lei Cui and Zhaoxia Zhu and Shouxin Li}, doi = {10.1016/j.learninstruc.2019.101246}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-12-01}, journal = {Learning and Instruction}, volume = {64}, pages = {1--15}, publisher = {Elsevier BV}, abstract = {Effects of task instructions and topic signaling on text processing among adult readers with different reading styles were studied by eye-tracking. In Experiment 1, readers read two multiple-topic expository texts guided either by a summary or a verification task. In Experiment 2, readers read a text with or without the topic sentences underlined. Four types of readers emerged: topic structure processors (TSPs), fast linear readers (FLRs), slow linear readers (SLRs), and nonselective reviewers (NSRs). TSPs paid ample fixation time on topic sentences regardless of their signaling. FLRs were characterized by fast first-pass reading, little rereading of previous text, and some signs of structure processing. The common feature of SLRs and NSRs was their slow first-pass reading. They differed from each other in that NSRs were characterized by spending ample time also during second-pass reading. They only showed some signs of topic structure processing when cued by task instructions or topic signaling.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Effects of task instructions and topic signaling on text processing among adult readers with different reading styles were studied by eye-tracking. In Experiment 1, readers read two multiple-topic expository texts guided either by a summary or a verification task. In Experiment 2, readers read a text with or without the topic sentences underlined. Four types of readers emerged: topic structure processors (TSPs), fast linear readers (FLRs), slow linear readers (SLRs), and nonselective reviewers (NSRs). TSPs paid ample fixation time on topic sentences regardless of their signaling. FLRs were characterized by fast first-pass reading, little rereading of previous text, and some signs of structure processing. The common feature of SLRs and NSRs was their slow first-pass reading. They differed from each other in that NSRs were characterized by spending ample time also during second-pass reading. They only showed some signs of topic structure processing when cued by task instructions or topic signaling. |
Jarkko Hautala; Otto Loberg; Najla Azaiez; Sara Taskinen; Simon P Tiffin-Richards; Paavo H T Leppänen What information should I look for again? Attentional difficulties distracts reading of task assignments Journal Article Learning and Individual Differences, 75 , pp. 1–12, 2019. @article{Hautala2019, title = {What information should I look for again? Attentional difficulties distracts reading of task assignments}, author = {Jarkko Hautala and Otto Loberg and Najla Azaiez and Sara Taskinen and Simon P Tiffin-Richards and Paavo H T Leppänen}, doi = {10.1016/j.lindif.2019.101775}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-10-01}, journal = {Learning and Individual Differences}, volume = {75}, pages = {1--12}, publisher = {Elsevier BV}, abstract = {This large-scale eye-movement study (N=164) investigated how students read short task assignments to complete information search problems and how their cognitive resources are associated with this reading behavior. These cognitive resources include information searching subskills, prior knowledge, verbal memory, reading fluency, and attentional difficulties. In this study, the task assignments consisted of four sentences. The first and last sentences provided context, while the second or third sentence was the relevant or irrelevant sentence under investigation. The results of a linear mixed-model and latent change score analyses showed the ubiquitous influence of reading fluency on first-pass eye movement measures, and the effects of sentence re- levancy on making more and longer reinspections and look-backs to the relevant than irrelevant sentence. In addition, the look-backs to the relevant sentence were associated with better information search subskills. Students with attentional difficulties made substantially fewer look-backs specifically to the relevant sentence. These results provide evidence that selective look-backs are used as an important index of comprehension monitoring independent of reading fluency. In this framework, slow reading fluency was found to be associated with laborious decoding but with intact comprehension monitoring, whereas attention difficulty was associated with intact decoding but with deficiency in comprehension monitoring.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } This large-scale eye-movement study (N=164) investigated how students read short task assignments to complete information search problems and how their cognitive resources are associated with this reading behavior. These cognitive resources include information searching subskills, prior knowledge, verbal memory, reading fluency, and attentional difficulties. In this study, the task assignments consisted of four sentences. The first and last sentences provided context, while the second or third sentence was the relevant or irrelevant sentence under investigation. The results of a linear mixed-model and latent change score analyses showed the ubiquitous influence of reading fluency on first-pass eye movement measures, and the effects of sentence re- levancy on making more and longer reinspections and look-backs to the relevant than irrelevant sentence. In addition, the look-backs to the relevant sentence were associated with better information search subskills. Students with attentional difficulties made substantially fewer look-backs specifically to the relevant sentence. These results provide evidence that selective look-backs are used as an important index of comprehension monitoring independent of reading fluency. In this framework, slow reading fluency was found to be associated with laborious decoding but with intact comprehension monitoring, whereas attention difficulty was associated with intact decoding but with deficiency in comprehension monitoring. |
Bob McMurray; Jamie Klein-Packarda; Bruce J Tomblinb A real-time mechanism underlying lexical deficits in developmental language disorder: Between-word inhibition Journal Article Cognition, 191 , pp. 1–13, 2019. @article{McMurray2019a, title = {A real-time mechanism underlying lexical deficits in developmental language disorder: Between-word inhibition}, author = {Bob McMurray and Jamie Klein-Packarda and Bruce J Tomblinb}, doi = {10.1016/J.COGNITION.2019.06.012}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-10-01}, journal = {Cognition}, volume = {191}, pages = {1--13}, publisher = {Elsevier}, abstract = {Eight to 11% of children have a clinical disorder in oral language (Developmental Language Disorder, DLD). Language deficits in DLD can affect all levels of language and persist through adulthood. Word-level processing may be critical as words link phonology, orthography, syntax and semantics. Thus, a lexical deficit could cascade throughout language. Cognitively, word recognition is a competition process: as the input (e.g., lizard) unfolds, multiple candidates (liver, wizard) compete for recognition. Children with DLD do not fully resolve this competition, but it is unclear what cognitive mechanisms underlie this. We examined lexical inhibition—the ability of more active words to suppress competitors—in 79 adolescents with and without DLD. Participants heard words (e.g. net) in which the onset was manipulated to briefly favor a competitor (neck). This was predicted to inhibit the target, slowing recognition. Word recognition was measured using a task in which participants heard the stimulus, and clicked on a picture of the item from an array of competitors, while eye-movements were monitored as a measure of how strongly the participant was committed to that interpretation over time. TD listeners showed evidence of inhibition with greater interference for stimuli that briefly activated a competitor word. DLD listeners did not. This suggests deficits in DLD may stem from a failure to engage lexical inhibition. This in turn could have ripple effects throughout the language system. This supports theoretical approaches to DLD that emphasize lexical-level deficits, and deficits in real-time processing.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Eight to 11% of children have a clinical disorder in oral language (Developmental Language Disorder, DLD). Language deficits in DLD can affect all levels of language and persist through adulthood. Word-level processing may be critical as words link phonology, orthography, syntax and semantics. Thus, a lexical deficit could cascade throughout language. Cognitively, word recognition is a competition process: as the input (e.g., lizard) unfolds, multiple candidates (liver, wizard) compete for recognition. Children with DLD do not fully resolve this competition, but it is unclear what cognitive mechanisms underlie this. We examined lexical inhibition—the ability of more active words to suppress competitors—in 79 adolescents with and without DLD. Participants heard words (e.g. net) in which the onset was manipulated to briefly favor a competitor (neck). This was predicted to inhibit the target, slowing recognition. Word recognition was measured using a task in which participants heard the stimulus, and clicked on a picture of the item from an array of competitors, while eye-movements were monitored as a measure of how strongly the participant was committed to that interpretation over time. TD listeners showed evidence of inhibition with greater interference for stimuli that briefly activated a competitor word. DLD listeners did not. This suggests deficits in DLD may stem from a failure to engage lexical inhibition. This in turn could have ripple effects throughout the language system. This supports theoretical approaches to DLD that emphasize lexical-level deficits, and deficits in real-time processing. |
Michelle Perdomo; Edith Kaan Prosodic cues in second-language speech processing: A visual world eye-tracking study Journal Article Second Language Research, pp. 1–27, 2019. @article{Perdomo2019, title = {Prosodic cues in second-language speech processing: A visual world eye-tracking study}, author = {Michelle Perdomo and Edith Kaan}, doi = {10.1177/0267658319879196}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-10-01}, journal = {Second Language Research}, pages = {1--27}, abstract = {Listeners interpret cues in speech processing immediately rather than waiting until the end of a sentence. In particular, prosodic cues in auditory speech processing can aid listeners in building information structure and contrast sets. Native speakers even use this information in combination with syntactic and semantic information to build mental representations predictively. Research on second-language (L2) learners suggests that learners have difficulty integrating linguistic information across various domains, likely subject to L2 proficiency levels. The current study investigated eye-movement behavior of native speakers of English and Chinese learners of English in their use of contrastive intonational cues to restrict the set of upcoming referents in a visual world paradigm. Both native speakers and learners used contrastive pitch accent to restrict the set of referents. Whereas native speakers anticipated the upcoming set of referents, this was less clear in the L2 learners. This suggests that learners are able to integrate information across multiple domains to build information structure in the L2 but may not do so predictively. Prosodic processing was not affected by proficiency or working memory in the L2 speakers.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Listeners interpret cues in speech processing immediately rather than waiting until the end of a sentence. In particular, prosodic cues in auditory speech processing can aid listeners in building information structure and contrast sets. Native speakers even use this information in combination with syntactic and semantic information to build mental representations predictively. Research on second-language (L2) learners suggests that learners have difficulty integrating linguistic information across various domains, likely subject to L2 proficiency levels. The current study investigated eye-movement behavior of native speakers of English and Chinese learners of English in their use of contrastive intonational cues to restrict the set of upcoming referents in a visual world paradigm. Both native speakers and learners used contrastive pitch accent to restrict the set of referents. Whereas native speakers anticipated the upcoming set of referents, this was less clear in the L2 learners. This suggests that learners are able to integrate information across multiple domains to build information structure in the L2 but may not do so predictively. Prosodic processing was not affected by proficiency or working memory in the L2 speakers. |
Jessica E Goold; Wonil Choi; John M Henderson Cortical control of eye movements in natural reading: Evidence from MVPA Journal Article Experimental Brain Research, 237 , pp. 3099–3107, 2019. @article{Goold2019, title = {Cortical control of eye movements in natural reading: Evidence from MVPA}, author = {Jessica E Goold and Wonil Choi and John M Henderson}, doi = {10.1007/s00221-019-05655-3}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-09-01}, journal = {Experimental Brain Research}, volume = {237}, pages = {3099--3107}, abstract = {Language comprehension during reading requires fine-grained management of saccadic eye movements. A critical question, therefore, is how the brain controls eye movements in reading. Neural correlates of simple eye movements have been found in multiple cortical regions, but little is known about how this network operates in reading. To investigate this question in the present study, participants were presented with normal text, pseudo-word text, and consonant string text in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner with eyetracking. Participants read naturally in the normal text condition and moved their eyes “as if they were reading” in the other conditions. Multi-voxel pattern analysis was used to analyze the fMRI signal in the oculomotor network. We found that activation patterns in a subset of network regions differentiated between stimulus types. These results suggest that the oculomotor network reflects more than simple saccade generation and are consistent with the hypothesis that specific network areas interface with cognitive systems.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Language comprehension during reading requires fine-grained management of saccadic eye movements. A critical question, therefore, is how the brain controls eye movements in reading. Neural correlates of simple eye movements have been found in multiple cortical regions, but little is known about how this network operates in reading. To investigate this question in the present study, participants were presented with normal text, pseudo-word text, and consonant string text in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner with eyetracking. Participants read naturally in the normal text condition and moved their eyes “as if they were reading” in the other conditions. Multi-voxel pattern analysis was used to analyze the fMRI signal in the oculomotor network. We found that activation patterns in a subset of network regions differentiated between stimulus types. These results suggest that the oculomotor network reflects more than simple saccade generation and are consistent with the hypothesis that specific network areas interface with cognitive systems. |
Elizabeth R Schotter; Anna Marie Fennell Readers can identify the meanings of words without looking at them: Evidence from regressive eye movements Journal Article Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 26 (5), pp. 1697–1704, 2019. @article{Schotter2019, title = {Readers can identify the meanings of words without looking at them: Evidence from regressive eye movements}, author = {Elizabeth R Schotter and Anna Marie Fennell}, doi = {10.3758/s13423-019-01662-1}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-09-01}, journal = {Psychonomic Bulletin & Review}, volume = {26}, number = {5}, pages = {1697--1704}, publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC}, abstract = {Previewing words prior to fixating them leads to faster reading, but does it lead to word identification (i.e., semantic encoding)? We tested this with a gaze-contingent display change study and a subsequent plausibility manipulation. Both the preview and the target words were plausible when encountered, and we manipulated the end of the sentence so that the different preview was rendered implausible (in critical sentences) or remained plausible (in neutral sentences). Regressive saccades from the end ofthe sentence increased when the preview was rendered implausible compared to when it was plausible, especially when the preview was high frequency. These data add to a growing body ofresearch suggesting that linguistic information can be obtained during preview, to the point where word meaning is accessed. In addition, these findings suggest that the meaning of the fixated target does not always override the semantic information obtained during preview.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Previewing words prior to fixating them leads to faster reading, but does it lead to word identification (i.e., semantic encoding)? We tested this with a gaze-contingent display change study and a subsequent plausibility manipulation. Both the preview and the target words were plausible when encountered, and we manipulated the end of the sentence so that the different preview was rendered implausible (in critical sentences) or remained plausible (in neutral sentences). Regressive saccades from the end ofthe sentence increased when the preview was rendered implausible compared to when it was plausible, especially when the preview was high frequency. These data add to a growing body ofresearch suggesting that linguistic information can be obtained during preview, to the point where word meaning is accessed. In addition, these findings suggest that the meaning of the fixated target does not always override the semantic information obtained during preview. |
Georgia Zellou; Delphine Dahan Listeners maintain phonological uncertainty over time and across words: The case of vowel nasality in English Journal Article Journal of Phonetics, 76 , pp. 1–20, 2019. @article{Zellou2019, title = {Listeners maintain phonological uncertainty over time and across words: The case of vowel nasality in English}, author = {Georgia Zellou and Delphine Dahan}, doi = {10.1016/j.wocn.2019.06.001}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-09-01}, journal = {Journal of Phonetics}, volume = {76}, pages = {1--20}, publisher = {Elsevier BV}, abstract = {While the fact that phonetic information is evaluated in a non-discrete, probabilistic fashion is well established, there is less consensus regarding how long such encoding is maintained. Here, we examined whether people maintain in memory the amount of vowel nasality present in a word when processing a subsequent word that holds a semantic dependency with the first one. Vowel nasality in English is an acoustic correlate of the oral vs. nasal status of an adjacent consonant, and sometimes it is the only distinguishing phonetic feature (e.g., bet vs. bent). In Experiment 1, we show that people can perceive differences in nasality between two vowels above and beyond differences in the categorization of those vowels. In Experiment 2, we tracked listeners' eye-movements as they heard a sentence that mentioned one of four displayed images (e.g., ‘money') following a prime word (e.g., ‘bet') that held a semantic relationship with the target word. Recognition of the target was found to be modulated by the degree of nasality in the first word's vowel: Slightly greater uncertainty regarding the oral status of the post-vocalic consonant in the first word translated into a weaker semantic cue for the identification of the second word. Thus, listeners appear to maintain in memory the degree of vowel nasality they perceived on the first word and bring this information to bear onto the interpretation of a subsequent, semantically-dependent word. Probabilistic cue integration across words that hold semantic coherence, we argue, contributes to achieving robust language comprehension despite the inherent ambiguity of the speech signal.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } While the fact that phonetic information is evaluated in a non-discrete, probabilistic fashion is well established, there is less consensus regarding how long such encoding is maintained. Here, we examined whether people maintain in memory the amount of vowel nasality present in a word when processing a subsequent word that holds a semantic dependency with the first one. Vowel nasality in English is an acoustic correlate of the oral vs. nasal status of an adjacent consonant, and sometimes it is the only distinguishing phonetic feature (e.g., bet vs. bent). In Experiment 1, we show that people can perceive differences in nasality between two vowels above and beyond differences in the categorization of those vowels. In Experiment 2, we tracked listeners' eye-movements as they heard a sentence that mentioned one of four displayed images (e.g., ‘money') following a prime word (e.g., ‘bet') that held a semantic relationship with the target word. Recognition of the target was found to be modulated by the degree of nasality in the first word's vowel: Slightly greater uncertainty regarding the oral status of the post-vocalic consonant in the first word translated into a weaker semantic cue for the identification of the second word. Thus, listeners appear to maintain in memory the degree of vowel nasality they perceived on the first word and bring this information to bear onto the interpretation of a subsequent, semantically-dependent word. Probabilistic cue integration across words that hold semantic coherence, we argue, contributes to achieving robust language comprehension despite the inherent ambiguity of the speech signal. |
Arielle Borovsky; Ryan E Peters Vocabulary size and structure affects real-time lexical recognition in 18-month-olds Journal Article PLOS ONE, 14 (7), pp. 1–21, 2019. @article{Borovsky2019, title = {Vocabulary size and structure affects real-time lexical recognition in 18-month-olds}, author = {Arielle Borovsky and Ryan E Peters}, editor = {Masatoshi Koizumi}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0219290}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-07-01}, journal = {PLOS ONE}, volume = {14}, number = {7}, pages = {1--21}, publisher = {Public Library of Science}, abstract = {The mature lexicon encodes semantic relations between words, and these connections can alternately facilitate and interfere with language processing. We explore the emergence of these processing dynamics in 18-month-olds (N = 79) using a novel approach that calculates individualized semantic structure at multiple granularities in participants' productive vocabularies. Participants completed two interleaved eye-tracked word recognition tasks involving semantically unrelated and related picture contexts, which sought to measure the impact of lexical facilitation and interference on processing, respectively. Semantic structure and vocabulary size differentially impacted processing in each task. Category level structure facilitated word recognition in 18-month-olds with smaller productive vocabularies, while overall lexical connectivity interfered with word recognition for toddlers with relatively larger vocabularies. The results suggest that, while semantic structure at multiple granularities is measurable even in small lexicons, mechanisms of semantic interference and facilitation are driven by the development of structure at different granularities. We consider these findings in light of accounts of adult word recognition that posits that different levels of structure index strong and weak activation from nearby and distant semantic neighbors. We also consider further directions for developmental change in these patterns.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The mature lexicon encodes semantic relations between words, and these connections can alternately facilitate and interfere with language processing. We explore the emergence of these processing dynamics in 18-month-olds (N = 79) using a novel approach that calculates individualized semantic structure at multiple granularities in participants' productive vocabularies. Participants completed two interleaved eye-tracked word recognition tasks involving semantically unrelated and related picture contexts, which sought to measure the impact of lexical facilitation and interference on processing, respectively. Semantic structure and vocabulary size differentially impacted processing in each task. Category level structure facilitated word recognition in 18-month-olds with smaller productive vocabularies, while overall lexical connectivity interfered with word recognition for toddlers with relatively larger vocabularies. The results suggest that, while semantic structure at multiple granularities is measurable even in small lexicons, mechanisms of semantic interference and facilitation are driven by the development of structure at different granularities. We consider these findings in light of accounts of adult word recognition that posits that different levels of structure index strong and weak activation from nearby and distant semantic neighbors. We also consider further directions for developmental change in these patterns. |
Benjamin T Carter; Steven G Luke Data in Brief, 25 , pp. 1–21, 2019. @article{Carter2019a, title = {The effect of convolving word length, word frequency, function word predictability and first pass reading time in the analysis of a fixation-related fMRI dataset}, author = {Benjamin T Carter and Steven G Luke}, doi = {10.1016/J.DIB.2019.104171}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-07-01}, journal = {Data in Brief}, volume = {25}, pages = {1--21}, publisher = {Elsevier}, abstract = {The data presented in this document was created to explore the effect of including or excluding word length, word frequency, the lexical predictability of function words and first pass reading time (or the duration of the first fixation on a word) as either baseline regressors or duration modulators on the final analysis for a fixation-related fMRI investigation of linguistic processing. The effect of these regressors was a central question raised during the review of Linguistic networks associated with lexical, semantic and syntactic predictability in reading: A fixation-related fMRI study [1]. Three datasets were created and compared to the original dataset to determine their effect. The first examines the effect of adding word length and word frequency as baseline regressors. The second examines the effect of removing first pass reading time as a duration modulator. The third examines the inclusion of function word predictability into the baseline hemodynamic response function. Statistical maps were created for each dataset and compared to the primary dataset (published in [1]) across the linguistic conditions of the initial dataset (lexical predictability, semantic predictability or syntax predictability).}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The data presented in this document was created to explore the effect of including or excluding word length, word frequency, the lexical predictability of function words and first pass reading time (or the duration of the first fixation on a word) as either baseline regressors or duration modulators on the final analysis for a fixation-related fMRI investigation of linguistic processing. The effect of these regressors was a central question raised during the review of Linguistic networks associated with lexical, semantic and syntactic predictability in reading: A fixation-related fMRI study [1]. Three datasets were created and compared to the original dataset to determine their effect. The first examines the effect of adding word length and word frequency as baseline regressors. The second examines the effect of removing first pass reading time as a duration modulator. The third examines the inclusion of function word predictability into the baseline hemodynamic response function. Statistical maps were created for each dataset and compared to the primary dataset (published in [1]) across the linguistic conditions of the initial dataset (lexical predictability, semantic predictability or syntax predictability). |
Lijing Chen; Kevin B Paterson; Xingshan Li; Lin Li; Yufang Yang Pragmatic influences on sentence integration: Evidence from eye movements Journal Article Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, pp. 1–10, 2019. @article{Chen2019b, title = {Pragmatic influences on sentence integration: Evidence from eye movements}, author = {Lijing Chen and Kevin B Paterson and Xingshan Li and Lin Li and Yufang Yang}, doi = {10.1177/1747021819859829}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-07-01}, journal = {Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology}, pages = {1--10}, publisher = {SAGE PublicationsSage UK: London, England}, abstract = {To understand a discourse, readers must rapidly process semantic and syntactic information and extract the pragmatic information these sources imply. An important question concerns how this pragmatic information influences discourse processing in return. We address this issue in two eye movement experiments that investigate the influence of pragmatic inferences on the processing of inter-sentence integration. In Experiments 1a and 1b, participants read two-sentence discourses in Chinese in which the first sentence introduced an event and the second described its consequence, where the sentences were linked using either the causal connective “suoyi” (meaning “so” or “therefore”) or not. The second sentence included a target word that was unmarked or marked using the focus particle “zhiyou” (meaning “only”) in Experiment 1a or “shi” (equivalent to an it-cleft) in Experiment 1b. These particles have the pragmatic function of implying a contrast between a target element and its alternatives. The results showed that while the causal connective facilitated the processing of unmarked words in causal contexts (a connective facilitation effect), this effect was eliminated by the presence of the focus particle. This implies that contrastive information is inferred sufficiently rapidly during reading that it can influence semantic processes involved in sentence integration. Experiment 2 showed that disruption due to conflict between the processing requirements of focus and inter-sentence integration occurred only in causal and not adversative connective contexts, confirming that processing difficulty occurred when a contrastive relationship was not possible.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } To understand a discourse, readers must rapidly process semantic and syntactic information and extract the pragmatic information these sources imply. An important question concerns how this pragmatic information influences discourse processing in return. We address this issue in two eye movement experiments that investigate the influence of pragmatic inferences on the processing of inter-sentence integration. In Experiments 1a and 1b, participants read two-sentence discourses in Chinese in which the first sentence introduced an event and the second described its consequence, where the sentences were linked using either the causal connective “suoyi” (meaning “so” or “therefore”) or not. The second sentence included a target word that was unmarked or marked using the focus particle “zhiyou” (meaning “only”) in Experiment 1a or “shi” (equivalent to an it-cleft) in Experiment 1b. These particles have the pragmatic function of implying a contrast between a target element and its alternatives. The results showed that while the causal connective facilitated the processing of unmarked words in causal contexts (a connective facilitation effect), this effect was eliminated by the presence of the focus particle. This implies that contrastive information is inferred sufficiently rapidly during reading that it can influence semantic processes involved in sentence integration. Experiment 2 showed that disruption due to conflict between the processing requirements of focus and inter-sentence integration occurred only in causal and not adversative connective contexts, confirming that processing difficulty occurred when a contrastive relationship was not possible. |
Jesse A Harris; Katy Carlson Correlate not optional: PP sprouting and parallelism in “much less” ellipsis Journal Article Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 4 (1), pp. 1–35, 2019. @article{Harris2019, title = {Correlate not optional: PP sprouting and parallelism in “much less” ellipsis}, author = {Jesse A Harris and Katy Carlson}, doi = {10.5334/gjgl.707}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-07-01}, journal = {Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics}, volume = {4}, number = {1}, pages = {1--35}, publisher = {Ubiquity Press}, abstract = {Clauses that are parallel in form and meaning show processing advantages in ellipsis and coordination structures (Frazier et al. 1984; Kehler 2000; Carlson 2002). However, the constructions that have been used to show a parallelism advantage do not always require a strong semantic relationship between clauses. We present two eye tracking while reading studies on focus-sensitive coordination structures, an understudied form of ellipsis which requires the generation of a contextually salient semantic relation or scale between conjuncts. However, when the remnant of ellipsis lacks an overt correlate in the matrix clause and must be “sprouted” in the ellipsis site, the relation between clauses is simplified to entailment. Instead of facilitation for sentences with an entailment relation between clauses, our online processing results suggest that violating parallelism is costly, even when doing so could ease the semantic relations required for interpretation.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Clauses that are parallel in form and meaning show processing advantages in ellipsis and coordination structures (Frazier et al. 1984; Kehler 2000; Carlson 2002). However, the constructions that have been used to show a parallelism advantage do not always require a strong semantic relationship between clauses. We present two eye tracking while reading studies on focus-sensitive coordination structures, an understudied form of ellipsis which requires the generation of a contextually salient semantic relation or scale between conjuncts. However, when the remnant of ellipsis lacks an overt correlate in the matrix clause and must be “sprouted” in the ellipsis site, the relation between clauses is simplified to entailment. Instead of facilitation for sentences with an entailment relation between clauses, our online processing results suggest that violating parallelism is costly, even when doing so could ease the semantic relations required for interpretation. |
Yipu Wei; Willem M Mak; Jacqueline Evers-Vermeul; Ted J M Sanders Causal connectives as indicators of source information: Evidence from the visual world paradigm Journal Article Acta Psychologica, 198 , pp. 1–13, 2019. @article{Wei2019, title = {Causal connectives as indicators of source information: Evidence from the visual world paradigm}, author = {Yipu Wei and Willem M Mak and Jacqueline Evers-Vermeul and Ted J M Sanders}, doi = {10.1016/J.ACTPSY.2019.102866}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-07-01}, journal = {Acta Psychologica}, volume = {198}, pages = {1--13}, publisher = {North-Holland}, abstract = {Causal relations can be presented as subjective, involving someone's reasoning, or objective, depicting a real-world cause-consequence relation. Subjective relations require longer processing times than objective relations. We hypothesize that the extra time is due to the involvement of a Subject of Consciousness (SoC) in the mental representation of subjective information. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a Visual World Paradigm eye-tracking experiment on Dutch and Chinese connectives that differ in the degree of subjectivity they encode. In both languages, subjective connectives triggered an immediate increased attention to the SoC, compared to objective connectives. Only when the subjectivity information was not expressed by the connective, modal verbs presented later in the sentence induced an increase in looks at the SoC. This focus on the SoC due to the linguistic cues can be explained as the tracking of the information source in the situation models, which continues throughout the sentence.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Causal relations can be presented as subjective, involving someone's reasoning, or objective, depicting a real-world cause-consequence relation. Subjective relations require longer processing times than objective relations. We hypothesize that the extra time is due to the involvement of a Subject of Consciousness (SoC) in the mental representation of subjective information. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a Visual World Paradigm eye-tracking experiment on Dutch and Chinese connectives that differ in the degree of subjectivity they encode. In both languages, subjective connectives triggered an immediate increased attention to the SoC, compared to objective connectives. Only when the subjectivity information was not expressed by the connective, modal verbs presented later in the sentence induced an increase in looks at the SoC. This focus on the SoC due to the linguistic cues can be explained as the tracking of the information source in the situation models, which continues throughout the sentence. |
Shira Klorfeld-Auslender; Nitzan Censor Visual-oculomotor interactions facilitate consolidation of perceptual learning Journal Article Journal of Vision, 19 (6), pp. 1–10, 2019. @article{Klorfeld-Auslender2019, title = {Visual-oculomotor interactions facilitate consolidation of perceptual learning}, author = {Shira Klorfeld-Auslender and Nitzan Censor}, doi = {10.1167/19.6.11}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-06-01}, journal = {Journal of Vision}, volume = {19}, number = {6}, pages = {1--10}, publisher = {The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology}, abstract = {Visual skill learning is commonly considered a manifestation of brain plasticity. Following encoding, consolidation of the skill may result in between-session performance gains. A great volume of studies have demonstrated that during the offline consolidation interval, the skill is susceptible to external inputs that modify the preformed representation of the memory, affecting future performance. However, while basic visual perceptual learning is thought to be mediated by sensory brain regions or their higher-order readout pathways, the possibility of visual-oculomotor interactions affecting the consolidation interval and reshaping visual learning remains uncharted. Motivated by findings mapping connections between oculomotor behavior and visual performance, we examined whether visual consolidation can be facilitated by visual-oculomotor interactions. To this aim, we paired reactivation of an oculomotor memory with consolidation of a typical visual texture discrimination task. Importantly, the oculomotor memory was encoded by learning of the pure motor component of the movement, removing visual cues. When brief reactivation of the oculomotor memory preceded the visual task, visual gains were substantially enhanced compared with those achieved by visual practice per se and were strongly related to the magnitude of oculomotor gains, suggesting that the brain utilizes oculomotor memory to enhance basic visual perception.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Visual skill learning is commonly considered a manifestation of brain plasticity. Following encoding, consolidation of the skill may result in between-session performance gains. A great volume of studies have demonstrated that during the offline consolidation interval, the skill is susceptible to external inputs that modify the preformed representation of the memory, affecting future performance. However, while basic visual perceptual learning is thought to be mediated by sensory brain regions or their higher-order readout pathways, the possibility of visual-oculomotor interactions affecting the consolidation interval and reshaping visual learning remains uncharted. Motivated by findings mapping connections between oculomotor behavior and visual performance, we examined whether visual consolidation can be facilitated by visual-oculomotor interactions. To this aim, we paired reactivation of an oculomotor memory with consolidation of a typical visual texture discrimination task. Importantly, the oculomotor memory was encoded by learning of the pure motor component of the movement, removing visual cues. When brief reactivation of the oculomotor memory preceded the visual task, visual gains were substantially enhanced compared with those achieved by visual practice per se and were strongly related to the magnitude of oculomotor gains, suggesting that the brain utilizes oculomotor memory to enhance basic visual perception. |
Timothy G Shepard; Fang Hou; Peter J Bex; Luis A Lesmes; Zhong-Lin Lu; Deyue Yu Assessing reading performance in the periphery with a Bayesian adaptive approach: The qReading method Journal Article Journal of Vision, 19 (5), pp. 1–14, 2019. @article{Shepard2019, title = {Assessing reading performance in the periphery with a Bayesian adaptive approach: The qReading method}, author = {Timothy G Shepard and Fang Hou and Peter J Bex and Luis A Lesmes and Zhong-Lin Lu and Deyue Yu}, doi = {10.1167/19.5.5}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-05-01}, journal = {Journal of Vision}, volume = {19}, number = {5}, pages = {1--14}, publisher = {The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology}, abstract = {Reading is a crucial visual activity and a fundamental skill in daily life. Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) is a text-presentation paradigm that has been extensively used in the laboratory to study basic characteristics of reading performance. However, measuring reading function (reading speed vs. print size) is time-consuming for RSVP reading using conventional testing procedures. In this study, we develop a novel method, qReading, utilizing the Bayesian adaptive testing framework to measure reading function in the periphery. We perform both a psychophysical experiment and computer simulations to validate the qReading method. In the experiment, words are presented using an RSVP paradigm at 10° in the lower visual field. The reading function obtained from the qReading method with 50 trials exhibits good agreement (i.e., high accuracy) with the reading function obtained from a conventional method (method of constant stimuli [MCS]) with 186 trials (mean root mean square error: 0.12 log10 units). Simulations further confirm that the qReading method provides an unbiased measure. The qReading procedure also demonstrates excellent precision (half width of 68.2% credible interval: 0.02 log10 units with 50 trials) compared to the MCS method (0.03 log10 units with 186 trials). This investigation establishes that the qReading method can adequately measure the reading function in the normal periphery with high accuracy, precision, and efficiency, and is a potentially valuable tool for both research and clinical assessments.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Reading is a crucial visual activity and a fundamental skill in daily life. Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) is a text-presentation paradigm that has been extensively used in the laboratory to study basic characteristics of reading performance. However, measuring reading function (reading speed vs. print size) is time-consuming for RSVP reading using conventional testing procedures. In this study, we develop a novel method, qReading, utilizing the Bayesian adaptive testing framework to measure reading function in the periphery. We perform both a psychophysical experiment and computer simulations to validate the qReading method. In the experiment, words are presented using an RSVP paradigm at 10° in the lower visual field. The reading function obtained from the qReading method with 50 trials exhibits good agreement (i.e., high accuracy) with the reading function obtained from a conventional method (method of constant stimuli [MCS]) with 186 trials (mean root mean square error: 0.12 log10 units). Simulations further confirm that the qReading method provides an unbiased measure. The qReading procedure also demonstrates excellent precision (half width of 68.2% credible interval: 0.02 log10 units with 50 trials) compared to the MCS method (0.03 log10 units with 186 trials). This investigation establishes that the qReading method can adequately measure the reading function in the normal periphery with high accuracy, precision, and efficiency, and is a potentially valuable tool for both research and clinical assessments. |
Dato Abashidze; Maria Nella Carminati; Pia Knoeferle Anticipating a future versus integrating a recent event? Evidence from eye-tracking Journal Article Acta Psychologica, 200 , pp. 1–16, 2019. @article{Abashidze2019, title = {Anticipating a future versus integrating a recent event? Evidence from eye-tracking}, author = {Dato Abashidze and Maria Nella Carminati and Pia Knoeferle}, doi = {10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.102916}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Acta Psychologica}, volume = {200}, pages = {1--16}, publisher = {Elsevier}, abstract = {When comprehending a spoken sentence that refers to a visually-presented event, comprehenders both integrate their current interpretation of language with the recent event and develop expectations about future event possibilities. Tense cues can disambiguate this linking, but temporary ambiguity in these cues may lead comprehenders to also rely on further, experience-based (e.g., frequency or an actor's gaze) cues. How comprehenders reconcile these different cues in real time is an open issue. Extant results suggest that comprehenders preferentially relate their unfolding interpretation to a recent event by inspecting its target object. We investigated to what extent this recent-event preference could be overridden by short-term experiential and situation-specific cues. In Experiments 1–2 participants saw substantially more future than recent events and listened to more sentences about future-events (75% in Experiment 1 and 88% in Experiment 2). Experiment 3 cued future target objects and event possibilities via an actor's gaze. The event frequency increase yielded a reduction in the recent event inspection preference early during sentence processing in Experiments 1–2 compared with Experiment 3 (where event frequency and utterance tense were balanced) but did not eliminate the overall recent-event preference. Actor gaze also modulated the recent-event preference, and jointly with future tense led to its reversal in Experiment 3. However, our results showed that people overall preferred to focus on recent (vs. future) events in their interpretation, suggesting that while two cues (actor gaze and short-term event frequency) can partially override the recent-event preference, the latter still plays a key role in shaping participants' interpretation.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } When comprehending a spoken sentence that refers to a visually-presented event, comprehenders both integrate their current interpretation of language with the recent event and develop expectations about future event possibilities. Tense cues can disambiguate this linking, but temporary ambiguity in these cues may lead comprehenders to also rely on further, experience-based (e.g., frequency or an actor's gaze) cues. How comprehenders reconcile these different cues in real time is an open issue. Extant results suggest that comprehenders preferentially relate their unfolding interpretation to a recent event by inspecting its target object. We investigated to what extent this recent-event preference could be overridden by short-term experiential and situation-specific cues. In Experiments 1–2 participants saw substantially more future than recent events and listened to more sentences about future-events (75% in Experiment 1 and 88% in Experiment 2). Experiment 3 cued future target objects and event possibilities via an actor's gaze. The event frequency increase yielded a reduction in the recent event inspection preference early during sentence processing in Experiments 1–2 compared with Experiment 3 (where event frequency and utterance tense were balanced) but did not eliminate the overall recent-event preference. Actor gaze also modulated the recent-event preference, and jointly with future tense led to its reversal in Experiment 3. However, our results showed that people overall preferred to focus on recent (vs. future) events in their interpretation, suggesting that while two cues (actor gaze and short-term event frequency) can partially override the recent-event preference, the latter still plays a key role in shaping participants' interpretation. |
Irene Ablinger; Anne Friede; Ralph Radach A combined lexical and segmental therapy approach in a participant with pure alexia Journal Article Aphasiology, 33 (5), pp. 579–605, 2019. @article{Ablinger2019, title = {A combined lexical and segmental therapy approach in a participant with pure alexia}, author = {Irene Ablinger and Anne Friede and Ralph Radach}, doi = {10.1080/02687038.2018.1485073}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Aphasiology}, volume = {33}, number = {5}, pages = {579--605}, publisher = {Routledge}, abstract = {Background: Pure alexia is characterized by effortful left-to-right word processing, leading to a pathological length effect during reading aloud. Results of previous therapy outcome research suggest that patients with pure alexia tend to develop and maintain an adaptive sequential reading strategy in an effort to cope with their severe deficit and at least master a slow and laborious reading mode. Aim: We applied a theory-based, strategy-driven and eye-movement-supported therapy approach on HC, a participant with pure alexia. Our intention was to help optimizing his very persistent sequential reading strategy, while concurrently facilitating fast parallel word processing. Methods & Procedures: Therapy included a systematic combination of segmental and holistic reading as well as text reading components. Exposure duration and font size were gradually reduced. Following a single case experimental reading design with follow-up testing, we assessed reading performance at four testing points focusing on analyses of linguistic errors and word viewing patterns. Outcomes & Results: With respect to reading accuracy and oculomotor measures, the combined therapy approach resulted in sustained training effects evident in significant improvements for trained and untrained word materials. Text reading intervention only led to therapy specific improvements. Spatio-temporal analyses of eye fixation positions revealed a more and more efficient adaptive strategy to compensate for reading difficulties. However, spatial changes in fixation position were less pronounced at T4, suggesting some diminishing of success at follow-up. Conclusions: Our results underscore the need for a continuous systematic training of underlying reading strategies in pure alexia to develop and sustain more economic reading procedures.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Background: Pure alexia is characterized by effortful left-to-right word processing, leading to a pathological length effect during reading aloud. Results of previous therapy outcome research suggest that patients with pure alexia tend to develop and maintain an adaptive sequential reading strategy in an effort to cope with their severe deficit and at least master a slow and laborious reading mode. Aim: We applied a theory-based, strategy-driven and eye-movement-supported therapy approach on HC, a participant with pure alexia. Our intention was to help optimizing his very persistent sequential reading strategy, while concurrently facilitating fast parallel word processing. Methods & Procedures: Therapy included a systematic combination of segmental and holistic reading as well as text reading components. Exposure duration and font size were gradually reduced. Following a single case experimental reading design with follow-up testing, we assessed reading performance at four testing points focusing on analyses of linguistic errors and word viewing patterns. Outcomes & Results: With respect to reading accuracy and oculomotor measures, the combined therapy approach resulted in sustained training effects evident in significant improvements for trained and untrained word materials. Text reading intervention only led to therapy specific improvements. Spatio-temporal analyses of eye fixation positions revealed a more and more efficient adaptive strategy to compensate for reading difficulties. However, spatial changes in fixation position were less pronounced at T4, suggesting some diminishing of success at follow-up. Conclusions: Our results underscore the need for a continuous systematic training of underlying reading strategies in pure alexia to develop and sustain more economic reading procedures. |
Luis Aguado; Karisa B Parkington; Teresa Dieguez-Risco; José A Hinojosa; Roxane J Itier Joint modulation of facial expression processing by contextual congruency and task demands Journal Article Brain Sciences, 9 , pp. 1–20, 2019. @article{Aguado2019, title = {Joint modulation of facial expression processing by contextual congruency and task demands}, author = {Luis Aguado and Karisa B Parkington and Teresa Dieguez-Risco and José A Hinojosa and Roxane J Itier}, doi = {10.3390/brainsci9050116}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Brain Sciences}, volume = {9}, pages = {1--20}, abstract = {Faces showing expressions of happiness or anger were presented together with sentences that described happiness-inducing or anger-inducing situations. Two main variables were manipulated: (i) congruency between contexts and expressions (congruent/incongruent) and (ii) the task assigned to the participant, discriminating the emotion shown by the target face (emotion task) or judging whether the expression shown by the face was congruent or not with the context (congruency task). Behavioral and electrophysiological results (event-related potentials (ERP)) showed that processing facial expressions was jointly influenced by congruency and task demands. ERP results revealed task effects at frontal sites, with larger positive amplitudes between 250–450 ms in the congruency task, reflecting the higher cognitive effort required by this task. Effects of congruency appeared at latencies and locations corresponding to the early posterior negativity (EPN) and late positive potential (LPP) components that have previously been found to be sensitive to emotion and affective congruency. The magnitude and spatial distribution of the congruency effects varied depending on the task and the target expression. These results are discussed in terms of the modulatory role of context on facial expression processing and the different mechanisms underlying the processing of expressions of positive and negative emotions.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Faces showing expressions of happiness or anger were presented together with sentences that described happiness-inducing or anger-inducing situations. Two main variables were manipulated: (i) congruency between contexts and expressions (congruent/incongruent) and (ii) the task assigned to the participant, discriminating the emotion shown by the target face (emotion task) or judging whether the expression shown by the face was congruent or not with the context (congruency task). Behavioral and electrophysiological results (event-related potentials (ERP)) showed that processing facial expressions was jointly influenced by congruency and task demands. ERP results revealed task effects at frontal sites, with larger positive amplitudes between 250–450 ms in the congruency task, reflecting the higher cognitive effort required by this task. Effects of congruency appeared at latencies and locations corresponding to the early posterior negativity (EPN) and late positive potential (LPP) components that have previously been found to be sensitive to emotion and affective congruency. The magnitude and spatial distribution of the congruency effects varied depending on the task and the target expression. These results are discussed in terms of the modulatory role of context on facial expression processing and the different mechanisms underlying the processing of expressions of positive and negative emotions. |
Scott P Ardoin; Katherine S Binder; Andrea M Zawoyski; Eloise Nimocks; Tori E Foster Measuring the behavior of reading comprehension test takers: What do they do, and should they do it? Journal Article Reading Research Quarterly, 54 (4), pp. 507–529, 2019. @article{Ardoin2019, title = {Measuring the behavior of reading comprehension test takers: What do they do, and should they do it?}, author = {Scott P Ardoin and Katherine S Binder and Andrea M Zawoyski and Eloise Nimocks and Tori E Foster}, doi = {10.1002/rrq.246}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Reading Research Quarterly}, volume = {54}, number = {4}, pages = {507--529}, abstract = {The authors sought to further the understanding of reading processes and their links to comprehension using two reading tasks for elementary-grade students. One hundred sixty-six students in grades 2–5 were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: reading with questions presented concurrently with text or reading with questions presented after reading the text (with the text unavailable when answering questions). Eye movement data suggested different processes for each task: Rereading occurred and more time was spent on higher level processing measures in the with-text condition, and in particular, those who did not reread had more accurate answers than those who engaged in rereading. Measurement of students' precision in returning directly to the portion of the passage with information corresponding to a question also predicted students' response accuracy.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The authors sought to further the understanding of reading processes and their links to comprehension using two reading tasks for elementary-grade students. One hundred sixty-six students in grades 2–5 were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: reading with questions presented concurrently with text or reading with questions presented after reading the text (with the text unavailable when answering questions). Eye movement data suggested different processes for each task: Rereading occurred and more time was spent on higher level processing measures in the with-text condition, and in particular, those who did not reread had more accurate answers than those who engaged in rereading. Measurement of students' precision in returning directly to the portion of the passage with information corresponding to a question also predicted students' response accuracy. |
Vahid Aryadoust; Bee Hoon Ang Exploring the frontiers of eye tracking research in language studies: A novel co-citation scientometric review Journal Article Computer Assisted Language Learning, pp. 1–36, 2019. @article{Aryadoust2019, title = {Exploring the frontiers of eye tracking research in language studies: A novel co-citation scientometric review}, author = {Vahid Aryadoust and Bee Hoon Ang}, doi = {10.1080/09588221.2019.1647251}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Computer Assisted Language Learning}, pages = {1--36}, publisher = {Routledge}, abstract = {Eye tracking technology has become an increasingly popular methodology in language studies. Using data from 27 journals in language sciences indexed in the Social Science Citation Index and/or Scopus, we conducted an in-depth scientometric analysis of 341 research publications together with their 14,866 references between 1994 and 2018. We identified a number of countries, researchers, universities, and institutes with large numbers of publications in eye tracking research in language studies. We further discovered a mixed multitude of connected research trends that have shaped the nature and development of eye tracking research. Specifically, a document co-citation analysis revealed a number of major research clusters, their key topics, connections, and bursts (sudden citation surges). For example, the foci of clusters #0 through #5 were found to be perceptual learning, regressive eye movement(s), attributive adjective(s), stereotypical gender, discourse processing, and bilingual adult(s). The content of all the major clusters was closely examined and synthesized in the form of an in-depth review. Finally, we grounded the findings within a data-driven theory of scientific revolution and discussed how the observed patterns have contributed to the emergence of new trends. As the first scientometric investigation of eye tracking research in language studies, the present study offers several implications for future research that are discussed.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Eye tracking technology has become an increasingly popular methodology in language studies. Using data from 27 journals in language sciences indexed in the Social Science Citation Index and/or Scopus, we conducted an in-depth scientometric analysis of 341 research publications together with their 14,866 references between 1994 and 2018. We identified a number of countries, researchers, universities, and institutes with large numbers of publications in eye tracking research in language studies. We further discovered a mixed multitude of connected research trends that have shaped the nature and development of eye tracking research. Specifically, a document co-citation analysis revealed a number of major research clusters, their key topics, connections, and bursts (sudden citation surges). For example, the foci of clusters #0 through #5 were found to be perceptual learning, regressive eye movement(s), attributive adjective(s), stereotypical gender, discourse processing, and bilingual adult(s). The content of all the major clusters was closely examined and synthesized in the form of an in-depth review. Finally, we grounded the findings within a data-driven theory of scientific revolution and discussed how the observed patterns have contributed to the emergence of new trends. As the first scientometric investigation of eye tracking research in language studies, the present study offers several implications for future research that are discussed. |
Mahsa Barzy; Jo Black; David Williams; Heather Ferguson Autistic adults anticipate and integrate meaning based on the speaker's voice: Evidence from eye-tracking and event-related potentials Journal Article Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, pp. 1–19, 2019. @article{Barzy2019, title = {Autistic adults anticipate and integrate meaning based on the speaker's voice: Evidence from eye-tracking and event-related potentials}, author = {Mahsa Barzy and Jo Black and David Williams and Heather Ferguson}, doi = {10.1037/xge0000705}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: General}, pages = {1--19}, abstract = {Typically developing (TD) individuals rapidly integrate information about a speaker and their intended meaning while processing sentences online. We examined whether the same processes are activated in autistic adults, and tested their timecourse in two pre-registered experiments. Experiment 1 employed the visual world paradigm. Participants listened to sentences where the speaker's voice and message were either consistent or inconsistent (e.g. “When we go shopping, I usually look for my favourite wine”, spoken by an adult or a child), and concurrently viewed visual scenes including consistent and inconsistent objects (e.g. wine and sweets). All participants were slower to select the mentioned object in the inconsistent condition. Importantly, eye movements showed a visual bias towards the voice- consistent object, well before hearing the disambiguating word, showing that autistic adults rapidly use the speaker's voice to anticipate the intended meaning. However, this target bias emerged earlier in the TD group compared to the autism group (2240ms vs 1800ms before disambiguation). Experiment 2 recorded ERPs to explore speaker-meaning integration processes. Participants listened to sentences as described above, and ERPs were time-locked to the onset of the target word. A control condition included a semantic anomaly. Results revealed an enhanced N400 for inconsistent speaker-meaning sentences that was comparable to to that elicited by anomalous sentences, in both groups. Overall, contrary to research that has characterised autism in terms of a local processing bias and pragmatic dysfunction, autistic people were unimpaired at integrating multiple modalities of linguistic information, and were comparably sensitive to speaker-meaning inconsistency effects.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Typically developing (TD) individuals rapidly integrate information about a speaker and their intended meaning while processing sentences online. We examined whether the same processes are activated in autistic adults, and tested their timecourse in two pre-registered experiments. Experiment 1 employed the visual world paradigm. Participants listened to sentences where the speaker's voice and message were either consistent or inconsistent (e.g. “When we go shopping, I usually look for my favourite wine”, spoken by an adult or a child), and concurrently viewed visual scenes including consistent and inconsistent objects (e.g. wine and sweets). All participants were slower to select the mentioned object in the inconsistent condition. Importantly, eye movements showed a visual bias towards the voice- consistent object, well before hearing the disambiguating word, showing that autistic adults rapidly use the speaker's voice to anticipate the intended meaning. However, this target bias emerged earlier in the TD group compared to the autism group (2240ms vs 1800ms before disambiguation). Experiment 2 recorded ERPs to explore speaker-meaning integration processes. Participants listened to sentences as described above, and ERPs were time-locked to the onset of the target word. A control condition included a semantic anomaly. Results revealed an enhanced N400 for inconsistent speaker-meaning sentences that was comparable to to that elicited by anomalous sentences, in both groups. Overall, contrary to research that has characterised autism in terms of a local processing bias and pragmatic dysfunction, autistic people were unimpaired at integrating multiple modalities of linguistic information, and were comparably sensitive to speaker-meaning inconsistency effects. |
Stéphanie Bellocchi; Delphine Massendari; Jonathan Grainger; Stéphanie Ducrot Effects of inter-character spacing on saccade programming in beginning readers and dyslexics Journal Article Child Neuropsychology, 25 (4), pp. 482–506, 2019. @article{Bellocchi2019, title = {Effects of inter-character spacing on saccade programming in beginning readers and dyslexics}, author = {Stéphanie Bellocchi and Delphine Massendari and Jonathan Grainger and Stéphanie Ducrot}, doi = {10.1080/09297049.2018.1504907}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Child Neuropsychology}, volume = {25}, number = {4}, pages = {482--506}, publisher = {Routledge}, abstract = {The present study investigated the impact of inter-character spacing on saccade programming in beginning readers and dyslexic children. In two experiments, eye movements were recorded while dyslexic children, reading-age, and chronological-age controls, performed an oculomotor lateralized bisection task on words and strings of hashes presented either with default inter-character spacing or with extra spacing between the characters. The results of Experiment 1 showed that (1) only proficient readers had already developed highly automatized procedures for programming both left- and rightward saccades, depending on the discreteness of the stimuli and (2) children of all groups were disrupted (i.e., had trouble to land close to the beginning of the stimuli) by extra spacing between the characters of the stimuli, and particularly for stimuli presented in the left visual field. Experiment 2 was designed to disentangle the role of inter-character spacing and spatial width. Stimuli were made the same physical length in the default and extra-spacing conditions by having more characters in the default spacing condition. Our results showed that inter-letter spacing still influenced saccade programming when controlling for spatial width, thus confirming the detrimental effect of extra spacing for saccade programming. We conclude that the beneficial effect of increased inter-letter spacing on reading can be better explained in terms of decreased visual crowding than improved saccade targeting.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The present study investigated the impact of inter-character spacing on saccade programming in beginning readers and dyslexic children. In two experiments, eye movements were recorded while dyslexic children, reading-age, and chronological-age controls, performed an oculomotor lateralized bisection task on words and strings of hashes presented either with default inter-character spacing or with extra spacing between the characters. The results of Experiment 1 showed that (1) only proficient readers had already developed highly automatized procedures for programming both left- and rightward saccades, depending on the discreteness of the stimuli and (2) children of all groups were disrupted (i.e., had trouble to land close to the beginning of the stimuli) by extra spacing between the characters of the stimuli, and particularly for stimuli presented in the left visual field. Experiment 2 was designed to disentangle the role of inter-character spacing and spatial width. Stimuli were made the same physical length in the default and extra-spacing conditions by having more characters in the default spacing condition. Our results showed that inter-letter spacing still influenced saccade programming when controlling for spatial width, thus confirming the detrimental effect of extra spacing for saccade programming. We conclude that the beneficial effect of increased inter-letter spacing on reading can be better explained in terms of decreased visual crowding than improved saccade targeting. |
Jean Baptiste Bernard; Eric Castet The optimal use of non-optimal letter information in foveal and parafoveal word recognition Journal Article Vision Research, 155 , pp. 44–61, 2019. @article{Bernard2019, title = {The optimal use of non-optimal letter information in foveal and parafoveal word recognition}, author = {Jean Baptiste Bernard and Eric Castet}, doi = {10.1016/j.visres.2018.12.006}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Vision Research}, volume = {155}, pages = {44--61}, publisher = {Elsevier}, abstract = {Letters and words across the visual field can be difficult to identify due to limiting visual factors such as acuity, crowding and position uncertainty. Here, we show that when human readers identify words presented at foveal and para-foveal locations, they act like theoretical observers making optimal use of letter identity and letter position information independently extracted from each letter after an unavoidable and non-optimal letter recognition guess. The novelty of our approach is that we carefully considered foveal and parafoveal letter identity and position uncertainties by measuring crowded letter recognition performance in five subjects without any word context influence. Based on these behavioral measures, lexical access was simulated for each subject by an observer making optimal use of each subject's uncertainties. This free-parameter model was able to predict individual behavioral recognition rates of words presented at different positions across the visual field. Importantly, the model was also able to predict individual mislocation and identity letter errors made during behavioral word recognition. These results reinforce the view that human readers recognize foveal and parafoveal words by parts (the word letters) in a first stage, independently of word context. They also suggest a second step where letter identity and position uncertainties are generated based on letter first guesses and positions. During the third lexical access stage, identity and position uncertainties from each letter look remarkably combined together through an optimal word recognition decision process.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Letters and words across the visual field can be difficult to identify due to limiting visual factors such as acuity, crowding and position uncertainty. Here, we show that when human readers identify words presented at foveal and para-foveal locations, they act like theoretical observers making optimal use of letter identity and letter position information independently extracted from each letter after an unavoidable and non-optimal letter recognition guess. The novelty of our approach is that we carefully considered foveal and parafoveal letter identity and position uncertainties by measuring crowded letter recognition performance in five subjects without any word context influence. Based on these behavioral measures, lexical access was simulated for each subject by an observer making optimal use of each subject's uncertainties. This free-parameter model was able to predict individual behavioral recognition rates of words presented at different positions across the visual field. Importantly, the model was also able to predict individual mislocation and identity letter errors made during behavioral word recognition. These results reinforce the view that human readers recognize foveal and parafoveal words by parts (the word letters) in a first stage, independently of word context. They also suggest a second step where letter identity and position uncertainties are generated based on letter first guesses and positions. During the third lexical access stage, identity and position uncertainties from each letter look remarkably combined together through an optimal word recognition decision process. |
Raymond Bertram; Victor Kuperman The English disease in Finnish compound processing: Backward transfer effects in Finnish-English bilinguals Journal Article Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, pp. 1–12, 2019. @article{Bertram2019, title = {The English disease in Finnish compound processing: Backward transfer effects in Finnish-English bilinguals}, author = {Raymond Bertram and Victor Kuperman}, doi = {10.1017/S1366728919000312}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Bilingualism: Language and Cognition}, pages = {1--12}, abstract = {Most English compounds are spaced compounds, whereas spelling regulations prescribe Finnish compounds to be written in a concatenated format. However, as in English, Finnish compounds are commonly spaced nowadays (e.g., piha juhla 'garden party'), a phenomenon that we labeled the 'English disease'. In this eye movement study with Finnish-English bilinguals we investigate whether the reading of a concatenated or illegally spaced Finnish compound is affected by the spelling of an English translation equivalent (ETE). We found that spaced Finnish compounds were read slower than their concatenated counterparts, but this effect was attenuated when ETEs were thought to be spaced. Similarly, concatenated Finnish compounds were read faster when their ETEs were also concatenated. These backward transfer effects are in line with studies that show that processing behavior in L1 is affected by a strong concurrent L2, even when the L1 is the native language as well as the dominant community language.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Most English compounds are spaced compounds, whereas spelling regulations prescribe Finnish compounds to be written in a concatenated format. However, as in English, Finnish compounds are commonly spaced nowadays (e.g., piha juhla 'garden party'), a phenomenon that we labeled the 'English disease'. In this eye movement study with Finnish-English bilinguals we investigate whether the reading of a concatenated or illegally spaced Finnish compound is affected by the spelling of an English translation equivalent (ETE). We found that spaced Finnish compounds were read slower than their concatenated counterparts, but this effect was attenuated when ETEs were thought to be spaced. Similarly, concatenated Finnish compounds were read faster when their ETEs were also concatenated. These backward transfer effects are in line with studies that show that processing behavior in L1 is affected by a strong concurrent L2, even when the L1 is the native language as well as the dominant community language. |
Nicoletta Biondo; Francesco Vespignani; Brian Dillon Attachment and concord of temporal adverbs: Evidence from eye movements Journal Article Frontiers in Psychology, 10 , pp. 1–17, 2019. @article{Biondo2019, title = {Attachment and concord of temporal adverbs: Evidence from eye movements}, author = {Nicoletta Biondo and Francesco Vespignani and Brian Dillon}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00983}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {10}, pages = {1--17}, abstract = {The present study examined the processing of temporal adverbial phrases such as "last week," which must agree in temporal features with the verb they modify. We investigated readers' sensitivity to this feature match or mismatch in two eye-tracking studies. The main aim of this study was to expand the range of concord phenomena which have been investigated in real-time processing in order to understand how linguistic dependencies are formed during sentence comprehension (Felser et al., 2017). Under a cue-based perspective, linguistic dependency formation relies on an associative cue-based retrieval mechanism (Lewis et al., 2006; McElree, 2006), but how such a mechanism is deployed over diverse linguistic dependencies remains a matter of debate. Are all linguistic features candidate cues that guide retrieval? Are all cues given similar weight? Are different cues differently weighted based on the dependency being processed? To address these questions, we implemented a mismatch paradigm (Sturt, 2003) adapted for temporal concord dependencies. This paradigm tested whether readers were sensitive to a temporal agreement between a temporal adverb like last week and a linearly distant, but structurally accessible verb, as well as a linearly proximate but structurally inaccessible verb. We found clear evidence that readers were sensitive to feature match between the adverb and the linearly distant, structurally accessible verb. We found no clear evidence on whether feature match with the inaccessible verb impacted the processing of a temporal adverb. Our results suggest syntactic positional information plays an important role during the processing of the temporal concord relation.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The present study examined the processing of temporal adverbial phrases such as "last week," which must agree in temporal features with the verb they modify. We investigated readers' sensitivity to this feature match or mismatch in two eye-tracking studies. The main aim of this study was to expand the range of concord phenomena which have been investigated in real-time processing in order to understand how linguistic dependencies are formed during sentence comprehension (Felser et al., 2017). Under a cue-based perspective, linguistic dependency formation relies on an associative cue-based retrieval mechanism (Lewis et al., 2006; McElree, 2006), but how such a mechanism is deployed over diverse linguistic dependencies remains a matter of debate. Are all linguistic features candidate cues that guide retrieval? Are all cues given similar weight? Are different cues differently weighted based on the dependency being processed? To address these questions, we implemented a mismatch paradigm (Sturt, 2003) adapted for temporal concord dependencies. This paradigm tested whether readers were sensitive to a temporal agreement between a temporal adverb like last week and a linearly distant, but structurally accessible verb, as well as a linearly proximate but structurally inaccessible verb. We found clear evidence that readers were sensitive to feature match between the adverb and the linearly distant, structurally accessible verb. We found no clear evidence on whether feature match with the inaccessible verb impacted the processing of a temporal adverb. Our results suggest syntactic positional information plays an important role during the processing of the temporal concord relation. |
Frances Blanchette; Cynthia Lukyanenko Unacceptable grammars? An eye-tracking study of English negative concord Journal Article Language and Cognition, 11 (1), pp. 1–40, 2019. @article{Blanchette2019, title = {Unacceptable grammars? An eye-tracking study of English negative concord}, author = {Frances Blanchette and Cynthia Lukyanenko}, doi = {10.1017/langcog.2019.4}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Language and Cognition}, volume = {11}, number = {1}, pages = {1--40}, abstract = {This paper uses eye-tracking while reading to examine Standard English speakers' processing of sentences with two syntactic negations: a negative auxiliary and either a negative subject (e.g., Nothing didn't fall from the shelf) or a negative object (e.g., She didn't answer nothing in that interview). Sentences were read in Double Negation (DN; the 'she answered something' reading of she didn't answer nothing) and Negative Concord (NC; the 'she answered nothing' reading of she didn't answer nothing) biasing contexts. Despite the social stigma associated with NC, and linguistic assumptions that Standard English has a DN grammar, in which each syntactic negation necessarily contributes a semantic negation, our results show that Standard English speakers generate both NC and DN interpretations, and that their interpretation is affected by the syntactic structure of the negative sentence. Participants spent more time reading the critical sentence and rereading the context sentence when negative object sentences were paired with DN-biasing contexts and when negative subject sentences were paired with NC-biasing contexts. This suggests that, despite not producing NC, they find NC interpretations of negative object sentences easier to generate than DN interpretations. The results illustrate the utility of online measures when investigating socially stigmatized construction types.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } This paper uses eye-tracking while reading to examine Standard English speakers' processing of sentences with two syntactic negations: a negative auxiliary and either a negative subject (e.g., Nothing didn't fall from the shelf) or a negative object (e.g., She didn't answer nothing in that interview). Sentences were read in Double Negation (DN; the 'she answered something' reading of she didn't answer nothing) and Negative Concord (NC; the 'she answered nothing' reading of she didn't answer nothing) biasing contexts. Despite the social stigma associated with NC, and linguistic assumptions that Standard English has a DN grammar, in which each syntactic negation necessarily contributes a semantic negation, our results show that Standard English speakers generate both NC and DN interpretations, and that their interpretation is affected by the syntactic structure of the negative sentence. Participants spent more time reading the critical sentence and rereading the context sentence when negative object sentences were paired with DN-biasing contexts and when negative subject sentences were paired with NC-biasing contexts. This suggests that, despite not producing NC, they find NC interpretations of negative object sentences easier to generate than DN interpretations. The results illustrate the utility of online measures when investigating socially stigmatized construction types. |
Hazel I Blythe; Barbara J Juhasz; Lee W Tbaily; Keith Rayner; Simon P Liversedge Reading sentences of words with rotated letters: An eye movement study Journal Article Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72 (7), pp. 1790–1804, 2019. @article{Blythe2019, title = {Reading sentences of words with rotated letters: An eye movement study}, author = {Hazel I Blythe and Barbara J Juhasz and Lee W Tbaily and Keith Rayner and Simon P Liversedge}, doi = {10.1177/1747021818810381}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology}, volume = {72}, number = {7}, pages = {1790--1804}, abstract = {Participants' eye movements were measured as they read sentences in which individual letters within words were rotated. Both the consistency of direction and the magnitude of rotation were manipulated (letters rotated all in the same direction, or alternately clockwise and anti-clockwise, by 30° or 60°). Each sentence included a target word that was manipulated for frequency of occurrence. Our objectives were threefold: To quantify how change in the visual presentation of individual letters disrupted word identification, and whether disruption was consistent with systematic change in visual presentation; to determine whether inconsistent letter transformation caused more disruption than consistent letter transformation; and to determine whether such effects were comparable for words that were high and low frequency to explore the extent to which they were visually or linguistically mediated. We found that disruption to reading was greater as the magnitude of letter rotation increased, although even small rotations affected processing. The data also showed that alternating letter rotations were significantly more disruptive than consistent rotations; this result is consistent with models of lexical identification in which encoding occurs over units of more than one adjacent letter. These rotation manipulations also showed significant interactions with word frequency on the target word: Gaze durations and total fixation duration times increased disproportionately for low-frequency words when they were presented at more extreme rotations. These data provide a first step towards quantifying the relative contribution of the spatial relationships between individual letters to word recognition and eye movement control in reading.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Participants' eye movements were measured as they read sentences in which individual letters within words were rotated. Both the consistency of direction and the magnitude of rotation were manipulated (letters rotated all in the same direction, or alternately clockwise and anti-clockwise, by 30° or 60°). Each sentence included a target word that was manipulated for frequency of occurrence. Our objectives were threefold: To quantify how change in the visual presentation of individual letters disrupted word identification, and whether disruption was consistent with systematic change in visual presentation; to determine whether inconsistent letter transformation caused more disruption than consistent letter transformation; and to determine whether such effects were comparable for words that were high and low frequency to explore the extent to which they were visually or linguistically mediated. We found that disruption to reading was greater as the magnitude of letter rotation increased, although even small rotations affected processing. The data also showed that alternating letter rotations were significantly more disruptive than consistent rotations; this result is consistent with models of lexical identification in which encoding occurs over units of more than one adjacent letter. These rotation manipulations also showed significant interactions with word frequency on the target word: Gaze durations and total fixation duration times increased disproportionately for low-frequency words when they were presented at more extreme rotations. These data provide a first step towards quantifying the relative contribution of the spatial relationships between individual letters to word recognition and eye movement control in reading. |
Hans Rutger Bosker; Marjolein Van Os; Rik Does; Geertje Van Bergen Counting ‘uhm's: How tracking the distribution of native and non-native disfluencies influences online language comprehension Journal Article Journal of Memory and Language, 106 , pp. 189–202, 2019. @article{Bosker2019, title = {Counting ‘uhm's: How tracking the distribution of native and non-native disfluencies influences online language comprehension}, author = {Hans Rutger Bosker and Marjolein {Van Os} and Rik Does and Geertje {Van Bergen}}, doi = {10.1016/j.jml.2019.02.006}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Memory and Language}, volume = {106}, pages = {189--202}, abstract = {Disfluencies, like uh, have been shown to help listeners anticipate reference to low-frequency words. The associative account of this ‘disfluency bias' proposes that listeners learn to associate disfluency with low-frequency referents based on prior exposure to non-arbitrary disfluency distributions (i.e., greater probability of low-frequency words after disfluencies). However, there is limited evidence for listeners actually tracking disfluency distributions online. The present experiments are the first to show that adult listeners, exposed to a typical or more atypical disfluency distribution (i.e., hearing a talker unexpectedly say uh before high-frequency words), flexibly adjust their predictive strategies to the disfluency distribution at hand (e.g., learn to predict high-frequency referents after disfluency). However, when listeners were presented with the same atypical disfluency distribution but produced by a non-native speaker, no adjustment was observed. This suggests pragmatic inferences can modulate distributional learning, revealing the flexibility of, and constraints on, distributional learning in incremental language comprehension.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Disfluencies, like uh, have been shown to help listeners anticipate reference to low-frequency words. The associative account of this ‘disfluency bias' proposes that listeners learn to associate disfluency with low-frequency referents based on prior exposure to non-arbitrary disfluency distributions (i.e., greater probability of low-frequency words after disfluencies). However, there is limited evidence for listeners actually tracking disfluency distributions online. The present experiments are the first to show that adult listeners, exposed to a typical or more atypical disfluency distribution (i.e., hearing a talker unexpectedly say uh before high-frequency words), flexibly adjust their predictive strategies to the disfluency distribution at hand (e.g., learn to predict high-frequency referents after disfluency). However, when listeners were presented with the same atypical disfluency distribution but produced by a non-native speaker, no adjustment was observed. This suggests pragmatic inferences can modulate distributional learning, revealing the flexibility of, and constraints on, distributional learning in incremental language comprehension. |
Bettina Braun; Yuki Asano; Nicole Dehé When (not) to look for contrastive alternatives: The role of pitch accent type and additive particles Journal Article Language and Speech, 62 (4), pp. 751–778, 2019. @article{Braun2019, title = {When (not) to look for contrastive alternatives: The role of pitch accent type and additive particles}, author = {Bettina Braun and Yuki Asano and Nicole Dehé}, doi = {10.1177/0023830918814279}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Language and Speech}, volume = {62}, number = {4}, pages = {751--778}, abstract = {This study investigates how pitch accent type and additive particles affect the activation of contrastive alternatives. In Experiment 1, German listeners heard declarative utterances (e.g., The swimmer wanted to put on flippers) and saw four printed words displayed on screen: one that was a contrastive alternative to the subject noun (e.g., diver), one that was non-contrastively related (e.g., pool), the object (e.g., flippers), and an unrelated distractor. Experiment 1 manipulated pitch accent type, comparing a broad focus control condition to two narrow focus conditions: with a contrastive or non-contrastive accent on the subject noun (nuclear L+H* vs. H+L*, respectively, followed by deaccentuation). In Experiment 2, the utterances in the narrow focus conditions were preceded by the unstressed additive particle auch (“also”), which may trigger alternatives itself. It associated with the accented subject. Results showed that, compared to the control condition, participants directed more fixations to the contrastive alternative when the subject was realized with a contrastive accent (nuclear L+H*) than when it was realized with non-contrastive H+L*, while additive particles had no effect. Hence, accent type is the primary trigger for signaling the presence of alternatives (i.e., contrast). Implications for theories of information structure and the processing of additive particles are discussed.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } This study investigates how pitch accent type and additive particles affect the activation of contrastive alternatives. In Experiment 1, German listeners heard declarative utterances (e.g., The swimmer wanted to put on flippers) and saw four printed words displayed on screen: one that was a contrastive alternative to the subject noun (e.g., diver), one that was non-contrastively related (e.g., pool), the object (e.g., flippers), and an unrelated distractor. Experiment 1 manipulated pitch accent type, comparing a broad focus control condition to two narrow focus conditions: with a contrastive or non-contrastive accent on the subject noun (nuclear L+H* vs. H+L*, respectively, followed by deaccentuation). In Experiment 2, the utterances in the narrow focus conditions were preceded by the unstressed additive particle auch (“also”), which may trigger alternatives itself. It associated with the accented subject. Results showed that, compared to the control condition, participants directed more fixations to the contrastive alternative when the subject was realized with a contrastive accent (nuclear L+H*) than when it was realized with non-contrastive H+L*, while additive particles had no effect. Hence, accent type is the primary trigger for signaling the presence of alternatives (i.e., contrast). Implications for theories of information structure and the processing of additive particles are discussed. |
Laurel Brehm; Linda Taschenberger; Antje Meyer Mental representations of partner task cause interference in picture naming Journal Article Acta Psychologica, 199 , pp. 1–13, 2019. @article{Brehm2019, title = {Mental representations of partner task cause interference in picture naming}, author = {Laurel Brehm and Linda Taschenberger and Antje Meyer}, doi = {10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.102888}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Acta Psychologica}, volume = {199}, pages = {1--13}, abstract = {Interference in picture naming occurs from representing a partner's preparations to speak (Gambi, van de Cavey, & Pickering, 2015). We tested the origins of this interference using a simple non-communicative joint naming task based on Gambi et al. (2015), where response latencies indexed interference from partner task and partner speech content, and eye fixations to partner objects indexed overt attention. Experiment 1 contrasted a partner- present condition with a control partner-absent condition to establish the role of the partner in eliciting interference. For latencies, we observed interference from the partner's task and speech content, with interference increasing due to partner task in the partner-present condition. Eye-tracking measures showed that interference in naming was not due to overt attention to partner stimuli but to broad expectations about likely utterances. Experiment 2 examined whether an equivalent non-verbal task also elicited interference, as predicted from a language as joint action framework. We replicated the finding of interference due to partner task and again found no relationship between overt attention and interference. These results support Gambi et al. (2015). Individuals co-represent a partner's task while speaking, and doing so does not require overt attention to partner stimuli.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Interference in picture naming occurs from representing a partner's preparations to speak (Gambi, van de Cavey, & Pickering, 2015). We tested the origins of this interference using a simple non-communicative joint naming task based on Gambi et al. (2015), where response latencies indexed interference from partner task and partner speech content, and eye fixations to partner objects indexed overt attention. Experiment 1 contrasted a partner- present condition with a control partner-absent condition to establish the role of the partner in eliciting interference. For latencies, we observed interference from the partner's task and speech content, with interference increasing due to partner task in the partner-present condition. Eye-tracking measures showed that interference in naming was not due to overt attention to partner stimuli but to broad expectations about likely utterances. Experiment 2 examined whether an equivalent non-verbal task also elicited interference, as predicted from a language as joint action framework. We replicated the finding of interference due to partner task and again found no relationship between overt attention and interference. These results support Gambi et al. (2015). Individuals co-represent a partner's task while speaking, and doing so does not require overt attention to partner stimuli. |
Emma Bridgwater; Aki Juhani Kyröläinen; Victor Kuperman The influence of syntactic expectations on reading comprehension is malleable and strategic: An eye-tracking study of English dative alternation Journal Article Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73 (3), pp. 179–192, 2019. @article{Bridgwater2019, title = {The influence of syntactic expectations on reading comprehension is malleable and strategic: An eye-tracking study of English dative alternation}, author = {Emma Bridgwater and Aki Juhani Kyröläinen and Victor Kuperman}, doi = {10.1037/cep0000173}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology}, volume = {73}, number = {3}, pages = {179--192}, abstract = {Language processing is incremental and inherently predictive. Against this theoretic backdrop, we investigated the role of upcoming structural information in the comprehension of the English dative alternation. The use of eye-tracking enabled us to examine both the time course and locus of the effect associated with (a) structural expectations based on a lifetime of experience with language, and (b) rapid adaptation of the reader to the local statistics of the experiment. We quantified (a) as a verb subcategorization bias toward dative alternatives, and (b) as distributional biases in the syntactic input during the experiment. A reliable facilitatory effect of the verb bias was only observed in the double-object datives and only in the disambiguation region of the second object. Furthermore, structural priming led to an earlier locus of the verb bias effect, suggesting an interaction between (a) and (b). Our results offer a new outlook on the utilization of syntactic expectations during reading, in conjunction with rapid adaptation to the immediate linguistic environment. We demonstrate that this utilization is both malleable and strategic.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Language processing is incremental and inherently predictive. Against this theoretic backdrop, we investigated the role of upcoming structural information in the comprehension of the English dative alternation. The use of eye-tracking enabled us to examine both the time course and locus of the effect associated with (a) structural expectations based on a lifetime of experience with language, and (b) rapid adaptation of the reader to the local statistics of the experiment. We quantified (a) as a verb subcategorization bias toward dative alternatives, and (b) as distributional biases in the syntactic input during the experiment. A reliable facilitatory effect of the verb bias was only observed in the double-object datives and only in the disambiguation region of the second object. Furthermore, structural priming led to an earlier locus of the verb bias effect, suggesting an interaction between (a) and (b). Our results offer a new outlook on the utilization of syntactic expectations during reading, in conjunction with rapid adaptation to the immediate linguistic environment. We demonstrate that this utilization is both malleable and strategic. |
Gareth Carrol; Kathy Conklin Is all formulaic language created equal? Unpacking the processing advantage for different types of formulaic sequences Journal Article Language and Speech, pp. 1–28, 2019. @article{Carrol2019, title = {Is all formulaic language created equal? Unpacking the processing advantage for different types of formulaic sequences}, author = {Gareth Carrol and Kathy Conklin}, doi = {10.1177/0023830918823230}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Language and Speech}, pages = {1--28}, abstract = {Research into recurrent, highly conventionalized “formulaic” sequences has shown a processing advantage compared to “novel” (non-formulaic) language. Studies of individual types of formulaic sequence often acknowledge the contribution of specific factors, but little work exists to compare the processing of different types of phrases with fundamentally different properties. We use eye-tracking to compare the processing of three types of formulaic phrases—idioms, binomials, and collocations—and consider whether overall frequency can explain the advantage for all three, relative to control phrases. Results show an advantage, as evidenced through shorter reading times, for all three types. While overall phrase frequency contributes much of the processing advantage, different types of phrase do show additional effects according to the specific properties that are relevant to each type: frequency, familiarity, and decomposability for idioms; predictability and semantic association for binomials; and mutual information for collocations. We discuss how the results contribute to our understanding of the representation and processing of multiword lexical units more broadly.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Research into recurrent, highly conventionalized “formulaic” sequences has shown a processing advantage compared to “novel” (non-formulaic) language. Studies of individual types of formulaic sequence often acknowledge the contribution of specific factors, but little work exists to compare the processing of different types of phrases with fundamentally different properties. We use eye-tracking to compare the processing of three types of formulaic phrases—idioms, binomials, and collocations—and consider whether overall frequency can explain the advantage for all three, relative to control phrases. Results show an advantage, as evidenced through shorter reading times, for all three types. While overall phrase frequency contributes much of the processing advantage, different types of phrase do show additional effects according to the specific properties that are relevant to each type: frequency, familiarity, and decomposability for idioms; predictability and semantic association for binomials; and mutual information for collocations. We discuss how the results contribute to our understanding of the representation and processing of multiword lexical units more broadly. |
Benjamin T Carter; Brent Foster; Nathan M Muncy; Steven G Luke Linguistic networks associated with lexical, semantic and syntactic predictability in reading: A fixation-related fMRI study Journal Article NeuroImage, 189 , pp. 224–240, 2019. @article{Carter2019, title = {Linguistic networks associated with lexical, semantic and syntactic predictability in reading: A fixation-related fMRI study}, author = {Benjamin T Carter and Brent Foster and Nathan M Muncy and Steven G Luke}, doi = {10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.01.018}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {NeuroImage}, volume = {189}, pages = {224--240}, publisher = {Elsevier Ltd}, abstract = {The ability to make predictions is thought to facilitate language processing. During language comprehension such predictions appear to occur at multiple levels of linguistic representations (i.e. semantic, syntactic and lexical). The neural mechanisms that define the network sensitive to linguistic predictability have yet to be adequately defined. The purpose of the present study was to explore the neural network underlying predictability during the normal reading of connected text. Predictability values for different linguistic information were obtained from a pre-existing text corpus. Forty-one subjects underwent simultaneous eye-tracking and fMRI scans while reading these select paragraphs. Lexical, semantic, and syntactic predictability measures were then correlated with functional activation associated with fixation onset on the individual words. Activation patterns showed both positive and negative correlations to lexical, semantic, and syntactic predictabilities. Conjunction analysis revealed regions specific to or shared between each type of predictability. The regions associated with the different predictability measures were largely separate. Results suggest that most linguistic predictions are graded in nature, activating components of the existing language system. A number of regions were also found to be uniquely associated with full lexical predictability, most notably the anterior temporal lobe and the inferior posterior temporal cortex.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The ability to make predictions is thought to facilitate language processing. During language comprehension such predictions appear to occur at multiple levels of linguistic representations (i.e. semantic, syntactic and lexical). The neural mechanisms that define the network sensitive to linguistic predictability have yet to be adequately defined. The purpose of the present study was to explore the neural network underlying predictability during the normal reading of connected text. Predictability values for different linguistic information were obtained from a pre-existing text corpus. Forty-one subjects underwent simultaneous eye-tracking and fMRI scans while reading these select paragraphs. Lexical, semantic, and syntactic predictability measures were then correlated with functional activation associated with fixation onset on the individual words. Activation patterns showed both positive and negative correlations to lexical, semantic, and syntactic predictabilities. Conjunction analysis revealed regions specific to or shared between each type of predictability. The regions associated with the different predictability measures were largely separate. Results suggest that most linguistic predictions are graded in nature, activating components of the existing language system. A number of regions were also found to be uniquely associated with full lexical predictability, most notably the anterior temporal lobe and the inferior posterior temporal cortex. |
Johan Chandra; André Krügel; Ralf Engbert Experimental test of Bayesian saccade targeting under reversed reading direction Journal Article Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, pp. 1–11, 2019. @article{Chandra2019, title = {Experimental test of Bayesian saccade targeting under reversed reading direction}, author = {Johan Chandra and André Krügel and Ralf Engbert}, doi = {10.3758/s13414-019-01814-4}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics}, pages = {1--11}, abstract = {During reading, rapid eye movements (saccades) shift the reader's line of sight from one word to another for high-acuity visual information processing. While experimental data and theoretical models show that readers aim at word centers, the eye-movement (oculomotor) accuracy is low compared to other tasks. As a consequence, distributions of saccadic landing positions indicate large (i) random errors and (ii) systematic over-and undershoot of word centers, which additionally depend on saccade lengths (McConkie et al. Visual Research, 28(10), 1107-1118, 1988). Here we show that both error components can be simultaneously reduced by reading texts from right to left in German language (N = 32). We used our experimental data to test a Bayesian model of saccade planning. First, experimental data are consistent with the model. Second, the model makes specific predictions of the effects of the precision of prior and (sensory) likelihood. Our results suggest that it is a more precise sensory likelihood that can explain the reduction of both random and systematic error components.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } During reading, rapid eye movements (saccades) shift the reader's line of sight from one word to another for high-acuity visual information processing. While experimental data and theoretical models show that readers aim at word centers, the eye-movement (oculomotor) accuracy is low compared to other tasks. As a consequence, distributions of saccadic landing positions indicate large (i) random errors and (ii) systematic over-and undershoot of word centers, which additionally depend on saccade lengths (McConkie et al. Visual Research, 28(10), 1107-1118, 1988). Here we show that both error components can be simultaneously reduced by reading texts from right to left in German language (N = 32). We used our experimental data to test a Bayesian model of saccade planning. First, experimental data are consistent with the model. Second, the model makes specific predictions of the effects of the precision of prior and (sensory) likelihood. Our results suggest that it is a more precise sensory likelihood that can explain the reduction of both random and systematic error components. |
Xianglan Chen; Fang Li The length of preceding context influences metonymy processing Journal Article Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 17 (1), pp. 243–256, 2019. @article{Chen2019f, title = {The length of preceding context influences metonymy processing}, author = {Xianglan Chen and Fang Li}, doi = {10.1075/rcl.00033.che}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Review of Cognitive Linguistics}, volume = {17}, number = {1}, pages = {243--256}, publisher = {John Benjamins Publishing Company}, abstract = {Earlier studies have shown that conceptually supportive context is an important factor in the comprehension of metaphors (Inhoff, Lima, & Carroll, 1984 ; Ortony, Schallert, Reynolds, & Antos, 1978). However, little empirical evidence has been found so far regarding contextual effects on metonymy processing (Lowder & Gordon, 2013). Implementing an eye-tracking experiment with Chinese materials, this present paper investigated whether and how preceding contextual information affects the processing of metonymy. The results show that for unfamiliar metonymies, it takes readers longer time to interpret unfamiliar metonymies than to literally interpret them given a shorter context. However, the processing disparity between metonymic comprehension and literal comprehension disappears when longer supportive information is available in the preceding context. These results are analogous to those found for metaphors and familiar metonymies, supporting the parallel model of language processing. In addition, our results suggest that the presence of supportive preceding context facilitates the processing of unfamiliar metonymies more than it does to the literal controls.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Earlier studies have shown that conceptually supportive context is an important factor in the comprehension of metaphors (Inhoff, Lima, & Carroll, 1984 ; Ortony, Schallert, Reynolds, & Antos, 1978). However, little empirical evidence has been found so far regarding contextual effects on metonymy processing (Lowder & Gordon, 2013). Implementing an eye-tracking experiment with Chinese materials, this present paper investigated whether and how preceding contextual information affects the processing of metonymy. The results show that for unfamiliar metonymies, it takes readers longer time to interpret unfamiliar metonymies than to literally interpret them given a shorter context. However, the processing disparity between metonymic comprehension and literal comprehension disappears when longer supportive information is available in the preceding context. These results are analogous to those found for metaphors and familiar metonymies, supporting the parallel model of language processing. In addition, our results suggest that the presence of supportive preceding context facilitates the processing of unfamiliar metonymies more than it does to the literal controls. |
Cristiano Chesi; Paolo Canal Person features and lexical restrictions in Italian clefts Journal Article Frontiers in Psychology, 10 , pp. 1–23, 2019. @article{Chesi2019, title = {Person features and lexical restrictions in Italian clefts}, author = {Cristiano Chesi and Paolo Canal}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02105}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {10}, pages = {1--23}, abstract = {In this paper, we discuss the results of two experiments, one off-line (acceptability judgment) and the other on-line (eye-tracking), targeting Object Cleft (OC) constructions. In both experiments, we used the same materials presenting a manipulation on person features: second person plural pronouns and plural definite determiners alternate in introducing a full NP (“it was [DP1 the/you [NP bankers]]i that [DP2 the/you [NP lawyers]] have avoided _i at the party”) in a language, Italian, with overt person (and number) subject-verb agreement. As results, we first observed that the advantage of the bare pronominal forms reported in previous experiments (Gordon et al., 2001; Warren and Gibson, 2005, a.o.) is lost when the full NP (the “lexical restriction” in Belletti and Rizzi, 2013) is present. Second, an advantage for the mismatch condition, Art1-Pro2, in which the focalized subject is introduced by the determiner and the OC subject by the pronoun, as opposed to the matching Pro1-Pro2 condition, is observed, both off-line (higher acceptability and accuracy in answering comprehension questions after eyetracking) and on-line (e.g., smaller number of regressions from the subject region); third, we found a relevant difference between acceptability and accuracy in comprehension questions: despite similar numerical patterns in both off-line measures, the difference across conditions in accuracy is mostly not significant, while it is significant in acceptability. Moreover, while the matching condition Pro1-Pro2 is perceived as nearly ungrammatical (far below the mean acceptability across-conditions), the accuracy in comprehension is still high (close to 80%). To account for these facts, we compare different formal competence and processing models that predict difficulties in OC constructions: similarity-based (Gordon et al., 2001, a.o.), memory load (Gibson, 1998), and intervention-based (Friedmann et al., 2009) accounts are compared to processing oriented ACT-R-based predictions (Lewis and Vasishth, 2005) and to top-down Minimalist derivations (Chesi, 2015). We conclude that most of these approaches fail in making predictions able to reconcile the competence and the performance perspective in a coherent way to the exception of the top-down model that is able to predict correctly both the on-line and the off-line main effects obtained.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } In this paper, we discuss the results of two experiments, one off-line (acceptability judgment) and the other on-line (eye-tracking), targeting Object Cleft (OC) constructions. In both experiments, we used the same materials presenting a manipulation on person features: second person plural pronouns and plural definite determiners alternate in introducing a full NP (“it was [DP1 the/you [NP bankers]]i that [DP2 the/you [NP lawyers]] have avoided _i at the party”) in a language, Italian, with overt person (and number) subject-verb agreement. As results, we first observed that the advantage of the bare pronominal forms reported in previous experiments (Gordon et al., 2001; Warren and Gibson, 2005, a.o.) is lost when the full NP (the “lexical restriction” in Belletti and Rizzi, 2013) is present. Second, an advantage for the mismatch condition, Art1-Pro2, in which the focalized subject is introduced by the determiner and the OC subject by the pronoun, as opposed to the matching Pro1-Pro2 condition, is observed, both off-line (higher acceptability and accuracy in answering comprehension questions after eyetracking) and on-line (e.g., smaller number of regressions from the subject region); third, we found a relevant difference between acceptability and accuracy in comprehension questions: despite similar numerical patterns in both off-line measures, the difference across conditions in accuracy is mostly not significant, while it is significant in acceptability. Moreover, while the matching condition Pro1-Pro2 is perceived as nearly ungrammatical (far below the mean acceptability across-conditions), the accuracy in comprehension is still high (close to 80%). To account for these facts, we compare different formal competence and processing models that predict difficulties in OC constructions: similarity-based (Gordon et al., 2001, a.o.), memory load (Gibson, 1998), and intervention-based (Friedmann et al., 2009) accounts are compared to processing oriented ACT-R-based predictions (Lewis and Vasishth, 2005) and to top-down Minimalist derivations (Chesi, 2015). We conclude that most of these approaches fail in making predictions able to reconcile the competence and the performance perspective in a coherent way to the exception of the top-down model that is able to predict correctly both the on-line and the off-line main effects obtained. |
Jürgen Cholewa; Isabel Neitzel; Annika Bürsgens; Thomas Günther Online-processing of grammatical gender in noun-phrase decoding: An eye-tracking study with monolingual German 3rd and 4th graders Journal Article Frontiers in Psychology, 10 , pp. 1–16, 2019. @article{Cholewa2019, title = {Online-processing of grammatical gender in noun-phrase decoding: An eye-tracking study with monolingual German 3rd and 4th graders}, author = {Jürgen Cholewa and Isabel Neitzel and Annika Bürsgens and Thomas Günther}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02586}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {10}, pages = {1--16}, abstract = {Like many other languages, German employs a linguistic category called “grammatical gender.” In gender-marking languages each noun is assigned to a particular gender-class (in German: masculine, feminine or neuter) and other words in a sentence which are grammatically controlled by the noun are marked by particular morphemes according to the noun's gender feature – so called gender agreement. Within psycholinguistic theories of language comprehension, it is often assumed that gender agreement might help to predict the continuation of a sentence on grammatical grounds and to reduce the lexical search space for the next words emerging within the speech signal. Thus, gender agreement relations may provide a means to make the comprehension process more effective and targeted. The aim of the current study was to assess whether monolingual German 3rd and 4th grade primary school children make use of gender agreement in online auditory comprehension and whether different gender cues interact with each other and with semantic information. A language-picture matching task was conducted in which 32 children looked at two pictures while listening to a noun phrase. Due to features of the German gender system, the target picture corresponding with the noun phrase could be predicted shortly after stimulus onset on account of gender agreement relations. The predictive impact of grammatical gender agreement on noun-phrase decoding was investigated by measuring the time course of eye-movements onto the target and distractor pictures. The results confirm and extend previous findings that gender plays a role in predictive online comprehension of gender-marking languages like German, and that even primary school children are able to make use of this grammatical device.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Like many other languages, German employs a linguistic category called “grammatical gender.” In gender-marking languages each noun is assigned to a particular gender-class (in German: masculine, feminine or neuter) and other words in a sentence which are grammatically controlled by the noun are marked by particular morphemes according to the noun's gender feature – so called gender agreement. Within psycholinguistic theories of language comprehension, it is often assumed that gender agreement might help to predict the continuation of a sentence on grammatical grounds and to reduce the lexical search space for the next words emerging within the speech signal. Thus, gender agreement relations may provide a means to make the comprehension process more effective and targeted. The aim of the current study was to assess whether monolingual German 3rd and 4th grade primary school children make use of gender agreement in online auditory comprehension and whether different gender cues interact with each other and with semantic information. A language-picture matching task was conducted in which 32 children looked at two pictures while listening to a noun phrase. Due to features of the German gender system, the target picture corresponding with the noun phrase could be predicted shortly after stimulus onset on account of gender agreement relations. The predictive impact of grammatical gender agreement on noun-phrase decoding was investigated by measuring the time course of eye-movements onto the target and distractor pictures. The results confirm and extend previous findings that gender plays a role in predictive online comprehension of gender-marking languages like German, and that even primary school children are able to make use of this grammatical device. |
Wing Yee Chow; Yangzi Zhou Eye-tracking evidence for active gap-filling regardless of dependency length Journal Article Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72 (6), pp. 1297–1307, 2019. @article{Chow2019, title = {Eye-tracking evidence for active gap-filling regardless of dependency length}, author = {Wing Yee Chow and Yangzi Zhou}, doi = {10.1177/1747021818804988}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology}, volume = {72}, number = {6}, pages = {1297--1307}, abstract = {Previous work on real-time sentence processing has established that comprehenders build and interpret filler-gap dependencies without waiting for unambiguous evidence about the actual location of the gap ("active gap-filling") as long as such dependencies are grammatically licensed. However, this generalisation was called into question by recent findings in a self-paced reading experiment by Wagers and Phillips, which may be taken to show that comprehenders do not interpret the filler at the posited gap when the dependency spans a longer distance. In the present study, we aimed to replicate these findings in an eye-tracking experiment with better controlled materials and increased statistical power. Crucially, we found clear evidence for active gap-filling across all levels of dependency length. This diverges from Wagers and Phillips's findings but is in line with the long-standing generalisation that comprehenders build and interpret filler-gap dependencies predictively as long as they are grammatically licensed. We found that the effect became smaller in the long dependency conditions in the post-critical region, which suggests the weaker effect in the long dependency conditions may have been undetected in Wagers and Phillips's study due to insufficient statistical power and/or the use of a self-paced reading paradigm.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Previous work on real-time sentence processing has established that comprehenders build and interpret filler-gap dependencies without waiting for unambiguous evidence about the actual location of the gap ("active gap-filling") as long as such dependencies are grammatically licensed. However, this generalisation was called into question by recent findings in a self-paced reading experiment by Wagers and Phillips, which may be taken to show that comprehenders do not interpret the filler at the posited gap when the dependency spans a longer distance. In the present study, we aimed to replicate these findings in an eye-tracking experiment with better controlled materials and increased statistical power. Crucially, we found clear evidence for active gap-filling across all levels of dependency length. This diverges from Wagers and Phillips's findings but is in line with the long-standing generalisation that comprehenders build and interpret filler-gap dependencies predictively as long as they are grammatically licensed. We found that the effect became smaller in the long dependency conditions in the post-critical region, which suggests the weaker effect in the long dependency conditions may have been undetected in Wagers and Phillips's study due to insufficient statistical power and/or the use of a self-paced reading paradigm. |
Eunjin Chun; Edith Kaan L2 prediction during complex sentence processing Journal Article Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science, 3 (2), pp. 203–216, 2019. @article{Chun2019, title = {L2 prediction during complex sentence processing}, author = {Eunjin Chun and Edith Kaan}, doi = {10.1007/s41809-019-00038-0}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science}, volume = {3}, number = {2}, pages = {203--216}, publisher = {Springer Singapore}, abstract = {Recent studies have found that proficient second language (L2) listeners are able to predict upcoming linguistic information to the same extent as first language (L1) listeners during simple sentence processing, particularly when semantic cues are given and/or few cognitive resources are required for language processing. These findings may suggest that L2 listeners use the same mechanisms as L1 listeners for prediction. Yet, it has not been fully specified under which conditions L2 listeners can use predictive mechanisms. To address this issue, we investigated whether advanced L2 listeners make predictions while processing more complex constructions that are cognitively more taxing. Specifically, we investigated prediction in sentences containing a relative clause that can modify either of two noun phrases. In an eye-tracking study using a visual world paradigm, L2 learners listened to sentences containing a semantically biasing verb or a neutral one (e.g., ‘‘I know the friend of the dancer that will open/get the present''). We measured L2 listeners' prediction by comparing the fixations to target objects (e.g., present among non-openable objects) between the two experimental conditions. Results showed that L2 listeners, similar to L1 listeners, made significantly more anticipatory looks to the targets in the semantically biasing condition than in the neutral condition, though their prediction started a bit (180 ms) later than L1 listeners' prediction. These findings suggest that L2 speakers can use prediction mechanisms even during complex sentence processing and provide further evidence for the claim that there is no fundamental difference between L1 and L2 speakers, but that cognitive resources matter for prediction.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Recent studies have found that proficient second language (L2) listeners are able to predict upcoming linguistic information to the same extent as first language (L1) listeners during simple sentence processing, particularly when semantic cues are given and/or few cognitive resources are required for language processing. These findings may suggest that L2 listeners use the same mechanisms as L1 listeners for prediction. Yet, it has not been fully specified under which conditions L2 listeners can use predictive mechanisms. To address this issue, we investigated whether advanced L2 listeners make predictions while processing more complex constructions that are cognitively more taxing. Specifically, we investigated prediction in sentences containing a relative clause that can modify either of two noun phrases. In an eye-tracking study using a visual world paradigm, L2 learners listened to sentences containing a semantically biasing verb or a neutral one (e.g., ‘‘I know the friend of the dancer that will open/get the present''). We measured L2 listeners' prediction by comparing the fixations to target objects (e.g., present among non-openable objects) between the two experimental conditions. Results showed that L2 listeners, similar to L1 listeners, made significantly more anticipatory looks to the targets in the semantically biasing condition than in the neutral condition, though their prediction started a bit (180 ms) later than L1 listeners' prediction. These findings suggest that L2 speakers can use prediction mechanisms even during complex sentence processing and provide further evidence for the claim that there is no fundamental difference between L1 and L2 speakers, but that cognitive resources matter for prediction. |
Francesco Cimminella; Sergio Della Sala; Moreno I Coco Extra-foveal processing of object semantics guides early overt attention during visual search Journal Article Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, pp. 1–16, 2019. @article{Cimminella2019, title = {Extra-foveal processing of object semantics guides early overt attention during visual search}, author = {Francesco Cimminella and Sergio {Della Sala} and Moreno I Coco}, doi = {10.3758/s13414-019-01906-1}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics}, pages = {1--16}, abstract = {Eye-tracking studies using arrays ofobjects have demonstrated that some high-level processing ofobject semantics can occur in extra-foveal vision, but its role on the allocation of early overt attention is still unclear. This eye-tracking visual search study contributes novel findings by examining the role ofobject-to-object semantic relatedness and visual saliency on search responses and eye-movement behaviour across arrays ofincreasing size (3, 5, 7). Our data show that a critical object was looked at earlier and for longer when it was semantically unrelated than related to the other objects in the display, both when it was the search target (target-present trials) and when it was a target's semantically related competitor (target-absent trials). Semantic relatedness effects manifested already during the very first fixation after array onset, were consistently found for increasing set sizes, and were independent of low-level visual saliency, which did not play any role. We conclude that object semantics can be extracted early in extra-foveal vision and capture overt attention from the very first fixation. These findings pose a challenge to models of visual attention which assume that overt attention is guided by the visual appearance of stimuli, rather than by their semantics.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Eye-tracking studies using arrays ofobjects have demonstrated that some high-level processing ofobject semantics can occur in extra-foveal vision, but its role on the allocation of early overt attention is still unclear. This eye-tracking visual search study contributes novel findings by examining the role ofobject-to-object semantic relatedness and visual saliency on search responses and eye-movement behaviour across arrays ofincreasing size (3, 5, 7). Our data show that a critical object was looked at earlier and for longer when it was semantically unrelated than related to the other objects in the display, both when it was the search target (target-present trials) and when it was a target's semantically related competitor (target-absent trials). Semantic relatedness effects manifested already during the very first fixation after array onset, were consistently found for increasing set sizes, and were independent of low-level visual saliency, which did not play any role. We conclude that object semantics can be extracted early in extra-foveal vision and capture overt attention from the very first fixation. These findings pose a challenge to models of visual attention which assume that overt attention is guided by the visual appearance of stimuli, rather than by their semantics. |
Daniel R Coates; Jean Baptiste Bernard; Susana T L Chung Feature contingencies when reading letter strings Journal Article Vision Research, 156 , pp. 84–95, 2019. @article{Coates2019, title = {Feature contingencies when reading letter strings}, author = {Daniel R Coates and Jean Baptiste Bernard and Susana T L Chung}, doi = {10.1016/j.visres.2019.01.005}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Vision Research}, volume = {156}, pages = {84--95}, publisher = {Elsevier}, abstract = {Many models posit the use of distinctive spatial features to recognize letters of the alphabet, a fundamental component of reading. It has also been hypothesized that when letters are in close proximity, visual crowding may cause features to mislocalize between nearby letters, causing identification errors. Here, we took a data-driven approach to investigate these aspects of textual processing. Using data collected from subjects identifying each letter in thousands of lower-case letter trigrams presented in the peripheral visual field, we found characteristic error patterns in the results suggestive of the use of particular spatial features. Distinctive features were seldom entirely missed, and we found evidence for errors due to doubling, masking, and migration of features. Dependencies both amongst neighboring letters and in the responses revealed the contingent nature of processing letter strings, challenging the most basic models of reading that ignore either crowding or featural decomposition.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Many models posit the use of distinctive spatial features to recognize letters of the alphabet, a fundamental component of reading. It has also been hypothesized that when letters are in close proximity, visual crowding may cause features to mislocalize between nearby letters, causing identification errors. Here, we took a data-driven approach to investigate these aspects of textual processing. Using data collected from subjects identifying each letter in thousands of lower-case letter trigrams presented in the peripheral visual field, we found characteristic error patterns in the results suggestive of the use of particular spatial features. Distinctive features were seldom entirely missed, and we found evidence for errors due to doubling, masking, and migration of features. Dependencies both amongst neighboring letters and in the responses revealed the contingent nature of processing letter strings, challenging the most basic models of reading that ignore either crowding or featural decomposition. |
Carla Contemori; Paola Dussias Prediction at the discourse level in Spanish-English bilinguals: An eye-tracking study Journal Article Frontiers in Psychology, 10 , pp. 1–9, 2019. @article{Contemori2019, title = {Prediction at the discourse level in Spanish-English bilinguals: An eye-tracking study}, author = {Carla Contemori and Paola Dussias}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00956}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {10}, pages = {1--9}, abstract = {In two experiments, we examine English monolinguals' and Spanish-English bilinguals' ability to predict an upcoming pronoun referent based on the Implicit Causality (IC) bias of the verb. In an eye-tracking experiment, the monolingual data show anticipation of the upcoming referent for NP1-bias verbs. For bilinguals, the same effect is found, showing that bilinguals are not slower than monolinguals at processing the information associated with the IC of the verb. In an off-line experiment, both groups showed knowledge of IC bias information for the verbs used in the eye-tracking experiment. Based on the findings of the two experiments, we show that highly proficient bilinguals have similar online and off-line predictions based on IC verb information than monolingual speakers.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } In two experiments, we examine English monolinguals' and Spanish-English bilinguals' ability to predict an upcoming pronoun referent based on the Implicit Causality (IC) bias of the verb. In an eye-tracking experiment, the monolingual data show anticipation of the upcoming referent for NP1-bias verbs. For bilinguals, the same effect is found, showing that bilinguals are not slower than monolinguals at processing the information associated with the IC of the verb. In an off-line experiment, both groups showed knowledge of IC bias information for the verbs used in the eye-tracking experiment. Based on the findings of the two experiments, we show that highly proficient bilinguals have similar online and off-line predictions based on IC verb information than monolingual speakers. |
Natalie V Covington; Jake Kurczek; Melissa C Duff; Sarah Brown-Schmidt The effect of repetition on pronoun resolution in patients with memory impairment Journal Article Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, pp. 1–14, 2019. @article{Covington2019, title = {The effect of repetition on pronoun resolution in patients with memory impairment}, author = {Natalie V Covington and Jake Kurczek and Melissa C Duff and Sarah Brown-Schmidt}, doi = {10.1080/13803395.2019.1699503}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology}, pages = {1--14}, publisher = {Routledge}, abstract = {Referring to things in the world–that woman, her idea, she–is a central component of language. Understanding reference requires the listener to keep track of the unfolding discourse history while integrating multiple sources of information to interpret the speech stream as it unfolds in time. Pronouns are a common way to establish reference. But due to their impoverished form, to understand them listeners must relate features of the pronoun (e.g., gender, animacy) with existing representations of potential discourse referents. Successful referential processing seems to place demands on memory. In a previous study, patients with hippocampal amnesia and healthy participants listened to short stories as their eye movements were monitored. When interpreting ambiguous pronouns, healthy participants demonstrated order-of-mention effects, whereby ambiguous pronouns are interpreted as referring to the first-mentioned referent in the story. By contrast, memory-impaired patients exhibited significant disruptions in their ability to use information about which character had been mentioned first to interpret pronouns. Repetition of the most salient information is a common clinical recommendation for improving pronoun resolution and communication in individuals with memory disorders (e.g., Alzheimer's disease) but this recommendation lacks an evidentiary basis. The present study seeks to determine whether the pronoun resolution performance of hippocampal patients can be improved, by repetition of the target referent, increasing its salience. Results indicate that patients with hippocampal damage demonstrate improved processing of pronouns following repetition of the target referent, but benefit from this repetition to a significantly smaller degree compared to healthy participants. These results provide further evidence for the role of the hippocampal-dependent memory system in language processing and point to the need for empirically tested communication interventions.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Referring to things in the world–that woman, her idea, she–is a central component of language. Understanding reference requires the listener to keep track of the unfolding discourse history while integrating multiple sources of information to interpret the speech stream as it unfolds in time. Pronouns are a common way to establish reference. But due to their impoverished form, to understand them listeners must relate features of the pronoun (e.g., gender, animacy) with existing representations of potential discourse referents. Successful referential processing seems to place demands on memory. In a previous study, patients with hippocampal amnesia and healthy participants listened to short stories as their eye movements were monitored. When interpreting ambiguous pronouns, healthy participants demonstrated order-of-mention effects, whereby ambiguous pronouns are interpreted as referring to the first-mentioned referent in the story. By contrast, memory-impaired patients exhibited significant disruptions in their ability to use information about which character had been mentioned first to interpret pronouns. Repetition of the most salient information is a common clinical recommendation for improving pronoun resolution and communication in individuals with memory disorders (e.g., Alzheimer's disease) but this recommendation lacks an evidentiary basis. The present study seeks to determine whether the pronoun resolution performance of hippocampal patients can be improved, by repetition of the target referent, increasing its salience. Results indicate that patients with hippocampal damage demonstrate improved processing of pronouns following repetition of the target referent, but benefit from this repetition to a significantly smaller degree compared to healthy participants. These results provide further evidence for the role of the hippocampal-dependent memory system in language processing and point to the need for empirically tested communication interventions. |
Michael G Cutter; Andrea E Martin; Patrick Sturt Capitalization interacts with syntactic complexity Journal Article Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, pp. 1–19, 2019. @article{Cutter2019, title = {Capitalization interacts with syntactic complexity}, author = {Michael G Cutter and Andrea E Martin and Patrick Sturt}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition}, pages = {1--19}, abstract = {We investigated whether readers use the low-level cue of proper noun capitalization in the parafovea to infer syntactic category, and whether this results in an early update of the representation of a sentence's syntactic structure. Participants read sentences containing either a subject relative or object relative clause, in which the relative clause's overt argument was a proper noun (e.g., The tall lanky guard who alerted Charlie/Charlie alerted to the danger was young) across three experiments. In Experiment 1 these sentences were presented in normal sentence casing or entirely in upper case. In Experiment 2 participants received either valid or invalid parafoveal previews of the relative clause. In Experiment 3 participants viewed relative clauses in only normal conditions. We hypothesized that we would observe relative clause effects (i.e., inflated fixation times for object relative clauses) while readers were still fixated on the word who, if readers use capitalization to infer a parafoveal word's syntactic class. This would constitute a syntactic parafoveal-on-foveal effect. Furthermore, we hypothesized that this effect should be influenced by sentence casing in Experiment 1 (with no cue for syntactic category being available in upper case sentences) but not by parafoveal preview validity of the target words. We observed syntactic parafoveal-on-foveal effects in Experiment 1 and 3, and a Bayesian analysis of the combined data from all three experiments. These effects seemed to be influenced more by noun capitalization than lexical processing. We discuss our findings in relation to models of eye movement control and sentence processing theories.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } We investigated whether readers use the low-level cue of proper noun capitalization in the parafovea to infer syntactic category, and whether this results in an early update of the representation of a sentence's syntactic structure. Participants read sentences containing either a subject relative or object relative clause, in which the relative clause's overt argument was a proper noun (e.g., The tall lanky guard who alerted Charlie/Charlie alerted to the danger was young) across three experiments. In Experiment 1 these sentences were presented in normal sentence casing or entirely in upper case. In Experiment 2 participants received either valid or invalid parafoveal previews of the relative clause. In Experiment 3 participants viewed relative clauses in only normal conditions. We hypothesized that we would observe relative clause effects (i.e., inflated fixation times for object relative clauses) while readers were still fixated on the word who, if readers use capitalization to infer a parafoveal word's syntactic class. This would constitute a syntactic parafoveal-on-foveal effect. Furthermore, we hypothesized that this effect should be influenced by sentence casing in Experiment 1 (with no cue for syntactic category being available in upper case sentences) but not by parafoveal preview validity of the target words. We observed syntactic parafoveal-on-foveal effects in Experiment 1 and 3, and a Bayesian analysis of the combined data from all three experiments. These effects seemed to be influenced more by noun capitalization than lexical processing. We discuss our findings in relation to models of eye movement control and sentence processing theories. |
Julien Dampuré; Pedro Javier López-Pérez; Horacio A Barber Meaning-based attentional guidance as a function of foveal and task-related cognitive loads Journal Article Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 34 (1), pp. 1–12, 2019. @article{Dampure2019, title = {Meaning-based attentional guidance as a function of foveal and task-related cognitive loads}, author = {Julien Dampuré and Pedro Javier López-Pérez and Horacio A Barber}, doi = {10.1080/23273798.2018.1484149}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Language, Cognition and Neuroscience}, volume = {34}, number = {1}, pages = {1--12}, publisher = {Taylor & Francis}, abstract = {The depth of parafoveal word processing depends on the amount of cognitive resources available. Whether this principle applies to the parafoveal semantic processing of multiple words remains, however, controversial. This study therefore aimed at testing the impact of the amount of cognitive resources available on the parafoveal semantic processing of words, by manipulating the foveal and task-related cognitive loads. Participants searched for words in displays of three semantically related or unrelated words, one of which was presented in the centre of the screen and two within the parafovea. The nature of the task and the characteristics of the centred word were manipulated to vary respectively the load associated to the task and to the foveal load. Analyses revealed more first saccades toward the parafoveal semantic distractors when both loads were low. These results indicate that fast parafoveal semantic word processing is constrained by the availability of cognitive resources.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The depth of parafoveal word processing depends on the amount of cognitive resources available. Whether this principle applies to the parafoveal semantic processing of multiple words remains, however, controversial. This study therefore aimed at testing the impact of the amount of cognitive resources available on the parafoveal semantic processing of words, by manipulating the foveal and task-related cognitive loads. Participants searched for words in displays of three semantically related or unrelated words, one of which was presented in the centre of the screen and two within the parafovea. The nature of the task and the characteristics of the centred word were manipulated to vary respectively the load associated to the task and to the foveal load. Analyses revealed more first saccades toward the parafoveal semantic distractors when both loads were low. These results indicate that fast parafoveal semantic word processing is constrained by the availability of cognitive resources. |
Gayle DeDe Perceptual span in individuals with aphasia Journal Article Aphasiology, 34 (2), pp. 235–253, 2019. @article{DeDe2019, title = {Perceptual span in individuals with aphasia}, author = {Gayle DeDe}, doi = {10.1080/02687038.2019.1591612}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Aphasiology}, volume = {34}, number = {2}, pages = {235--253}, publisher = {Routledge}, abstract = {Background: Perceptual span refers to the field of effective vision during reading comprehension. It is determined by many factors, including reading proficiency. No studies have investigated the perceptual span in people with reading comprehension impairments due to aphasia. Aims: The present study examined whether perceptual span is smaller in individuals with aphasia than controls. Methods and Procedures: The task was a gaze-contingent moving windows paradigm during silent reading using an eye tracker. Data from 11 individuals with aphasia and 15 neurotypical controls were analyzed. Outcomes and Results: Perceptual span in individuals with aphasia was the fixated word plus one word to the right of fixation, whereas perceptual span in controls was the fixated word plus two words to the right of fixation. Conclusion: Individuals with aphasia have a smaller perceptual span than controls, which likely reflects increased effort during reading comprehension.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Background: Perceptual span refers to the field of effective vision during reading comprehension. It is determined by many factors, including reading proficiency. No studies have investigated the perceptual span in people with reading comprehension impairments due to aphasia. Aims: The present study examined whether perceptual span is smaller in individuals with aphasia than controls. Methods and Procedures: The task was a gaze-contingent moving windows paradigm during silent reading using an eye tracker. Data from 11 individuals with aphasia and 15 neurotypical controls were analyzed. Outcomes and Results: Perceptual span in individuals with aphasia was the fixated word plus one word to the right of fixation, whereas perceptual span in controls was the fixated word plus two words to the right of fixation. Conclusion: Individuals with aphasia have a smaller perceptual span than controls, which likely reflects increased effort during reading comprehension. |
Federica Degno; Otto Loberg; Chuanli Zang; Manman Zhang; Nick Donnelly; Simon P Liversedge Parafoveal previews and lexical frequency in natural reading: Evidence from eye movements and fixation-related potentials. Journal Article Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 148 (3), pp. 453–474, 2019. @article{Degno2019a, title = {Parafoveal previews and lexical frequency in natural reading: Evidence from eye movements and fixation-related potentials.}, author = {Federica Degno and Otto Loberg and Chuanli Zang and Manman Zhang and Nick Donnelly and Simon P Liversedge}, doi = {10.1037/xge0000494}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: General}, volume = {148}, number = {3}, pages = {453--474}, abstract = {Participants' eye movements and electroencephalogram (EEG) signal were recorded as they read sentences displayed according to the gaze-contingent boundary paradigm. Two target words in each sentence were manipulated for lexical frequency (high vs. low frequency) and parafoveal preview of each target word (identical vs. string of random letters vs. string of Xs). Eye movement data revealed visual parafoveal-on-foveal (PoF) effects, as well as foveal visual and orthographic preview effects and word frequency effects. Fixation-related potentials (FRPs) showed visual and orthographic PoF effects as well as foveal visual and orthographic preview effects. Our results replicated the early preview positivity effect (Dimigen, Kliegl, & Sommer, 2012) in the X-string preview condition, and revealed different neural correlates associated with a preview comprised of a string of random letters relative to a string of Xs. The former effects seem likely to reflect difficulty associated with the integration of parafoveal and foveal information, as well as feature overlap, while the latter reflect inhibition, and potentially disruption, to processing underlying reading. Interestingly, and consistent with Kretzschmar, Schlesewsky, and Staub (2015), no frequency effect was reflected in the FRP measures. The findings provide insight into the neural correlates of parafoveal processing and written word recognition in reading and demonstrate the value of utilizing ecologically valid paradigms to study well established phenomena that occur as text is read naturally.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Participants' eye movements and electroencephalogram (EEG) signal were recorded as they read sentences displayed according to the gaze-contingent boundary paradigm. Two target words in each sentence were manipulated for lexical frequency (high vs. low frequency) and parafoveal preview of each target word (identical vs. string of random letters vs. string of Xs). Eye movement data revealed visual parafoveal-on-foveal (PoF) effects, as well as foveal visual and orthographic preview effects and word frequency effects. Fixation-related potentials (FRPs) showed visual and orthographic PoF effects as well as foveal visual and orthographic preview effects. Our results replicated the early preview positivity effect (Dimigen, Kliegl, & Sommer, 2012) in the X-string preview condition, and revealed different neural correlates associated with a preview comprised of a string of random letters relative to a string of Xs. The former effects seem likely to reflect difficulty associated with the integration of parafoveal and foveal information, as well as feature overlap, while the latter reflect inhibition, and potentially disruption, to processing underlying reading. Interestingly, and consistent with Kretzschmar, Schlesewsky, and Staub (2015), no frequency effect was reflected in the FRP measures. The findings provide insight into the neural correlates of parafoveal processing and written word recognition in reading and demonstrate the value of utilizing ecologically valid paradigms to study well established phenomena that occur as text is read naturally. |
Federica Degno; Otto Loberg; Chuanli Zang; Manman Zhang; Nick Donnelly; Simon P Liversedge A co-registration investigation of inter-word spacing and parafoveal preview: Eye movements and fixation-related potentials Journal Article PLoS ONE, 14 (12), pp. 1–23, 2019. @article{Degno2019b, title = {A co-registration investigation of inter-word spacing and parafoveal preview: Eye movements and fixation-related potentials}, author = {Federica Degno and Otto Loberg and Chuanli Zang and Manman Zhang and Nick Donnelly and Simon P Liversedge}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0225819}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {14}, number = {12}, pages = {1--23}, abstract = {Participants' eye movements (EMs) and EEG signal were simultaneously recorded to examine foveal and parafoveal processing during sentence reading. All the words in the sentence were manipulated for inter-word spacing (intact spaces vs. spaces replaced by a random letter) and parafoveal preview (identical preview vs. random letter string preview). We observed disruption for unspaced text and invalid preview conditions in both EMs and fixation- related potentials (FRPs). Unspaced and invalid preview conditions received longer reading times than spaced and valid preview conditions. In addition, the FRP data showed that unspaced previews disrupted reading in earlier time windows of analysis, compared to string preview conditions. Moreover, the effect of parafoveal preview was greater for spaced relative to unspaced conditions, in both EMs and FRPs. These findings replicate well-established preview effects, provide novel insight into the neural correlates of reading with and without inter-word spacing and suggest that spatial selection precedes lexical processing.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Participants' eye movements (EMs) and EEG signal were simultaneously recorded to examine foveal and parafoveal processing during sentence reading. All the words in the sentence were manipulated for inter-word spacing (intact spaces vs. spaces replaced by a random letter) and parafoveal preview (identical preview vs. random letter string preview). We observed disruption for unspaced text and invalid preview conditions in both EMs and fixation- related potentials (FRPs). Unspaced and invalid preview conditions received longer reading times than spaced and valid preview conditions. In addition, the FRP data showed that unspaced previews disrupted reading in earlier time windows of analysis, compared to string preview conditions. Moreover, the effect of parafoveal preview was greater for spaced relative to unspaced conditions, in both EMs and FRPs. These findings replicate well-established preview effects, provide novel insight into the neural correlates of reading with and without inter-word spacing and suggest that spatial selection precedes lexical processing. |
Félix Desmeules-Trudel; Tania S Zamuner Gradient and categorical patterns of spoken-word recognition and processing of phonetic details Journal Article Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 81 , pp. 1673–1674, 2019. @article{Desmeules-Trudel2019, title = {Gradient and categorical patterns of spoken-word recognition and processing of phonetic details}, author = {Félix Desmeules-Trudel and Tania S Zamuner}, doi = {10.3758/s13414-019-01693-9}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics}, volume = {81}, pages = {1673--1674}, publisher = {Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics}, abstract = {The speech signal is inherently rich, and this reflects complexities of speech articulation. During spoken-word recognition, listeners must process time-dependent perceptual cues, and the role that these cues play varies depending on the phonological status of the sounds across languages. For example, Canadian French has both phonologically nasal vowels (i.e., contrastive) and coarticulatorily nasalized vowels, as opposed to English, which only has coarticulatorily nasalized vowels. We investigated how vowel nasalization duration, a time-dependent phonetic cue to the French nasal contrast, affects spoken-word recognition. Using eye tracking in two visual world paradigm experiments, the results show that fine-grained phonetic information is important for lexical recognition, and that lexical access is dependent on small variations in the signal. The results also show gradient interpretation of ambiguous vowel nasalization despite the phonemic distinction between phonological nasal vowels and coarticulatorily nasalized vowels in Canadian French. Gradience was found when words were ambiguous, and interpretation was more categorical when words were unambiguous. These results support the hypothesis of gradient interpretation of phonetic cues for ambiguously produced stimuli and the storage of coarticulatory information in phono-lexical representations for a language that has a phonological contrast for nasality (i.e., French).}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The speech signal is inherently rich, and this reflects complexities of speech articulation. During spoken-word recognition, listeners must process time-dependent perceptual cues, and the role that these cues play varies depending on the phonological status of the sounds across languages. For example, Canadian French has both phonologically nasal vowels (i.e., contrastive) and coarticulatorily nasalized vowels, as opposed to English, which only has coarticulatorily nasalized vowels. We investigated how vowel nasalization duration, a time-dependent phonetic cue to the French nasal contrast, affects spoken-word recognition. Using eye tracking in two visual world paradigm experiments, the results show that fine-grained phonetic information is important for lexical recognition, and that lexical access is dependent on small variations in the signal. The results also show gradient interpretation of ambiguous vowel nasalization despite the phonemic distinction between phonological nasal vowels and coarticulatorily nasalized vowels in Canadian French. Gradience was found when words were ambiguous, and interpretation was more categorical when words were unambiguous. These results support the hypothesis of gradient interpretation of phonetic cues for ambiguously produced stimuli and the storage of coarticulatory information in phono-lexical representations for a language that has a phonological contrast for nasality (i.e., French). |
Heather R Dial; Bob McMurray; Randi C Martin Lexical processing depends on sublexical processing: Evidence from the visual world paradigm and aphasia Journal Article Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 81 (4), pp. 1047–1064, 2019. @article{Dial2019, title = {Lexical processing depends on sublexical processing: Evidence from the visual world paradigm and aphasia}, author = {Heather R Dial and Bob McMurray and Randi C Martin}, doi = {10.3758/s13414-019-01718-3}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics}, volume = {81}, number = {4}, pages = {1047--1064}, publisher = {Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics}, abstract = {Some early studies of people with aphasia reported strikingly better performance on lexical than on sublexical speech perception tasks. These findings challenged the claim that lexical processing depends on sublexical processing and suggested that acoustic information could be mapped directly to lexical representations. However, Dial and Martin (Neuropsychologia 96: 192-212, 2017) argued that these studies failed to match the discriminability of targets and distractors for the sublexical and lexical stimuli and showed that when using closely matched tasks with natural speech tokens, no patient performed substantially better at the lexical than at the sublexical processing task. In the current study, we sought to provide converging evidence for the dependence of lexical on sublexical processing by examining the perception of synthetic speech stimuli varied on a voice-onset time continuum using eye-tracking methodology, which is sensitive to online speech perception processes. Eight individuals with aphasia and ten age-matched controls completed two visual world paradigm tasks: phoneme (sublexical) and word (lexical) identification. For both identification and eye-movement data, strong correlations were observed between the sublexical and lexical tasks. Critically, no patient within the control range on the lexical task was impaired on the sublexical task. Overall, the current study supports the claim that lexical processing depends on sublexical processing. Implications for inferring deficits in people with aphasia and the use of sublexical tasks to assess sublexical processing are also discussed.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Some early studies of people with aphasia reported strikingly better performance on lexical than on sublexical speech perception tasks. These findings challenged the claim that lexical processing depends on sublexical processing and suggested that acoustic information could be mapped directly to lexical representations. However, Dial and Martin (Neuropsychologia 96: 192-212, 2017) argued that these studies failed to match the discriminability of targets and distractors for the sublexical and lexical stimuli and showed that when using closely matched tasks with natural speech tokens, no patient performed substantially better at the lexical than at the sublexical processing task. In the current study, we sought to provide converging evidence for the dependence of lexical on sublexical processing by examining the perception of synthetic speech stimuli varied on a voice-onset time continuum using eye-tracking methodology, which is sensitive to online speech perception processes. Eight individuals with aphasia and ten age-matched controls completed two visual world paradigm tasks: phoneme (sublexical) and word (lexical) identification. For both identification and eye-movement data, strong correlations were observed between the sublexical and lexical tasks. Critically, no patient within the control range on the lexical task was impaired on the sublexical task. Overall, the current study supports the claim that lexical processing depends on sublexical processing. Implications for inferring deficits in people with aphasia and the use of sublexical tasks to assess sublexical processing are also discussed. |
Nicolas Dirix; Heleen Vander Beken; Ellen De Bruyne; Marc Brysbaert; Wouter Duyck Reading text when studying in a second language: An eye-tracking study Journal Article Reading Research Quarterly, pp. 1–27, 2019. @article{Dirix2019, title = {Reading text when studying in a second language: An eye-tracking study}, author = {Nicolas Dirix and Heleen {Vander Beken} and Ellen {De Bruyne} and Marc Brysbaert and Wouter Duyck}, doi = {10.1002/rrq.277}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Reading Research Quarterly}, pages = {1--27}, abstract = {The authors investigated how eye movements are influenced by different reading goals in participants' first (L1) and second language (L2). Participants read or studied the contents of texts while their eye movements were recorded. One group was asked to read L1 and L2 texts as they would read any expository text (informational reading). Another group was asked to study L1 and L2 texts for subsequent tests involving true/false questions (study condition). After reading, all participants, including those in the informational reading condition, completed the true/false tests without being able to further consult the texts, which allowed the authors to investigate the extent to which reading goal and text language affect recognition memory for texts. In general, more reading time was spent on studying than on informational reading, which also resulted in higher test scores in the study condition. The L2-processing cost was larger in the study condition than in the informational reading condition: Participants needed approximately 20% more time to study L2 texts. The results of various eye movement measures suggest that this is caused by slower word recognition processes and a smaller amount of information that can be processed simultaneously in L2. This was true not only for the first reading of the text but also for the rereadings in the study condition. Interestingly, the additional time for L2 studying seemed to compensate for the less efficient processing, as the recognition test scores were the same in L2 as in L1.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The authors investigated how eye movements are influenced by different reading goals in participants' first (L1) and second language (L2). Participants read or studied the contents of texts while their eye movements were recorded. One group was asked to read L1 and L2 texts as they would read any expository text (informational reading). Another group was asked to study L1 and L2 texts for subsequent tests involving true/false questions (study condition). After reading, all participants, including those in the informational reading condition, completed the true/false tests without being able to further consult the texts, which allowed the authors to investigate the extent to which reading goal and text language affect recognition memory for texts. In general, more reading time was spent on studying than on informational reading, which also resulted in higher test scores in the study condition. The L2-processing cost was larger in the study condition than in the informational reading condition: Participants needed approximately 20% more time to study L2 texts. The results of various eye movement measures suggest that this is caused by slower word recognition processes and a smaller amount of information that can be processed simultaneously in L2. This was true not only for the first reading of the text but also for the rereadings in the study condition. Interestingly, the additional time for L2 studying seemed to compensate for the less efficient processing, as the recognition test scores were the same in L2 as in L1. |
Dagmar Divjak; Petar Milin; Srdan Medimorec Construal in language: A visual-world approach to the effects of linguistic alternations on event perception and conception Journal Article pp. 1–36, 2019. @article{Divjak2019, title = {Construal in language: A visual-world approach to the effects of linguistic alternations on event perception and conception}, author = {Dagmar Divjak and Petar Milin and Srdan Medimorec}, doi = {10.1515/cog-2018-0103}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, booktitle = {Cognitive Linguistics}, pages = {1--36}, abstract = {The theoretical notion of ‘construal' captures the idea that the way in which we describe a scene reflects our conceptualization of it. Relying on the concept of ception – which conjoins conception and perception – we operationalized construal and employed a Visual World Paradigm to establish which aspects of linguistic scene description modulate visual scene perception, thereby affecting event conception. By analysing viewing behaviour after alternating ways of describing location (prepositions), agentivity (active/passive voice) and transfer (NP/PP datives), we found that the linguistic construal of a scene affects its spontaneous visual perception in two ways: either by determining the order in which the components of a scene are accessed or by modulating the distribution of attention over the components, making them more or less salient than they naturally are. We also found evidence for the existence of a cline in the construal effect with stronger expressive differences, such as the prepositional manipulation, inducing more prominent changes in visual perception than the dative manipulation. We discuss the claims language can lay to affecting visual information uptake and hence conceptualization of a static scene in the light of these results.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The theoretical notion of ‘construal' captures the idea that the way in which we describe a scene reflects our conceptualization of it. Relying on the concept of ception – which conjoins conception and perception – we operationalized construal and employed a Visual World Paradigm to establish which aspects of linguistic scene description modulate visual scene perception, thereby affecting event conception. By analysing viewing behaviour after alternating ways of describing location (prepositions), agentivity (active/passive voice) and transfer (NP/PP datives), we found that the linguistic construal of a scene affects its spontaneous visual perception in two ways: either by determining the order in which the components of a scene are accessed or by modulating the distribution of attention over the components, making them more or less salient than they naturally are. We also found evidence for the existence of a cline in the construal effect with stronger expressive differences, such as the prepositional manipulation, inducing more prominent changes in visual perception than the dative manipulation. We discuss the claims language can lay to affecting visual information uptake and hence conceptualization of a static scene in the light of these results. |
Monica L Do; Elsi Kaiser Subjecthood and linear order in linguistic encoding: Evidence from the real-time production of wh-questions in English and Mandarin Chinese Journal Article Journal of Memory and Language, 105 , pp. 60–75, 2019. @article{Do2019d, title = {Subjecthood and linear order in linguistic encoding: Evidence from the real-time production of wh-questions in English and Mandarin Chinese}, author = {Monica L Do and Elsi Kaiser}, doi = {10.1016/j.jml.2018.11.001}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Memory and Language}, volume = {105}, pages = {60--75}, publisher = {Elsevier}, abstract = {We use visual world eye-tracking to provide a first look into the real-time production of an under-researched but communicatively crucial construction – wh-questions. We investigate whether the transition from abstract message to highly-structured utterances (linguistic encoding) is driven by linear order (positional processing) or subjecthood assignment (functional processing). Experiment 1 decouples positional and functional processes by comparing production of English declaratives versus object wh-questions (‘Which nurses did the maids tickle?'). Experiment 2 compares the production of declaratives versus object wh-questions in Mandarin Chinese to investigate potential information-focus effects on linguistic encoding and tests whether Experiment 1's findings could be due to focus. Experiment 1 found that even though the articulation of a sentence is necessarily linear, speakers do not necessarily encode sentences in accordance with the linear order in which the words are uttered. Experiment 2 suggests that information-focus does not guide speakers' eye-movements during linguistic encoding.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } We use visual world eye-tracking to provide a first look into the real-time production of an under-researched but communicatively crucial construction – wh-questions. We investigate whether the transition from abstract message to highly-structured utterances (linguistic encoding) is driven by linear order (positional processing) or subjecthood assignment (functional processing). Experiment 1 decouples positional and functional processes by comparing production of English declaratives versus object wh-questions (‘Which nurses did the maids tickle?'). Experiment 2 compares the production of declaratives versus object wh-questions in Mandarin Chinese to investigate potential information-focus effects on linguistic encoding and tests whether Experiment 1's findings could be due to focus. Experiment 1 found that even though the articulation of a sentence is necessarily linear, speakers do not necessarily encode sentences in accordance with the linear order in which the words are uttered. Experiment 2 suggests that information-focus does not guide speakers' eye-movements during linguistic encoding. |
Denis Drieghe; Aaron Veldre; Gemma Fitzsimmons; Jane Ashby; Sally Andrews The influence of number of syllables on word skipping during reading revisited Journal Article Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 26 , pp. 616–621, 2019. @article{Drieghe2019, title = {The influence of number of syllables on word skipping during reading revisited}, author = {Denis Drieghe and Aaron Veldre and Gemma Fitzsimmons and Jane Ashby and Sally Andrews}, doi = {10.3758/s13423-019-01590-0}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Psychonomic Bulletin & Review}, volume = {26}, pages = {616--621}, abstract = {Fitzsimmons and Drieghe (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18, 736–741, 2011) showed that a monosyllabic word was skipped more often than a disyllabic word during reading. This finding was interpreted as evidence that syllabic information was extracted from the parafovea early enough to influence word skipping. In the present, large-scale replication of this study, in which we additionally measured the reading, vocabulary, and spelling abilities of the participants, the effect of number of syllables on word skipping was not significant. Moreover, a Bayesian analysis indicated strong evidence for the absence of the effect. The individual differences analyses replicate previous observations showing that spelling ability uniquely predicts word skipping (but not fixation times) because better spellers skip more often. The results indicate that high-quality lexical representations allow the system to reach an advanced stage in the word-recognition process of the parafoveal word early enough to influence the decision of whether or not to skip the word, but this decision is not influenced by number of syllables.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Fitzsimmons and Drieghe (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18, 736–741, 2011) showed that a monosyllabic word was skipped more often than a disyllabic word during reading. This finding was interpreted as evidence that syllabic information was extracted from the parafovea early enough to influence word skipping. In the present, large-scale replication of this study, in which we additionally measured the reading, vocabulary, and spelling abilities of the participants, the effect of number of syllables on word skipping was not significant. Moreover, a Bayesian analysis indicated strong evidence for the absence of the effect. The individual differences analyses replicate previous observations showing that spelling ability uniquely predicts word skipping (but not fixation times) because better spellers skip more often. The results indicate that high-quality lexical representations allow the system to reach an advanced stage in the word-recognition process of the parafoveal word early enough to influence the decision of whether or not to skip the word, but this decision is not influenced by number of syllables. |
Linda Drijvers; Julija Vaitonytė; Asli Özyürek Degree of language experience modulates visual attention to visible speech and iconic gestures during clear and degraded speech comprehension Journal Article Cognitive Science, 43 , pp. 1–25, 2019. @article{Drijvers2019, title = {Degree of language experience modulates visual attention to visible speech and iconic gestures during clear and degraded speech comprehension}, author = {Linda Drijvers and Julija Vaitonytė and Asli Özyürek}, doi = {10.1111/cogs.12789}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Cognitive Science}, volume = {43}, pages = {1--25}, abstract = {Visual information conveyed by iconic hand gestures and visible speech can enhance speech comprehension under adverse listening conditions for both native and non-native listeners. However, how a listener allocates visual attention to these articulators during speech comprehension is unknown. We used eye-tracking to investigate whether and how native and highly proficient non-native listeners of Dutch allocated overt eye gaze to visible speech and gestures during clear and degraded speech comprehension. Participants watched video clips of an actress uttering a clear or degraded (6-band noise-vocoded) action verb while performing a gesture or not, and were asked to indicate the word they heard in a cued-recall task. Gestural enhancement was the largest (i.e., a relative reduction in reaction time cost) when speech was degraded for all listeners, but it was stronger for native listeners. Both native and non-native listeners mostly gazed at the face during comprehension, but non-native listeners gazed more often at gestures than native listeners. However, only native but not non-native listeners' gaze allocation to gestures predicted gestural benefit during degraded speech comprehension. We conclude that non-native listeners might gaze at gesture more as it might be more challenging for non-native listeners to resolve the degraded auditory cues and couple those cues to phonological information that is conveyed by visible speech. This diminished phonological knowledge might hinder the use of semantic information that is conveyed by gestures for non-native compared to native listeners. Our results demonstrate that the degree of language experience impacts overt visual attention to visual articulators, resulting in different visual benefits for native versus non-native listeners.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Visual information conveyed by iconic hand gestures and visible speech can enhance speech comprehension under adverse listening conditions for both native and non-native listeners. However, how a listener allocates visual attention to these articulators during speech comprehension is unknown. We used eye-tracking to investigate whether and how native and highly proficient non-native listeners of Dutch allocated overt eye gaze to visible speech and gestures during clear and degraded speech comprehension. Participants watched video clips of an actress uttering a clear or degraded (6-band noise-vocoded) action verb while performing a gesture or not, and were asked to indicate the word they heard in a cued-recall task. Gestural enhancement was the largest (i.e., a relative reduction in reaction time cost) when speech was degraded for all listeners, but it was stronger for native listeners. Both native and non-native listeners mostly gazed at the face during comprehension, but non-native listeners gazed more often at gestures than native listeners. However, only native but not non-native listeners' gaze allocation to gestures predicted gestural benefit during degraded speech comprehension. We conclude that non-native listeners might gaze at gesture more as it might be more challenging for non-native listeners to resolve the degraded auditory cues and couple those cues to phonological information that is conveyed by visible speech. This diminished phonological knowledge might hinder the use of semantic information that is conveyed by gestures for non-native compared to native listeners. Our results demonstrate that the degree of language experience impacts overt visual attention to visual articulators, resulting in different visual benefits for native versus non-native listeners. |
Linda Drijvers; Mircea van der Plas; Asli Özyürek; Ole Jensen Native and non-native listeners show similar yet distinct oscillatory dynamics when using gestures to access speech in noise Journal Article NeuroImage, 194 , pp. 55–67, 2019. @article{Drijvers2019a, title = {Native and non-native listeners show similar yet distinct oscillatory dynamics when using gestures to access speech in noise}, author = {Linda Drijvers and Mircea van der Plas and Asli Özyürek and Ole Jensen}, doi = {10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.03.032}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {NeuroImage}, volume = {194}, pages = {55--67}, abstract = {Listeners are often challenged by adverse listening conditions during language comprehension induced by external factors, such as noise, but also internal factors, such as being a non-native listener. Visible cues, such as semantic information conveyed by iconic gestures, can enhance language comprehension in such situations. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG) we investigated whether spatiotemporal oscillatory dynamics can predict a listener's benefit of iconic gestures during language comprehension in both internally (non-native versus native listeners) and externally (clear/degraded speech) induced adverse listening conditions. Proficient non-native speakers of Dutch were presented with videos in which an actress uttered a degraded or clear verb, accompanied by a gesture or not, and completed a cued-recall task after every video. The behavioral and oscillatory results obtained from non-native listeners were compared to an MEG study where we presented the same stimuli to native listeners (Drijvers et al., 2018a). Non-native listeners demonstrated a similar gestural enhancement effect as native listeners, but overall scored significantly slower on the cued-recall task. In both native and non-native listeners, an alpha/beta power suppression revealed engagement of the extended language network, motor and visual regions during gestural enhancement of degraded speech comprehension, suggesting similar core processes that support unification and lexical access processes. An individual's alpha/beta power modulation predicted the gestural benefit a listener experienced during degraded speech comprehension. Importantly, however, non-native listeners showed less engagement of the mouth area of the primary somatosensory cortex, left insula (beta), LIFG and ATL (alpha) than native listeners, which suggests that non-native listeners might be hindered in processing the degraded phonological cues and coupling them to the semantic information conveyed by the gesture. Native and non-native listeners thus demonstrated similar yet distinct spatiotemporal oscillatory dynamics when recruiting visual cues to disambiguate degraded speech.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Listeners are often challenged by adverse listening conditions during language comprehension induced by external factors, such as noise, but also internal factors, such as being a non-native listener. Visible cues, such as semantic information conveyed by iconic gestures, can enhance language comprehension in such situations. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG) we investigated whether spatiotemporal oscillatory dynamics can predict a listener's benefit of iconic gestures during language comprehension in both internally (non-native versus native listeners) and externally (clear/degraded speech) induced adverse listening conditions. Proficient non-native speakers of Dutch were presented with videos in which an actress uttered a degraded or clear verb, accompanied by a gesture or not, and completed a cued-recall task after every video. The behavioral and oscillatory results obtained from non-native listeners were compared to an MEG study where we presented the same stimuli to native listeners (Drijvers et al., 2018a). Non-native listeners demonstrated a similar gestural enhancement effect as native listeners, but overall scored significantly slower on the cued-recall task. In both native and non-native listeners, an alpha/beta power suppression revealed engagement of the extended language network, motor and visual regions during gestural enhancement of degraded speech comprehension, suggesting similar core processes that support unification and lexical access processes. An individual's alpha/beta power modulation predicted the gestural benefit a listener experienced during degraded speech comprehension. Importantly, however, non-native listeners showed less engagement of the mouth area of the primary somatosensory cortex, left insula (beta), LIFG and ATL (alpha) than native listeners, which suggests that non-native listeners might be hindered in processing the degraded phonological cues and coupling them to the semantic information conveyed by the gesture. Native and non-native listeners thus demonstrated similar yet distinct spatiotemporal oscillatory dynamics when recruiting visual cues to disambiguate degraded speech. |
Grant Eckstein; Wesley Schramm; Madeline Noxon; Jenna Snyder Reading L1 and L2 writing: An eye-tracking study of TESOL rater behavior Journal Article The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language, 23 (1), pp. 1–24, 2019. @article{Eckstein2019, title = {Reading L1 and L2 writing: An eye-tracking study of TESOL rater behavior}, author = {Grant Eckstein and Wesley Schramm and Madeline Noxon and Jenna Snyder}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language}, volume = {23}, number = {1}, pages = {1--24}, abstract = {Researchers have found numerous differences in the approaches raters take to the complex task of essay rating including differences when rating native (L1) and non-native (L2) English writing. Yet less is known about raters' reading practices while scoring those essays. This small-scale study uses eye-tracking technology and reflective protocols to examine the reading behavior of TESOL teachers who evaluated university-level L1 and L2 writing. Results from the eye-tracking component indicate that the teachers read the rhetorical, organizational, and grammatical features of an L1 text more deliberately while skimming through and then returning to rhetorical features of an L2 text and initially skipping over many L2 grammatical structures. In reflective interviews, the teachers also reported more consensus on their approach to evaluating grammar and organization than word choice and rhetoric. While these findings corroborate prior research comparing the rating of L1 and L2 writing, they promise to expand our understanding of rating processes by reflecting the teachers' reading practices and attentional focus while rating. Moreover, the study demonstrates the potential for using eye-tracking research to unobtrusively investigate the reading behaviors involved in assessing L1 and L2 writing.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Researchers have found numerous differences in the approaches raters take to the complex task of essay rating including differences when rating native (L1) and non-native (L2) English writing. Yet less is known about raters' reading practices while scoring those essays. This small-scale study uses eye-tracking technology and reflective protocols to examine the reading behavior of TESOL teachers who evaluated university-level L1 and L2 writing. Results from the eye-tracking component indicate that the teachers read the rhetorical, organizational, and grammatical features of an L1 text more deliberately while skimming through and then returning to rhetorical features of an L2 text and initially skipping over many L2 grammatical structures. In reflective interviews, the teachers also reported more consensus on their approach to evaluating grammar and organization than word choice and rhetoric. While these findings corroborate prior research comparing the rating of L1 and L2 writing, they promise to expand our understanding of rating processes by reflecting the teachers' reading practices and attentional focus while rating. Moreover, the study demonstrates the potential for using eye-tracking research to unobtrusively investigate the reading behaviors involved in assessing L1 and L2 writing. |
C Egan; Gary M Oppenheim; Christopher Saville; Kristina Moll; Manon Wyn Jones Bilinguals apply language-specific grain sizes during sentence reading Journal Article Cognition, 193 , pp. 1–11, 2019. @article{Egan2019, title = {Bilinguals apply language-specific grain sizes during sentence reading}, author = {C Egan and Gary M Oppenheim and Christopher Saville and Kristina Moll and Manon Wyn Jones}, doi = {10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104018}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Cognition}, volume = {193}, pages = {1--11}, publisher = {Elsevier}, abstract = {Languages differ in the consistency with which they map orthography to phonology, and a large body of work now shows that orthographic consistency determines the style of word decoding in monolinguals. Here, we characterise word decoding in bilinguals whose two languages differ in orthographic consistency, assessing whether they maintain two distinct reading styles or settle on a single ‘compromise' reading style. In Experiment 1, Welsh-English bilinguals read cognates and pseudowords embedded in Welsh and English sentences. Eye-movements revealed that bilinguals dynamically alter their decoding strategy according to the language context, including more fixations during lexical access for cognates in the more consistent orthography (Welsh) than in the less consistent orthography (English), and these effects were specific to word (as opposed to pseudoword) processing. In Experiment 2, we compared the same bilinguals' eye movements in the English sentence reading context to those of monolinguals'. Bilinguals' eye-movement behaviour was very similar to monolinguals' when reading English, suggesting that their knowledge of the more consistent orthography (Welsh) did not alter their decoding style when reading in English. This study presents the first characterisation of bilingual decoding style in sentence reading. We discuss our findings in relation to connectionist reading models and models of bilingual visual word recognition.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Languages differ in the consistency with which they map orthography to phonology, and a large body of work now shows that orthographic consistency determines the style of word decoding in monolinguals. Here, we characterise word decoding in bilinguals whose two languages differ in orthographic consistency, assessing whether they maintain two distinct reading styles or settle on a single ‘compromise' reading style. In Experiment 1, Welsh-English bilinguals read cognates and pseudowords embedded in Welsh and English sentences. Eye-movements revealed that bilinguals dynamically alter their decoding strategy according to the language context, including more fixations during lexical access for cognates in the more consistent orthography (Welsh) than in the less consistent orthography (English), and these effects were specific to word (as opposed to pseudoword) processing. In Experiment 2, we compared the same bilinguals' eye movements in the English sentence reading context to those of monolinguals'. Bilinguals' eye-movement behaviour was very similar to monolinguals' when reading English, suggesting that their knowledge of the more consistent orthography (Welsh) did not alter their decoding style when reading in English. This study presents the first characterisation of bilingual decoding style in sentence reading. We discuss our findings in relation to connectionist reading models and models of bilingual visual word recognition. |
Nikola Anna Eger; Holger Mitterer; Eva Reinisch Learning a new sound pair in a second language: Italian learners and German glottal consonants Journal Article Journal of Phonetics, 77 , pp. 1–24, 2019. @article{Eger2019, title = {Learning a new sound pair in a second language: Italian learners and German glottal consonants}, author = {Nikola Anna Eger and Holger Mitterer and Eva Reinisch}, doi = {10.1016/j.wocn.2019.100917}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Phonetics}, volume = {77}, pages = {1--24}, publisher = {Elsevier Ltd}, abstract = {The present study investigated Italian learners' production and perception of German /h/ and /Ɂ/ – two sounds that lack obvious linguistic counterparts in Italian. Critically, of these sounds only /h/ is explicitly known to learners from instruction and orthography. We therefore asked whether this awareness would lead to better acquisition of /h/ than /Ɂ/, and whether any differences would depend on the explicitness of the task. In production, learners of a medium proficiency level performed accurately in about 70% of the cases, with errors including sound deletions and substitutions. In spoken word recognition, two other learner groups of the same proficiency were hindered by sound deletions, but not by substitutions, although they were able to differentiate the sounds in an explicit goodness rating task. Overall, acquisition of /Ɂ/ was similar to /h/, despite lack of awareness for this sound. The results suggest that learners have established one combined “glottal category” to which both sounds map in speech processing, while they may be better implemented in production.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The present study investigated Italian learners' production and perception of German /h/ and /Ɂ/ – two sounds that lack obvious linguistic counterparts in Italian. Critically, of these sounds only /h/ is explicitly known to learners from instruction and orthography. We therefore asked whether this awareness would lead to better acquisition of /h/ than /Ɂ/, and whether any differences would depend on the explicitness of the task. In production, learners of a medium proficiency level performed accurately in about 70% of the cases, with errors including sound deletions and substitutions. In spoken word recognition, two other learner groups of the same proficiency were hindered by sound deletions, but not by substitutions, although they were able to differentiate the sounds in an explicit goodness rating task. Overall, acquisition of /Ɂ/ was similar to /h/, despite lack of awareness for this sound. The results suggest that learners have established one combined “glottal category” to which both sounds map in speech processing, while they may be better implemented in production. |
Sarah Eilers; Simon P Tiffin-Richards; Sascha Schroeder The repeated name penalty effect in children's natural reading: Evidence from eye tracking Journal Article Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72 (3), pp. 403–412, 2019. @article{Eilers2019a, title = {The repeated name penalty effect in children's natural reading: Evidence from eye tracking}, author = {Sarah Eilers and Simon P Tiffin-Richards and Sascha Schroeder}, doi = {10.1177/1747021818757712}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology}, volume = {72}, number = {3}, pages = {403--412}, abstract = {We report data from an eye tracking experiment on the repeated name penalty effect in 9-year-old children and young adults. The repeated name penalty effect is informative for the study of children's reading because it allows conclusions about children's ability to direct attention to discourse-level processing cues during reading. We presented children and adults simple three-sentence stories with a single referent, which was referred to by an anaphor—either a pronoun or a repeated name—downstream in the text. The anaphor was either near or far from the antecedent. We found a repeated name penalty effect in early processing for children as well as adults, suggesting that beginning readers are already susceptible to discourse-level expectations of anaphora during reading. Furthermore, children's reading was more influenced by the distance of anaphor and antecedent than adults', which we attribute to differences in reading fluency and the resulting cognitive load during reading.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } We report data from an eye tracking experiment on the repeated name penalty effect in 9-year-old children and young adults. The repeated name penalty effect is informative for the study of children's reading because it allows conclusions about children's ability to direct attention to discourse-level processing cues during reading. We presented children and adults simple three-sentence stories with a single referent, which was referred to by an anaphor—either a pronoun or a repeated name—downstream in the text. The anaphor was either near or far from the antecedent. We found a repeated name penalty effect in early processing for children as well as adults, suggesting that beginning readers are already susceptible to discourse-level expectations of anaphora during reading. Furthermore, children's reading was more influenced by the distance of anaphor and antecedent than adults', which we attribute to differences in reading fluency and the resulting cognitive load during reading. |
Sarah Eilers; Simon P Tiffin-Richards; Sascha Schroeder Gender cue effects in children's pronoun processing: A longitudinal eye tracking study Journal Article Scientific Studies of Reading, 23 (6), pp. 509–522, 2019. @article{Eilers2019b, title = {Gender cue effects in children's pronoun processing: A longitudinal eye tracking study}, author = {Sarah Eilers and Simon P Tiffin-Richards and Sascha Schroeder}, doi = {10.1080/10888438.2019.1617293}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Scientific Studies of Reading}, volume = {23}, number = {6}, pages = {509--522}, publisher = {Routledge}, abstract = {Children struggle with the resolution of pronouns during reading, but little is known about the sources of their difficulties. We conducted a longitudinal eye tracking experiment with 70 children in the final years of primary school. The children read sentences with a contextual resolution preference in which gender was either an informative resolution cue for the pronoun or not. We were interested in children's processing of the pronoun and their resolution preferences, as well as the effects of individual differences of Grade level and reading skill. Children's resolution ability improved with age, and good readers were more accurate than poor readers. In the eye-tracking measures, we found strong individual differences related to reading skill: Children with good reading skill took more time to read the pronoun region when pronoun gender was informative, suggesting that good readers make better use of the available information at the pronoun than poor readers.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Children struggle with the resolution of pronouns during reading, but little is known about the sources of their difficulties. We conducted a longitudinal eye tracking experiment with 70 children in the final years of primary school. The children read sentences with a contextual resolution preference in which gender was either an informative resolution cue for the pronoun or not. We were interested in children's processing of the pronoun and their resolution preferences, as well as the effects of individual differences of Grade level and reading skill. Children's resolution ability improved with age, and good readers were more accurate than poor readers. In the eye-tracking measures, we found strong individual differences related to reading skill: Children with good reading skill took more time to read the pronoun region when pronoun gender was informative, suggesting that good readers make better use of the available information at the pronoun than poor readers. |
Susanne Eisenhauer; Christian J Fiebach; Benjamin Gagl Context-based facilitation in visual word recognition: Evidence for visual and lexical but not pre-lexical contributions Journal Article eNeuro, 6 (2), pp. 1–25, 2019. @article{Eisenhauer2019, title = {Context-based facilitation in visual word recognition: Evidence for visual and lexical but not pre-lexical contributions}, author = {Susanne Eisenhauer and Christian J Fiebach and Benjamin Gagl}, doi = {10.1523/ENEURO.0321-18.2019}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {eNeuro}, volume = {6}, number = {2}, pages = {1--25}, abstract = {Word familiarity and predictive context facilitate visual word processing, leading to faster recognition times and reduced neuronal responses. Previously, models with and without top-down connections, including lexical-semantic, pre-lexical (e.g., orthographic/phonological), and visual processing levels were successful in accounting for these facilitation effects. Here we systematically assessed context-based facilitation with a repetition priming task and explicitly dissociated pre-lexical and lexical processing levels using a pseudoword (PW) familiarization procedure. Experiment 1 investigated the temporal dynamics of neuronal facilitation effects with magnetoencephalography (MEG; N = 38 human participants), while experiment 2 assessed behavioral facilitation effects (N = 24 human participants). Across all stimulus conditions, MEG demonstrated context-based facilitation across multiple time windows starting at 100 ms, in occipital brain areas. This finding indicates context-based facilitation at an early visual processing level. In both experiments, we furthermore found an interaction of context and lexical familiarity, such that stimuli with associated meaning showed the strongest context-dependent facilitation in brain activation and behavior. Using MEG, this facilitation effect could be localized to the left anterior temporal lobe at around 400 ms, indicating within-level (i.e., exclusively lexical-semantic) facilitation but no top-down effects on earlier processing stages. Increased pre-lexical familiarity (in PWs familiarized utilizing training) did not enhance or reduce context effects significantly. We conclude that context-based facilitation is achieved within visual and lexical processing levels. Finally, by testing alternative hypotheses derived from mechanistic accounts of repetition suppression, we suggest that the facilitatory context effects found here are implemented using a predictive coding mechanism.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Word familiarity and predictive context facilitate visual word processing, leading to faster recognition times and reduced neuronal responses. Previously, models with and without top-down connections, including lexical-semantic, pre-lexical (e.g., orthographic/phonological), and visual processing levels were successful in accounting for these facilitation effects. Here we systematically assessed context-based facilitation with a repetition priming task and explicitly dissociated pre-lexical and lexical processing levels using a pseudoword (PW) familiarization procedure. Experiment 1 investigated the temporal dynamics of neuronal facilitation effects with magnetoencephalography (MEG; N = 38 human participants), while experiment 2 assessed behavioral facilitation effects (N = 24 human participants). Across all stimulus conditions, MEG demonstrated context-based facilitation across multiple time windows starting at 100 ms, in occipital brain areas. This finding indicates context-based facilitation at an early visual processing level. In both experiments, we furthermore found an interaction of context and lexical familiarity, such that stimuli with associated meaning showed the strongest context-dependent facilitation in brain activation and behavior. Using MEG, this facilitation effect could be localized to the left anterior temporal lobe at around 400 ms, indicating within-level (i.e., exclusively lexical-semantic) facilitation but no top-down effects on earlier processing stages. Increased pre-lexical familiarity (in PWs familiarized utilizing training) did not enhance or reduce context effects significantly. We conclude that context-based facilitation is achieved within visual and lexical processing levels. Finally, by testing alternative hypotheses derived from mechanistic accounts of repetition suppression, we suggest that the facilitatory context effects found here are implemented using a predictive coding mechanism. |
Ashley Farris-Trimble; Anne-Michelle Tessier The effect of allophonic processes on word recognition: Eye-tracking evidence from Canadian raising Journal Article Language, 95 (1), pp. 136–160, 2019. @article{Farris-Trimble2019, title = {The effect of allophonic processes on word recognition: Eye-tracking evidence from Canadian raising}, author = {Ashley Farris-Trimble and Anne-Michelle Tessier}, doi = {10.1353/lan.2019.0023}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Language}, volume = {95}, number = {1}, pages = {136--160}, abstract = {Whether lexical representations are stored as abstract forms or exemplar tokens is the focus of much debate in both the phonological and word-recognition literature. This research report examines the recognition of words that have undergone Canadian raising and/or intervocalic flapping. Two eye-tracking experiments suggest that listeners are slower to fixate words that have undergone one or more phonological processes within their own raising dialect, supporting the idea that they must calculate a mapping from surface word forms to more abstract representations. Implications for representational and phonological theories are discussed.* 1. Introduction. The interaction between two mostly predictable segmental processes in Canadian English-Canadian raising, which causes some diphthong nuclei to be raised, and intervocalic flapping, which reduces some /t/s and /d/s to [ɾ]-has long been of interest to phonologists, in part because its analysis highlights a core question: How are words that are subject to phonological processes stored in the mind? One way to frame this question is to ask whether the 'distance' between a surface form of a word and its underlying representation, according to a particular phonological analysis, is reflected somewhere in lexical processing. This research report tries to address this version of the question, using new eye-tracking data, with results that support some degree of abstract representations in the minds of listeners. We discuss their implications for both phonological grammar and word recognition.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Whether lexical representations are stored as abstract forms or exemplar tokens is the focus of much debate in both the phonological and word-recognition literature. This research report examines the recognition of words that have undergone Canadian raising and/or intervocalic flapping. Two eye-tracking experiments suggest that listeners are slower to fixate words that have undergone one or more phonological processes within their own raising dialect, supporting the idea that they must calculate a mapping from surface word forms to more abstract representations. Implications for representational and phonological theories are discussed.* 1. Introduction. The interaction between two mostly predictable segmental processes in Canadian English-Canadian raising, which causes some diphthong nuclei to be raised, and intervocalic flapping, which reduces some /t/s and /d/s to [ɾ]-has long been of interest to phonologists, in part because its analysis highlights a core question: How are words that are subject to phonological processes stored in the mind? One way to frame this question is to ask whether the 'distance' between a surface form of a word and its underlying representation, according to a particular phonological analysis, is reflected somewhere in lexical processing. This research report tries to address this version of the question, using new eye-tracking data, with results that support some degree of abstract representations in the minds of listeners. We discuss their implications for both phonological grammar and word recognition. |
Heather J Ferguson; Jo Black; David Williams Distinguishing reality from fantasy in adults with autism spectrum disorder: Evidence from eye movements and reading Journal Article Journal of Memory and Language, 106 , pp. 95–107, 2019. @article{Ferguson2019, title = {Distinguishing reality from fantasy in adults with autism spectrum disorder: Evidence from eye movements and reading}, author = {Heather J Ferguson and Jo Black and David Williams}, doi = {10.1016/j.jml.2019.03.001}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Memory and Language}, volume = {106}, pages = {95--107}, publisher = {Elsevier}, abstract = {Understanding fictional events requires one to distinguish reality from fantasy, and thus engages high-level processes including executive functions and imagination, both of which are impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We examined how adults with and without ASD make sense of reality-violating fantasy narratives by testing real-time understanding of counterfactuals. Participants were eye-tracked as they read narratives that depicted novel counterfactual scenarios that violate reality (e.g. “If margarine contained detergent, Mum could use margarine in her washing/baking” Experiment 1), or counterfactual versions of known fictional worlds (e.g. “If Harry Potter had lost all his magic powers, he would use his broom to sweep/fly” Experiment 2). Results revealed anomaly detection effects in the early moments of processing (immediately in Experiment 1, and from the post-critical region in Experiment 2), which were not modulated by group. We discuss these findings in relation to the constraints from real-world and fantasy contexts that compete to influence language comprehension, and identify a dissociation between ToM impairments and counterfactual processing abilities.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Understanding fictional events requires one to distinguish reality from fantasy, and thus engages high-level processes including executive functions and imagination, both of which are impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We examined how adults with and without ASD make sense of reality-violating fantasy narratives by testing real-time understanding of counterfactuals. Participants were eye-tracked as they read narratives that depicted novel counterfactual scenarios that violate reality (e.g. “If margarine contained detergent, Mum could use margarine in her washing/baking” Experiment 1), or counterfactual versions of known fictional worlds (e.g. “If Harry Potter had lost all his magic powers, he would use his broom to sweep/fly” Experiment 2). Results revealed anomaly detection effects in the early moments of processing (immediately in Experiment 1, and from the post-critical region in Experiment 2), which were not modulated by group. We discuss these findings in relation to the constraints from real-world and fantasy contexts that compete to influence language comprehension, and identify a dissociation between ToM impairments and counterfactual processing abilities. |
Eva Findelsberger; Florian Hutzler; Stefan Hawelka Spill the load: Mixed evidence for a foveal load effect, reliable evidence for a spillover effect in eye-movement control during reading Journal Article Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 81 (5), pp. 1442–1453, 2019. @article{Findelsberger2019, title = {Spill the load: Mixed evidence for a foveal load effect, reliable evidence for a spillover effect in eye-movement control during reading}, author = {Eva Findelsberger and Florian Hutzler and Stefan Hawelka}, doi = {10.3758/s13414-019-01689-5}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics}, volume = {81}, number = {5}, pages = {1442--1453}, publisher = {Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics}, abstract = {It has been hypothesized that the processing difficulty of the fixated word (i.e., “foveal load”) modulates the amount of parafoveal preprocessing of the next word. Evidence for the hypothesis has been provided by the application of parafoveal masks within the boundary paradigm. Other studies that applied alternative means of manipulating the parafoveal preview (i.e., visual degradation) could not replicate the effect of foveal load. The present study examined the effect of foveal load by directly comparing the application of parafoveal masks (Exp. 1) with the alternative manipulation of visually degrading the parafoveal preview (Exp. 2) in adult readers. Contrary to expectation, we did not find the foveal-load interaction in the first experiment with traditional letter masks. We did, however, find the expected interaction in the second experiment with visually degraded previews. Both experiments revealed a spillover effect indicating that the processing of a word is not (always) fully completed when the reader already fixates the next word (i.e., processing “spills over” to the next word). The implications for models of eye-movement control in reading are discussed.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } It has been hypothesized that the processing difficulty of the fixated word (i.e., “foveal load”) modulates the amount of parafoveal preprocessing of the next word. Evidence for the hypothesis has been provided by the application of parafoveal masks within the boundary paradigm. Other studies that applied alternative means of manipulating the parafoveal preview (i.e., visual degradation) could not replicate the effect of foveal load. The present study examined the effect of foveal load by directly comparing the application of parafoveal masks (Exp. 1) with the alternative manipulation of visually degrading the parafoveal preview (Exp. 2) in adult readers. Contrary to expectation, we did not find the foveal-load interaction in the first experiment with traditional letter masks. We did, however, find the expected interaction in the second experiment with visually degraded previews. Both experiments revealed a spillover effect indicating that the processing of a word is not (always) fully completed when the reader already fixates the next word (i.e., processing “spills over” to the next word). The implications for models of eye-movement control in reading are discussed. |
Gemma Fitzsimmons; Mark J Weal; Denis Drieghe The impact of hyperlinks on reading text Journal Article PLoS ONE, 14 (2), pp. 1–20, 2019. @article{Fitzsimmons2019, title = {The impact of hyperlinks on reading text}, author = {Gemma Fitzsimmons and Mark J Weal and Denis Drieghe}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0210900}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {14}, number = {2}, pages = {1--20}, abstract = {There has been debate about whether blue hyperlinks on the Web cause disruption to reading. A series of eye tracking experiments were conducted to explore if coloured words in black text had any impact on reading behaviour outside and inside a Web environment. Experiment 1 and 2 explored the saliency of coloured words embedded in single sentences and the impact on reading behaviour. In Experiment 3, the effects of coloured words/hyperlinks in passages of text in a Web-like environment was explored. Experiment 1 and 2 showed that multiple coloured words in text had no negative impact on reading behaviour. However, if the sentence featured only a single coloured word, a reduction in skipping rates was observed. This suggests that the visual saliency associated with a single coloured word may signal to the reader that the word is important, whereas this signalling is reduced when multiple words are coloured. In Experiment 3, when reading passages of text containing hyperlinks in a Web environment, participants showed a tendency to re-read sentences that contained hyperlinked, uncommon words compared to hyperlinked, common words. Hyperlinks highlight important information and suggest additional content, which for more difficult concepts, invites rereading of the preceding text.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } There has been debate about whether blue hyperlinks on the Web cause disruption to reading. A series of eye tracking experiments were conducted to explore if coloured words in black text had any impact on reading behaviour outside and inside a Web environment. Experiment 1 and 2 explored the saliency of coloured words embedded in single sentences and the impact on reading behaviour. In Experiment 3, the effects of coloured words/hyperlinks in passages of text in a Web-like environment was explored. Experiment 1 and 2 showed that multiple coloured words in text had no negative impact on reading behaviour. However, if the sentence featured only a single coloured word, a reduction in skipping rates was observed. This suggests that the visual saliency associated with a single coloured word may signal to the reader that the word is important, whereas this signalling is reduced when multiple words are coloured. In Experiment 3, when reading passages of text containing hyperlinks in a Web environment, participants showed a tendency to re-read sentences that contained hyperlinked, uncommon words compared to hyperlinked, common words. Hyperlinks highlight important information and suggest additional content, which for more difficult concepts, invites rereading of the preceding text. |
Kathleen C Fraser; Kristina Lundholm Fors; Marie Eckerström; Fredrik Öhman; Dimitrios Kokkinakis Predicting MCI status from multimodal language data using cascaded classifiers Journal Article Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 11 , pp. 1–18, 2019. @article{Fraser2019, title = {Predicting MCI status from multimodal language data using cascaded classifiers}, author = {Kathleen C Fraser and Kristina Lundholm Fors and Marie Eckerström and Fredrik Öhman and Dimitrios Kokkinakis}, doi = {10.3389/fnagi.2019.00205}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience}, volume = {11}, pages = {1--18}, abstract = {Recent work has indicated the potential utility of automated language analysis for the detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Most studies combining language processing and machine learning for the prediction of MCI focus on a single language task; here, we consider a cascaded approach to combine data from multiple language tasks. A cohort of 26 MCI participants and 29 healthy controls completed three language tasks: picture description, reading silently, and reading aloud. Information from each task is captured through different modes (audio, text, eye-tracking, and comprehension questions). Features are extracted from each mode, and used to train a series of cascaded classifiers which output predictions at the level of features, modes, tasks, and finally at the overall session level. The best classification result is achieved through combining the data at the task level (AUC = 0.88}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Recent work has indicated the potential utility of automated language analysis for the detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Most studies combining language processing and machine learning for the prediction of MCI focus on a single language task; here, we consider a cascaded approach to combine data from multiple language tasks. A cohort of 26 MCI participants and 29 healthy controls completed three language tasks: picture description, reading silently, and reading aloud. Information from each task is captured through different modes (audio, text, eye-tracking, and comprehension questions). Features are extracted from each mode, and used to train a series of cascaded classifiers which output predictions at the level of features, modes, tasks, and finally at the overall session level. The best classification result is achieved through combining the data at the task level (AUC = 0.88 |
Cheryl Frenck-Mestre; Seung Kyung Kim; Hyeree Choo; Alain Ghio; Julia Herschensohn; Sungryong Koh Look and listen! The online processing of Korean case by native and non-native speakers Journal Article Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 34 (3), pp. 385–404, 2019. @article{Frenck-Mestre2019, title = {Look and listen! The online processing of Korean case by native and non-native speakers}, author = {Cheryl Frenck-Mestre and Seung Kyung Kim and Hyeree Choo and Alain Ghio and Julia Herschensohn and Sungryong Koh}, doi = {10.1080/23273798.2018.1549332}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Language, Cognition and Neuroscience}, volume = {34}, number = {3}, pages = {385--404}, publisher = {Taylor & Francis}, abstract = {We used a forced choice visual world paradigm to examine when listeners integrate case when processing Korean, in native speakers and two groups of adult L2 learners. The L2 learners varied as concerns the typological proximity between their L1 (French or Kazakh) and Korean. Processing was compared for canonical (SOV) and scrambled (OSV) word order. Nominal case marking was either accusative (NOM-ACC) or dative (NOM-DAT). Native Koreans showed anticipatory looks to the correct image, regardless of word order or case. Neither L2 group showed anticipatory looks to the correct image prior to the final auditory verb. Both L2 groups demonstrated superior performance for the dative. However, the Kazakh group showed better capacities to correctly interpret utterances based on case than the French. Our results provide evidence of the incremental nature of processing in Korean for native speakers and, for L2 learners, the effect of L1–L2 overlap and specific case marking}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } We used a forced choice visual world paradigm to examine when listeners integrate case when processing Korean, in native speakers and two groups of adult L2 learners. The L2 learners varied as concerns the typological proximity between their L1 (French or Kazakh) and Korean. Processing was compared for canonical (SOV) and scrambled (OSV) word order. Nominal case marking was either accusative (NOM-ACC) or dative (NOM-DAT). Native Koreans showed anticipatory looks to the correct image, regardless of word order or case. Neither L2 group showed anticipatory looks to the correct image prior to the final auditory verb. Both L2 groups demonstrated superior performance for the dative. However, the Kazakh group showed better capacities to correctly interpret utterances based on case than the French. Our results provide evidence of the incremental nature of processing in Korean for native speakers and, for L2 learners, the effect of L1–L2 overlap and specific case marking |
Lee Friedman; Oleg V Komogortsev Assessment of the effectiveness of 7 biometric feature normalization techniques Journal Article IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, 14 (10), pp. 2528–2536, 2019. @article{Friedman2019, title = {Assessment of the effectiveness of 7 biometric feature normalization techniques}, author = {Lee Friedman and Oleg V Komogortsev}, doi = {10.1109/TIFS.2019.2904844}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security}, volume = {14}, number = {10}, pages = {2528--2536}, publisher = {IEEE}, abstract = {The importance of normalizing biometric features or matching scores is understood in the multimodal biometric case, but there is less attention to the unimodal case. Prior reports assess the effectiveness of normalization directly on biometric performance. We propose that this process is logically comprised of two independent steps: (1) methods to equalize the effect of each biometric feature on the similarity scores calculated from all the features together and (2) methods of weighting the normalized features to optimize biometric performance. In this report, we address step 1 only and focus exclusively on normally distributed features. We show how differences in the variance of features lead to differences in the strength of the influence of each feature on the similarity scores produced from all the features. Since these differences in variance have nothing to do with importance in the biometric sense, it makes no sense to allow them to have greater weight in the assessment of biometric performance. We employed two types of features: (1) real eye-movement features and (2) synthetic features. We compare six variance normalization methods (histogram equalization, L1-normalization, median normalization, z-score normalization, min-max normalization, and L-infinite normalization) and one distance metric (Mahalanobis distance) in terms of how well they reduce the impact of the variance differences. The effectiveness of different techniques on real data depended on the strength of the inter-correlation of the features. For weakly correlated real features and synthetic features, histogram equalization was the best method followed by L1 normalization.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The importance of normalizing biometric features or matching scores is understood in the multimodal biometric case, but there is less attention to the unimodal case. Prior reports assess the effectiveness of normalization directly on biometric performance. We propose that this process is logically comprised of two independent steps: (1) methods to equalize the effect of each biometric feature on the similarity scores calculated from all the features together and (2) methods of weighting the normalized features to optimize biometric performance. In this report, we address step 1 only and focus exclusively on normally distributed features. We show how differences in the variance of features lead to differences in the strength of the influence of each feature on the similarity scores produced from all the features. Since these differences in variance have nothing to do with importance in the biometric sense, it makes no sense to allow them to have greater weight in the assessment of biometric performance. We employed two types of features: (1) real eye-movement features and (2) synthetic features. We compare six variance normalization methods (histogram equalization, L1-normalization, median normalization, z-score normalization, min-max normalization, and L-infinite normalization) and one distance metric (Mahalanobis distance) in terms of how well they reduce the impact of the variance differences. The effectiveness of different techniques on real data depended on the strength of the inter-correlation of the features. For weakly correlated real features and synthetic features, histogram equalization was the best method followed by L1 normalization. |
Deanna C Friesen; Veronica Whitford; Debra Titone; Debra Jared The impact of individual differences on cross-language activation of meaning by phonology Journal Article Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, pp. 1–21, 2019. @article{Friesen2019, title = {The impact of individual differences on cross-language activation of meaning by phonology}, author = {Deanna C Friesen and Veronica Whitford and Debra Titone and Debra Jared}, doi = {10.1017/S1366728919000142}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Bilingualism: Language and Cognition}, pages = {1--21}, abstract = {We investigated how individual differences in language proficiency and executive control impact cross-language meaning activation through phonology. Ninety-six university students read English sentences that contained French target words. Target words were high- and low-frequency French interlingual homophones (i.e., words that share pronunciation, but not meaning across langauges; mot means 'word' in French and sounds like 'mow' in English) and matched French control words (e.g., mois-'month' in French). Readers could use the homophones' shared phonology to activate their English meanings and, ultimately, make sense of the sentence (e.g., Tony was too lazy to mot/mois the grass on Sunday). Shorter reading times were observed on interlingual homophones than control words, suggesting that phonological representations in one language activate cross-language semantic representations. Importantly, the magnitude of the effect was modulated by word frequency, and several participant-level characteristics, including French proficiency, English word knowledge, and executive control ability.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } We investigated how individual differences in language proficiency and executive control impact cross-language meaning activation through phonology. Ninety-six university students read English sentences that contained French target words. Target words were high- and low-frequency French interlingual homophones (i.e., words that share pronunciation, but not meaning across langauges; mot means 'word' in French and sounds like 'mow' in English) and matched French control words (e.g., mois-'month' in French). Readers could use the homophones' shared phonology to activate their English meanings and, ultimately, make sense of the sentence (e.g., Tony was too lazy to mot/mois the grass on Sunday). Shorter reading times were observed on interlingual homophones than control words, suggesting that phonological representations in one language activate cross-language semantic representations. Importantly, the magnitude of the effect was modulated by word frequency, and several participant-level characteristics, including French proficiency, English word knowledge, and executive control ability. |
Isidora Gatarić The cognitive processing of derived nouns with ambiguous suffixes: Behavioral and eye-emovement study Journal Article Primenjena Psihologija, 12 (1), pp. 85–104, 2019. @article{Gataric2019, title = {The cognitive processing of derived nouns with ambiguous suffixes: Behavioral and eye-emovement study}, author = {Isidora Gatari{ć}}, doi = {10.19090/pp.2019.1.85-104}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Primenjena Psihologija}, volume = {12}, number = {1}, pages = {85--104}, abstract = {The primary aim of this research has been to investigate whether the suffix ambiguity affects the lexical processing of derived nouns in Serbian. Consequently, in the Experiment 1, the derived nouns were presented isolated to participants in the visual lexical decision task. Bearing in mind that the sentence context was important for the lexical processing, the Experiment 2 was designed as an eye-movement study with the sentences (with derived nouns from the Experiment 1) as stimuli. To the best of our knowledge, the similar experimental study was not performed before in the Serbian language, and therefore this study represents the first attempt to investigate this phenomenon in Serbian. An identical statistical analysis was used to analyze the data collected in both experiments, the Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs). The final results of all GAMMs analyses suggested that the suffixal ambiguity did not affect the lexical processing of derived nouns in Serbian, regardless of whether they were displayed isolated or in the sentence context. The observed results supported the a-morphous perspective in the morpho-lexical processing, as well as the distributed morphology insights from the theoretical linguistics.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The primary aim of this research has been to investigate whether the suffix ambiguity affects the lexical processing of derived nouns in Serbian. Consequently, in the Experiment 1, the derived nouns were presented isolated to participants in the visual lexical decision task. Bearing in mind that the sentence context was important for the lexical processing, the Experiment 2 was designed as an eye-movement study with the sentences (with derived nouns from the Experiment 1) as stimuli. To the best of our knowledge, the similar experimental study was not performed before in the Serbian language, and therefore this study represents the first attempt to investigate this phenomenon in Serbian. An identical statistical analysis was used to analyze the data collected in both experiments, the Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs). The final results of all GAMMs analyses suggested that the suffixal ambiguity did not affect the lexical processing of derived nouns in Serbian, regardless of whether they were displayed isolated or in the sentence context. The observed results supported the a-morphous perspective in the morpho-lexical processing, as well as the distributed morphology insights from the theoretical linguistics. |
Peter C Gordon; Mariah Moore; Wonil Choi; Renske S Hoedemaker; Matthew W Lowder Individual differences in reading: Separable effects of reading experience and processing skill Journal Article Memory and Cognition, pp. 1–13, 2019. @article{Gordon2019, title = {Individual differences in reading: Separable effects of reading experience and processing skill}, author = {Peter C Gordon and Mariah Moore and Wonil Choi and Renske S Hoedemaker and Matthew W Lowder}, doi = {10.3758/s13421-019-00989-3}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Memory and Cognition}, pages = {1--13}, publisher = {Memory & Cognition}, abstract = {A large-scale eye-tracking study examined individual variability in measures of word recognition during reading among 546 college students, focusing on two established individual-differences measures: the Author Recognition Test (ART) and Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN). ART and RAN were only slightly correlated, suggesting that the two tasks reflect independent cognitive abilities in this large sample of participants. Further, individual variability in ART and RAN scores were related to distinct facets of word-recognition processes. Higher ART scores were associated with increased skipping rates, shorter gaze duration, and reduced effects of word frequency on gaze duration, suggesting that this measure reflects efficiency of basic processes of word recognition during reading. In contrast, faster times on RAN were associated with enhanced foveal-on-parafoveal effects, fewer first-pass regressions, and shorter second-pass reading times, suggesting that this measure reflects efficient coordination of perceptual-motor and attentional processing during reading. These results demonstrate that ART and RAN tasks make independent contributions to predicting variability in word-recognition processes during reading.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } A large-scale eye-tracking study examined individual variability in measures of word recognition during reading among 546 college students, focusing on two established individual-differences measures: the Author Recognition Test (ART) and Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN). ART and RAN were only slightly correlated, suggesting that the two tasks reflect independent cognitive abilities in this large sample of participants. Further, individual variability in ART and RAN scores were related to distinct facets of word-recognition processes. Higher ART scores were associated with increased skipping rates, shorter gaze duration, and reduced effects of word frequency on gaze duration, suggesting that this measure reflects efficiency of basic processes of word recognition during reading. In contrast, faster times on RAN were associated with enhanced foveal-on-parafoveal effects, fewer first-pass regressions, and shorter second-pass reading times, suggesting that this measure reflects efficient coordination of perceptual-motor and attentional processing during reading. These results demonstrate that ART and RAN tasks make independent contributions to predicting variability in word-recognition processes during reading. |
Julie Gregg; Albrecht W Inhoff; Cynthia M Connine Re-reconsidering the role of temporal order in spoken word recognition Journal Article Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72 (11), pp. 2574–2583, 2019. @article{Gregg2019, title = {Re-reconsidering the role of temporal order in spoken word recognition}, author = {Julie Gregg and Albrecht W Inhoff and Cynthia M Connine}, doi = {10.1177/1747021819849512}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology}, volume = {72}, number = {11}, pages = {2574--2583}, abstract = {Spoken word recognition models incorporate the temporal unfolding of word information by assuming that positional match constrains lexical activation. Recent findings challenge the linearity constraint. In the visual world paradigm, Toscano, Anderson, and McMurray observed that listeners preferentially viewed a picture of a target word's anadrome competitor (e.g., competitor bus for target sub) compared with phonologically unrelated distractors (e.g., well) or competitors sharing an overlapping vowel (e.g., sun). Toscano et al. concluded that spoken word recognition relies on coarse grain spectral similarity for mapping spoken input to a lexical representation. Our experiments aimed to replicate the anadrome effect and to test the coarse grain similarity account using competitors without vowel position overlap (e.g., competitor leaf for target flea). The results confirmed the original effect: anadrome competitor fixation curves diverged from unrelated distractors approximately 275 ms after the onset of the target word. In contrast, the no vowel position overlap competitor did not show an increase in fixations compared with the unrelated distractors. The contrasting results for the anadrome and no vowel position overlap items are discussed in terms of theoretical implications of sequential match versus coarse grain similarity accounts of spoken word recognition. We also discuss design issues (repetition of stimulus materials and display parameters) concerning the use of the visual world paradigm in making inferences about online spoken word recognition.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Spoken word recognition models incorporate the temporal unfolding of word information by assuming that positional match constrains lexical activation. Recent findings challenge the linearity constraint. In the visual world paradigm, Toscano, Anderson, and McMurray observed that listeners preferentially viewed a picture of a target word's anadrome competitor (e.g., competitor bus for target sub) compared with phonologically unrelated distractors (e.g., well) or competitors sharing an overlapping vowel (e.g., sun). Toscano et al. concluded that spoken word recognition relies on coarse grain spectral similarity for mapping spoken input to a lexical representation. Our experiments aimed to replicate the anadrome effect and to test the coarse grain similarity account using competitors without vowel position overlap (e.g., competitor leaf for target flea). The results confirmed the original effect: anadrome competitor fixation curves diverged from unrelated distractors approximately 275 ms after the onset of the target word. In contrast, the no vowel position overlap competitor did not show an increase in fixations compared with the unrelated distractors. The contrasting results for the anadrome and no vowel position overlap items are discussed in terms of theoretical implications of sequential match versus coarse grain similarity accounts of spoken word recognition. We also discuss design issues (repetition of stimulus materials and display parameters) concerning the use of the visual world paradigm in making inferences about online spoken word recognition. |
Jason W Gullifer; Debra Titone The impact of a momentary language switch on bilingual reading: Intense at the switch but merciful downstream for L2 but not L1 Readers Journal Article Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 45 (11), pp. 2036–2050, 2019. @article{Gullifer2019, title = {The impact of a momentary language switch on bilingual reading: Intense at the switch but merciful downstream for L2 but not L1 Readers}, author = {Jason W Gullifer and Debra Titone}, doi = {10.1037/xlm0000695}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition}, volume = {45}, number = {11}, pages = {2036--2050}, abstract = {We investigated whether cross-language activation is sensitive to shifting language demands and language experience during first and second language (i.e., L1, L2) reading. Experiment 1 consisted of L1 French-L2 English bilinguals reading in the L2, and Experiment 2 consisted of L1 English-L2 French bilinguals reading in the L1. Both groups read English sentences with target words serving as indices of cross-language activation: cross-language homographs, cognates, and matched language-unique control words. Critically, we manipulated whether English sentences contained a momentary language switch into French before downstream target words. This allowed us to assess the consequences of shifting language demands, both in the moment, and residually following a switch as a function of language experience. Switches into French were associated with a reading cost at the switch site for both L2 and L1 readers. However, downstream cross-language activation was larger following a switch only for L1 readers. These results suggest that cross-language activation is jointly sensitive to momentary shifts in language demands and language experience, likely reflecting different control demands faced by L2 versus L1 readers, consistent with models of bilingual processing that ascribe a primary role for language control.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } We investigated whether cross-language activation is sensitive to shifting language demands and language experience during first and second language (i.e., L1, L2) reading. Experiment 1 consisted of L1 French-L2 English bilinguals reading in the L2, and Experiment 2 consisted of L1 English-L2 French bilinguals reading in the L1. Both groups read English sentences with target words serving as indices of cross-language activation: cross-language homographs, cognates, and matched language-unique control words. Critically, we manipulated whether English sentences contained a momentary language switch into French before downstream target words. This allowed us to assess the consequences of shifting language demands, both in the moment, and residually following a switch as a function of language experience. Switches into French were associated with a reading cost at the switch site for both L2 and L1 readers. However, downstream cross-language activation was larger following a switch only for L1 readers. These results suggest that cross-language activation is jointly sensitive to momentary shifts in language demands and language experience, likely reflecting different control demands faced by L2 versus L1 readers, consistent with models of bilingual processing that ascribe a primary role for language control. |
Arella E Gussow; Efthymia C Kapnoula; Nicola Molinaro Any leftovers from a discarded prediction? Evidence from eye-movements during sentence comprehension Journal Article Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 34 (8), pp. 1041–1058, 2019. @article{Gussow2019, title = {Any leftovers from a discarded prediction? Evidence from eye-movements during sentence comprehension}, author = {Arella E Gussow and Efthymia C Kapnoula and Nicola Molinaro}, doi = {10.1080/23273798.2019.1617887}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Language, Cognition and Neuroscience}, volume = {34}, number = {8}, pages = {1041--1058}, publisher = {Taylor & Francis}, abstract = {We investigated how listeners use gender-marked adjectives to adjust lexical predictions during sentence comprehension. Participants listened to sentence fragments in Spanish (e.g. “The witch flew to the village on her łdots ”) that created expectation for a specific noun (broomstickfem), and were completed by an adjective and a noun. The adjective either agreed (newfem), disagreed (newmasc), or was neutral (bigfem/masc) with respect to the expected noun's gender. Using the visual-world paradigm, we monitored looks toward images of the expected noun versus an alternative of the opposite gender (helicoptermasc). While listening to the initial fragment, participants looked more towards the expected noun. Once the adjective was heard, looks shifted toward the noun that matched the adjective's gender. Finally, upon hearing the noun, looks were affected by both previous context and adjective gender. We conclude that predictions are updated online based on gender cues, but sentence context still affects integration of the expected noun.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } We investigated how listeners use gender-marked adjectives to adjust lexical predictions during sentence comprehension. Participants listened to sentence fragments in Spanish (e.g. “The witch flew to the village on her łdots ”) that created expectation for a specific noun (broomstickfem), and were completed by an adjective and a noun. The adjective either agreed (newfem), disagreed (newmasc), or was neutral (bigfem/masc) with respect to the expected noun's gender. Using the visual-world paradigm, we monitored looks toward images of the expected noun versus an alternative of the opposite gender (helicoptermasc). While listening to the initial fragment, participants looked more towards the expected noun. Once the adjective was heard, looks shifted toward the noun that matched the adjective's gender. Finally, upon hearing the noun, looks were affected by both previous context and adjective gender. We conclude that predictions are updated online based on gender cues, but sentence context still affects integration of the expected noun. |
Julia Habicht; Oliver Behler; Birger Kollmeier; Tobias Neher Frontiers in Neuroscience, 13 , pp. 1–15, 2019. @article{Habicht2019, title = {Exploring differences in speech processing among older hearing-impaired listeners with or without hearing aid experience: Eye-tracking and fMRI measurements}, author = {Julia Habicht and Oliver Behler and Birger Kollmeier and Tobias Neher}, doi = {10.3389/fnins.2019.00420}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Frontiers in Neuroscience}, volume = {13}, pages = {1--15}, abstract = {Recently, evidence has been accumulating that untreated hearing loss can lead to neurophysiological changes that affect speech processing abilities in noise. To shed more light on how aiding may impact these effects, this study explored the influence of hearing aid (HA) experience on the cognitive processes underlying speech comprehension. Eye-tracking and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measurements were carried out with acoustic sentence-in-noise (SiN) stimuli complemented by pairs of pictures that either correctly (target picture) or incorrectly (competitor picture) depicted the sentence meanings. For the eye-tracking measurements, the time taken by the participants to start fixating the target picture (the ‘processing time') was measured. For the fMRI measurements, brain activation inferred from blood-oxygen-level dependent responses following sentence comprehension was measured. A noise-only condition was also included. Groups of older hearing-impaired individuals matched in terms of age, hearing loss, and working memory capacity with (eHA; N = 13) or without (iHA; N = 14) HA experience participated. All acoustic stimuli were presented via earphones with individual linear amplification to ensure audibility. Consistent with previous findings, the iHA group had significantly longer (poorer) processing times than the eHA group, despite no differences in speech recognition performance. Concerning the fMRI measurements, there were indications of less brain activation in some right frontal areas for SiN relative to noise-only stimuli in the eHA group compared to the iHA group. Together, these results suggest that HA experience leads to faster speech-in-noise processing, possibly related to less recruitment of brain regions outside the core sentence-comprehension network. Follow-up research is needed to substantiate the findings related to changes in cortical speech processing with HA use.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Recently, evidence has been accumulating that untreated hearing loss can lead to neurophysiological changes that affect speech processing abilities in noise. To shed more light on how aiding may impact these effects, this study explored the influence of hearing aid (HA) experience on the cognitive processes underlying speech comprehension. Eye-tracking and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measurements were carried out with acoustic sentence-in-noise (SiN) stimuli complemented by pairs of pictures that either correctly (target picture) or incorrectly (competitor picture) depicted the sentence meanings. For the eye-tracking measurements, the time taken by the participants to start fixating the target picture (the ‘processing time') was measured. For the fMRI measurements, brain activation inferred from blood-oxygen-level dependent responses following sentence comprehension was measured. A noise-only condition was also included. Groups of older hearing-impaired individuals matched in terms of age, hearing loss, and working memory capacity with (eHA; N = 13) or without (iHA; N = 14) HA experience participated. All acoustic stimuli were presented via earphones with individual linear amplification to ensure audibility. Consistent with previous findings, the iHA group had significantly longer (poorer) processing times than the eHA group, despite no differences in speech recognition performance. Concerning the fMRI measurements, there were indications of less brain activation in some right frontal areas for SiN relative to noise-only stimuli in the eHA group compared to the iHA group. Together, these results suggest that HA experience leads to faster speech-in-noise processing, possibly related to less recruitment of brain regions outside the core sentence-comprehension network. Follow-up research is needed to substantiate the findings related to changes in cortical speech processing with HA use. |
Lei Han; Rui Sun; Fengqiang Gao; Yuci Zhou; Min Jou The effect of negative energy news on social trust and helping behavior Journal Article Computers in Human Behavior, 92 , pp. 128–138, 2019. @article{Han2019b, title = {The effect of negative energy news on social trust and helping behavior}, author = {Lei Han and Rui Sun and Fengqiang Gao and Yuci Zhou and Min Jou}, doi = {10.1016/j.chb.2018.11.012}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Computers in Human Behavior}, volume = {92}, pages = {128--138}, publisher = {Elsevier B.V.}, abstract = {Due to the fast development of science and technology, people increasingly like to get information from the Internet rather than newspapers and magazines. However, recently, this accessible online information has been filled with enormous negative news or neutral news with negative headlines. Therefore, the current study conducted three experiments to examine how negative online news affects social trust and helping behavior. The results of experiment 1 showed that individuals were inclined to demonstrate an attentional bias on and perform a preference for the negative news during the eye-movement task and indicated that individuals were easily affected by negative online news compared with positive online news. Based on experiment 1, experiment 2 used the guiding effect of online news and found that relative to some readers who were presented with positive news, others who read negative news showed less helping behavior, and this relationship was completely mediated by social trust. In experiment 3, we changed the headline of every neutral news story into two versions, one with a neutral headline and another with a negative headline, and found more negative cognition, lower social trust, and less helping behavior when individuals read negative headlines. Results of the current study supported the general learning model and the social cognitive theory, which showed that negative news had an impact on individuals' cognition, such as social trust, and then influenced their helping behavior. In particular, negative headlines led to a severely negative effect on social trust and helping behavior.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Due to the fast development of science and technology, people increasingly like to get information from the Internet rather than newspapers and magazines. However, recently, this accessible online information has been filled with enormous negative news or neutral news with negative headlines. Therefore, the current study conducted three experiments to examine how negative online news affects social trust and helping behavior. The results of experiment 1 showed that individuals were inclined to demonstrate an attentional bias on and perform a preference for the negative news during the eye-movement task and indicated that individuals were easily affected by negative online news compared with positive online news. Based on experiment 1, experiment 2 used the guiding effect of online news and found that relative to some readers who were presented with positive news, others who read negative news showed less helping behavior, and this relationship was completely mediated by social trust. In experiment 3, we changed the headline of every neutral news story into two versions, one with a neutral headline and another with a negative headline, and found more negative cognition, lower social trust, and less helping behavior when individuals read negative headlines. Results of the current study supported the general learning model and the social cognitive theory, which showed that negative news had an impact on individuals' cognition, such as social trust, and then influenced their helping behavior. In particular, negative headlines led to a severely negative effect on social trust and helping behavior. |
Hannah Harvey; Stephen J Anderson; Robin Walker Increased word spacing improves performance for reading scrolling text with central vision loss Journal Article Optometry and Vision Science, 96 (8), pp. 609–616, 2019. @article{Harvey2019, title = {Increased word spacing improves performance for reading scrolling text with central vision loss}, author = {Hannah Harvey and Stephen J Anderson and Robin Walker}, doi = {10.1097/OPX.0000000000001411}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Optometry and Vision Science}, volume = {96}, number = {8}, pages = {609--616}, abstract = {SIGNIFICANCE: Scrolling text can be an effective reading aid for those with central vision loss. Our results suggest that increased interword spacing with scrolling text may further improve the reading experience of this population. This conclusion may be of particular interest to low-vision aid developers and visual rehabilitation practitioners. PURPOSE: The dynamic, horizontally scrolling text format has been shown to improve reading performance in individuals with central visual loss. Here, we sought to determine whether reading performance with scrolling text can be further improved by modulating interword spacing to reduce the effects of visual crowding, a factor known to impact negatively on reading with peripheral vision. METHODS: The effects of interword spacing on reading performance (accuracy, memory recall, and speed) were assessed for eccentrically viewed single sentences of scrolling text. Separate experiments were used to determine whether performance measures were affected by any confound between interword spacing and text presentation rate in words per minute. Normally sighted participants were included, with a central vision loss implemented using a gaze-contingent scotoma of 8° diameter. In both experiments, participants read sentences that were presented with an interword spacing of one, two, or three characters. RESULTS: Reading accuracy and memory recall were significantly enhanced with triple-character interword spacing (both measures, P ≤.01). These basic findings were independent of the text presentation rate (in words per minute). CONCLUSIONS: We attribute the improvements in reading performance with increased interword spacing to a reduction in the deleterious effects of visual crowding. We conclude that increased interword spacing may enhance reading experience and ability when using horizontally scrolling text with a central vision loss.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } SIGNIFICANCE: Scrolling text can be an effective reading aid for those with central vision loss. Our results suggest that increased interword spacing with scrolling text may further improve the reading experience of this population. This conclusion may be of particular interest to low-vision aid developers and visual rehabilitation practitioners. PURPOSE: The dynamic, horizontally scrolling text format has been shown to improve reading performance in individuals with central visual loss. Here, we sought to determine whether reading performance with scrolling text can be further improved by modulating interword spacing to reduce the effects of visual crowding, a factor known to impact negatively on reading with peripheral vision. METHODS: The effects of interword spacing on reading performance (accuracy, memory recall, and speed) were assessed for eccentrically viewed single sentences of scrolling text. Separate experiments were used to determine whether performance measures were affected by any confound between interword spacing and text presentation rate in words per minute. Normally sighted participants were included, with a central vision loss implemented using a gaze-contingent scotoma of 8° diameter. In both experiments, participants read sentences that were presented with an interword spacing of one, two, or three characters. RESULTS: Reading accuracy and memory recall were significantly enhanced with triple-character interword spacing (both measures, P ≤.01). These basic findings were independent of the text presentation rate (in words per minute). CONCLUSIONS: We attribute the improvements in reading performance with increased interword spacing to a reduction in the deleterious effects of visual crowding. We conclude that increased interword spacing may enhance reading experience and ability when using horizontally scrolling text with a central vision loss. |
Hannah Harvey; Simon P Liversedge; Robin Walker Evidence for a reduction of the rightward extent of the perceptual span when reading dynamic horizontally scrolling text Journal Article Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 45 (7), pp. 951–965, 2019. @article{Harvey2019a, title = {Evidence for a reduction of the rightward extent of the perceptual span when reading dynamic horizontally scrolling text}, author = {Hannah Harvey and Simon P Liversedge and Robin Walker}, doi = {10.1037/xhp0000647}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance}, volume = {45}, number = {7}, pages = {951--965}, abstract = {The dynamic horizontally scrolling text format produces a directional conflict in the allocation of attention for reading, with a necessity to track each word leftward (in the direction of movement) concurrently with normal rightward shifts made to progress through the text (in left-to-right orthographies such as English). The gaze-contingent window paradigm was used to compare the extent of the perceptual span in reading of scrolling and static sentences. Across two experiments, this investigation confirmed that the allocation of attentional resources to the right of fixation was compressed with scrolling text. There was no evidence for a reversal of the direction of asymmetry or a confounding shift of landing position.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The dynamic horizontally scrolling text format produces a directional conflict in the allocation of attention for reading, with a necessity to track each word leftward (in the direction of movement) concurrently with normal rightward shifts made to progress through the text (in left-to-right orthographies such as English). The gaze-contingent window paradigm was used to compare the extent of the perceptual span in reading of scrolling and static sentences. Across two experiments, this investigation confirmed that the allocation of attentional resources to the right of fixation was compressed with scrolling text. There was no evidence for a reversal of the direction of asymmetry or a confounding shift of landing position. |
Naomi Havron; Alex de Carvalho; Anne Caroline Fiévet; Anne Christophe Three- to four-year-old children rapidly adapt their predictions and use them to learn novel word meanings Journal Article Child Development, 90 (1), pp. 82–90, 2019. @article{Havron2019, title = {Three- to four-year-old children rapidly adapt their predictions and use them to learn novel word meanings}, author = {Naomi Havron and Alex de Carvalho and Anne Caroline Fiévet and Anne Christophe}, doi = {10.1111/cdev.13113}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Child Development}, volume = {90}, number = {1}, pages = {82--90}, abstract = {Adults create and update predictions about what speakers will say next. This study asks whether prediction can drive language acquisition, by testing whether 3- to 4-year-old children (n = 45) adapt to recent information when learning novel words. The study used a syntactic context which can precede both nouns and verbs to manipulate children's predictions about what syntactic category will follow. Children for whom the syntactic context predicted verbs were more likely to infer that a novel word appearing in this context referred to an action, than children for whom it predicted nouns. This suggests that children make rapid changes to their predictions, and use this information to learn novel information, supporting the role of prediction in language acquisition.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Adults create and update predictions about what speakers will say next. This study asks whether prediction can drive language acquisition, by testing whether 3- to 4-year-old children (n = 45) adapt to recent information when learning novel words. The study used a syntactic context which can precede both nouns and verbs to manipulate children's predictions about what syntactic category will follow. Children for whom the syntactic context predicted verbs were more likely to infer that a novel word appearing in this context referred to an action, than children for whom it predicted nouns. This suggests that children make rapid changes to their predictions, and use this information to learn novel information, supporting the role of prediction in language acquisition. |
Renske S Hoedemaker; Antje S Meyer Planning and coordination of utterances in a joint naming task Journal Article Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 45 (4), pp. 732–752, 2019. @article{Hoedemaker2019, title = {Planning and coordination of utterances in a joint naming task}, author = {Renske S Hoedemaker and Antje S Meyer}, doi = {10.1037/xlm0000603}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition}, volume = {45}, number = {4}, pages = {732--752}, abstract = {Dialogue requires speakers to coordinate. According to the model of dialogue as joint action, interlocutors achieve this coordination by corepresenting their own and each other's task share in a functionally equivalent manner. In two experiments, we investigated this corepresentation account using an interactive joint naming task in which pairs of participants took turns naming sets of objects on a shared display. Speaker A named the first, or the first and third object, and Speaker B named the second object. In control conditions, Speaker A named one, two, or all three objects and Speaker B remained silent. We recorded the timing of the speakers' utterances and Speaker A's eye movements. Interturn pause durations indicated that the speakers effectively coordinated their utterances in time. Speaker A's speech onset latencies depended on the number of objects they named, but were unaffected by Speaker B's naming task. This suggests speakers were not fully incorporating their partner's task into their own speech planning. Moreover, Speaker A's eye movements indicated that they were much less likely to attend to objects their partner named than to objects they named themselves. When speakers did inspect their partner's objects, viewing times were too short to suggest that speakers were retrieving these object names as if they were planning to name the objects themselves. These results indicate that speakers prioritized planning their own responses over attending to their interlocutor's task and suggest that effective coordination can be achieved without full corepresentation of the partner's task.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Dialogue requires speakers to coordinate. According to the model of dialogue as joint action, interlocutors achieve this coordination by corepresenting their own and each other's task share in a functionally equivalent manner. In two experiments, we investigated this corepresentation account using an interactive joint naming task in which pairs of participants took turns naming sets of objects on a shared display. Speaker A named the first, or the first and third object, and Speaker B named the second object. In control conditions, Speaker A named one, two, or all three objects and Speaker B remained silent. We recorded the timing of the speakers' utterances and Speaker A's eye movements. Interturn pause durations indicated that the speakers effectively coordinated their utterances in time. Speaker A's speech onset latencies depended on the number of objects they named, but were unaffected by Speaker B's naming task. This suggests speakers were not fully incorporating their partner's task into their own speech planning. Moreover, Speaker A's eye movements indicated that they were much less likely to attend to objects their partner named than to objects they named themselves. When speakers did inspect their partner's objects, viewing times were too short to suggest that speakers were retrieving these object names as if they were planning to name the objects themselves. These results indicate that speakers prioritized planning their own responses over attending to their interlocutor's task and suggest that effective coordination can be achieved without full corepresentation of the partner's task. |
Falk Huettig; Ernesto Guerra Effects of speech rate, preview time of visual context, and participant instructions reveal strong limits on prediction in language processing Journal Article Brain Research, 1706 , pp. 196–208, 2019. @article{Huettig2019, title = {Effects of speech rate, preview time of visual context, and participant instructions reveal strong limits on prediction in language processing}, author = {Falk Huettig and Ernesto Guerra}, doi = {10.1016/j.brainres.2018.11.013}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Brain Research}, volume = {1706}, pages = {196--208}, publisher = {Elsevier B.V.}, abstract = {There is a consensus among language researchers that people can predict upcoming language. But do people always predict when comprehending language? Notions that “brains łdots are essentially prediction machines” certainly suggest so. In three eye-tracking experiments we tested this view. Participants listened to simple Dutch sentences (‘Look at the displayed bicycle') while viewing four objects (a target, e.g. a bicycle, and three unrelated distractors). We used the identical visual stimuli and the same spoken sentences but varied speech rates, preview time, and participant instructions. Target nouns were preceded by definite gender-marked determiners, which allowed participants to predict the target object because only the targets but not the distractors agreed in gender with the determiner. In Experiment 1, participants had four seconds preview and sentences were presented either in a slow or a normal speech rate. Participants predicted the targets as soon as they heard the determiner in both conditions. Experiment 2 was identical except that participants were given only a one second preview. Participants predicted the targets only in the slow speech condition. Experiment 3 was identical to Experiment 2 except that participants were explicitly told to predict. This led only to a small prediction effect in the normal speech condition. Thus, a normal speech rate only afforded prediction if participants had an extensive preview. Even the explicit instruction to predict the target resulted in only a small anticipation effect with a normal speech rate and a short preview. These findings are problematic for theoretical proposals that assume that prediction pervades cognition.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } There is a consensus among language researchers that people can predict upcoming language. But do people always predict when comprehending language? Notions that “brains łdots are essentially prediction machines” certainly suggest so. In three eye-tracking experiments we tested this view. Participants listened to simple Dutch sentences (‘Look at the displayed bicycle') while viewing four objects (a target, e.g. a bicycle, and three unrelated distractors). We used the identical visual stimuli and the same spoken sentences but varied speech rates, preview time, and participant instructions. Target nouns were preceded by definite gender-marked determiners, which allowed participants to predict the target object because only the targets but not the distractors agreed in gender with the determiner. In Experiment 1, participants had four seconds preview and sentences were presented either in a slow or a normal speech rate. Participants predicted the targets as soon as they heard the determiner in both conditions. Experiment 2 was identical except that participants were given only a one second preview. Participants predicted the targets only in the slow speech condition. Experiment 3 was identical to Experiment 2 except that participants were explicitly told to predict. This led only to a small prediction effect in the normal speech condition. Thus, a normal speech rate only afforded prediction if participants had an extensive preview. Even the explicit instruction to predict the target resulted in only a small anticipation effect with a normal speech rate and a short preview. These findings are problematic for theoretical proposals that assume that prediction pervades cognition. |
Yueh-Nu Hung Fifth grade students reading a Chinese text with embedded errors: An eye movement miscue analysis study Journal Article Reading Psychology, 40 , pp. 397–424, 2019. @article{Hung2019a, title = {Fifth grade students reading a Chinese text with embedded errors: An eye movement miscue analysis study}, author = {Yueh-Nu Hung}, doi = {10.1080/02702711.2019.1623960}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Reading Psychology}, volume = {40}, pages = {397--424}, publisher = {Routledge}, abstract = {This study adopted eye movement miscue analysis research method to examine and illustrate the cognitive and psychological processes of meaning construction and error detection in reading Chinese. Eighteen Taiwanese grade five elementary students read a short Chinese text with six embedded errors. Results show that like earlier studies, only about a third of the errors were detected. Unlike earlier research, meaning group found more errors than did the error group. Reading miscues, eye movements, and the juxtaposition of the two sources of information helped to more fully illustrate the dynamic and complex processes of seeing, perceiving, reading aloud and comprehending.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } This study adopted eye movement miscue analysis research method to examine and illustrate the cognitive and psychological processes of meaning construction and error detection in reading Chinese. Eighteen Taiwanese grade five elementary students read a short Chinese text with six embedded errors. Results show that like earlier studies, only about a third of the errors were detected. Unlike earlier research, meaning group found more errors than did the error group. Reading miscues, eye movements, and the juxtaposition of the two sources of information helped to more fully illustrate the dynamic and complex processes of seeing, perceiving, reading aloud and comprehending. |
Yueh-Nu Hung; Hui-Yu Kuo; Shih-Chieh Liao Seeing what they see: Elementary EFL students reading science texts Journal Article RELC Journal, pp. 1–15, 2019. @article{Hung2019b, title = {Seeing what they see: Elementary EFL students reading science texts}, author = {Yueh-Nu Hung and Hui-Yu Kuo and Shih-Chieh Liao}, doi = {10.1177/0033688219854475}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {RELC Journal}, pages = {1--15}, abstract = {Science texts use various text features and multiple representations to communicate meaning to their readers. English science texts are challenging for elementary-level English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in Taiwan because they are familiar with reading language-controlled texts from textbooks. Teaching students to make use of various text features and visual representations will help them achieve a more successful science text reading experience. In this study, 27 Grade 6 Taiwanese students were instructed in science text reading strategies that included understanding text features, creating imagery, and using visual representations. Before and after the instruction, they took an English reading and writing test. Their eye movements during science text reading were recorded before and after the instruction to more fully understand their visual attention while reading English science texts. Eye movement performances such as number of fixations, mean fixation duration, and saccade size were examined. The findings showed that although the participants' English reading and writing performance improved in the post-test, they focussed more on the written language than the visuals in both tests. More visual representation reading strategies should therefore be taught to help young EFL students read and learn from science texts.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Science texts use various text features and multiple representations to communicate meaning to their readers. English science texts are challenging for elementary-level English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in Taiwan because they are familiar with reading language-controlled texts from textbooks. Teaching students to make use of various text features and visual representations will help them achieve a more successful science text reading experience. In this study, 27 Grade 6 Taiwanese students were instructed in science text reading strategies that included understanding text features, creating imagery, and using visual representations. Before and after the instruction, they took an English reading and writing test. Their eye movements during science text reading were recorded before and after the instruction to more fully understand their visual attention while reading English science texts. Eye movement performances such as number of fixations, mean fixation duration, and saccade size were examined. The findings showed that although the participants' English reading and writing performance improved in the post-test, they focussed more on the written language than the visuals in both tests. More visual representation reading strategies should therefore be taught to help young EFL students read and learn from science texts. |
Bernard I Issa; Kara Morgan-Short Effects of external and internal attentional manipulations on second language grammar development: An eye-tracking study Journal Article Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 41 (2), pp. 389–417, 2019. @article{Issa2019b, title = {Effects of external and internal attentional manipulations on second language grammar development: An eye-tracking study}, author = {Bernard I Issa and Kara Morgan-Short}, doi = {10.1017/S027226311800013X}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Studies in Second Language Acquisition}, volume = {41}, number = {2}, pages = {389--417}, abstract = {The role of attention has been central to theoretical and empirical inquiries in second language (L2) acquisition. The current eye-tracking study examined how external and internal attentional manipulations (Chun, Golomb, &Turk-Browne, 2011) promote L2 grammatical development. Participants (n = 55) were exposed to Spanish direct-object pronouns under external or internal attentional manipulations, which were implemented through textual input enhancement or structured input practice, respectively. Results for both manipulations indicated that (a) learner attentional allocation to the form was affected; (b) L2 gains were evidenced, although only the internal manipulation led to above-chance performance; and (c) L2 gains were related to attention allocated to the form under the external manipulation and to a lesser extent the internal manipulation. Overall, findings may inform theoretical perspectives on attention and elucidate cognitive processes related to L2 instruction.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The role of attention has been central to theoretical and empirical inquiries in second language (L2) acquisition. The current eye-tracking study examined how external and internal attentional manipulations (Chun, Golomb, &Turk-Browne, 2011) promote L2 grammatical development. Participants (n = 55) were exposed to Spanish direct-object pronouns under external or internal attentional manipulations, which were implemented through textual input enhancement or structured input practice, respectively. Results for both manipulations indicated that (a) learner attentional allocation to the form was affected; (b) L2 gains were evidenced, although only the internal manipulation led to above-chance performance; and (c) L2 gains were related to attention allocated to the form under the external manipulation and to a lesser extent the internal manipulation. Overall, findings may inform theoretical perspectives on attention and elucidate cognitive processes related to L2 instruction. |
Aine Ito Prediction of orthographic information during listening comprehension: A printed-word visual world study Journal Article Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72 (11), pp. 2584–2596, 2019. @article{Ito2019, title = {Prediction of orthographic information during listening comprehension: A printed-word visual world study}, author = {Aine Ito}, doi = {10.1177/1747021819851394}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology}, volume = {72}, number = {11}, pages = {2584--2596}, abstract = {Two visual world eye-tracking experiments examined the role of orthographic information in the visual context in pre-activation of orthographic and phonological information using Japanese. Participants heard sentences that contained a predictable target word and viewed a display showing four words in a logogram, kanji (Experiment 1) or in a phonogram, hiragana (Experiment 2). The four words included either the target word (e.g., 魚 /sakana/; fish), an orthographic competitor (e.g.,角 /tuno/; horn), a phonological competitor (e.g., 桜 /sakura/; cherry blossom), or an unrelated word (e.g., 本 /hon/; book), together with three distractor words. The orthographic competitor was orthographically or phonologically dissimilar to the target in hiragana. In Experiment 1, target and orthographic competitor words attracted more fixations than unrelated words before the target word was mentioned, suggesting that participants pre-activated orthographic form of the target word. In Experiment 2, target and phonological competitor words attracted more predictive fixations than unrelated words, but orthographic competitor words did not, suggesting a critical role of the visual context. This pre-activation pattern does not fit with the pattern of lexical activation in auditory word recognition, where orthography and phonology interact. However, it is compatible with the pattern of lexical activation in spoken word production, where orthographic information is not automatically activated, in line with production-based prediction accounts.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Two visual world eye-tracking experiments examined the role of orthographic information in the visual context in pre-activation of orthographic and phonological information using Japanese. Participants heard sentences that contained a predictable target word and viewed a display showing four words in a logogram, kanji (Experiment 1) or in a phonogram, hiragana (Experiment 2). The four words included either the target word (e.g., 魚 /sakana/; fish), an orthographic competitor (e.g.,角 /tuno/; horn), a phonological competitor (e.g., 桜 /sakura/; cherry blossom), or an unrelated word (e.g., 本 /hon/; book), together with three distractor words. The orthographic competitor was orthographically or phonologically dissimilar to the target in hiragana. In Experiment 1, target and orthographic competitor words attracted more fixations than unrelated words before the target word was mentioned, suggesting that participants pre-activated orthographic form of the target word. In Experiment 2, target and phonological competitor words attracted more predictive fixations than unrelated words, but orthographic competitor words did not, suggesting a critical role of the visual context. This pre-activation pattern does not fit with the pattern of lexical activation in auditory word recognition, where orthography and phonology interact. However, it is compatible with the pattern of lexical activation in spoken word production, where orthographic information is not automatically activated, in line with production-based prediction accounts. |
Juhani Järvikivi; Sarah Schimke; Pirita Pyykkönen-Klauck Understanding indirect reference in a visual context Journal Article Discourse Processes, 56 (2), pp. 117–135, 2019. @article{Jaervikivi2019, title = {Understanding indirect reference in a visual context}, author = {Juhani Järvikivi and Sarah Schimke and Pirita Pyykkönen-Klauck}, doi = {10.1080/0163853X.2017.1386521}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Discourse Processes}, volume = {56}, number = {2}, pages = {117--135}, abstract = {We often use pronouns like it or they without explicitly mentioned antecedents. We asked whether the human processing system that resolves such indirect pronouns uses the immediate visual-sensory context in multi-modal discourse. Our results showed that people had no difficulty understanding conceptually central referents, whether explicitly mentioned or not, whereas referents that were conceptually peripheral were much harder to understand when left implicit than when they had been mentioned before. Importantly, we showed that people could not recover this information from the visual environment. The results suggest that the semantic-conceptual relatedness of the potential referent with respect to the defining events and actors in the current discourse representation is a determining factor of how easy it is to establish the referential link. The visual environment is only integrated to the extent that it is relevant or acts as a fall-back when the referential search within the current discourse representation fails.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } We often use pronouns like it or they without explicitly mentioned antecedents. We asked whether the human processing system that resolves such indirect pronouns uses the immediate visual-sensory context in multi-modal discourse. Our results showed that people had no difficulty understanding conceptually central referents, whether explicitly mentioned or not, whereas referents that were conceptually peripheral were much harder to understand when left implicit than when they had been mentioned before. Importantly, we showed that people could not recover this information from the visual environment. The results suggest that the semantic-conceptual relatedness of the potential referent with respect to the defining events and actors in the current discourse representation is a determining factor of how easy it is to establish the referential link. The visual environment is only integrated to the extent that it is relevant or acts as a fall-back when the referential search within the current discourse representation fails. |
Jill Jegerski; Irina A Sekerina The processing of input with differential object marking by heritage Spanish speakers Journal Article Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, pp. 1–9, 2019. @article{Jegerski2019, title = {The processing of input with differential object marking by heritage Spanish speakers}, author = {Jill Jegerski and Irina A Sekerina}, doi = {10.1017/S1366728919000087}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Bilingualism: Language and Cognition}, pages = {1--9}, abstract = {Heritage Spanish speakers and adult immigrant bilinguals listened to wh-questions with the differential object marker a (quién/a quién 'who/who ACC ') while their eye movements across four referent pictures were tracked. The heritage speakers were less accurate than the adult immigrants in their verbal responses to the questions, leaving objects unmarked for case at a rate of 18%, but eye movement data suggested that the two groups were similar in their comprehension, with both starting to look at the target picture at the same point in the question and identifying the target sooner with a quién 'who ACC ' than with quién 'who' questions.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Heritage Spanish speakers and adult immigrant bilinguals listened to wh-questions with the differential object marker a (quién/a quién 'who/who ACC ') while their eye movements across four referent pictures were tracked. The heritage speakers were less accurate than the adult immigrants in their verbal responses to the questions, leaving objects unmarked for case at a rate of 18%, but eye movement data suggested that the two groups were similar in their comprehension, with both starting to look at the target picture at the same point in the question and identifying the target sooner with a quién 'who ACC ' than with quién 'who' questions. |
Yu Cin Jian Reading instructions facilitate signaling effect on science text for young readers: An eye-movement study Journal Article International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 17 (3), pp. 503–522, 2019. @article{Jian2019, title = {Reading instructions facilitate signaling effect on science text for young readers: An eye-movement study}, author = {Yu Cin Jian}, doi = {10.1007/s10763-018-9878-y}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education}, volume = {17}, number = {3}, pages = {503--522}, publisher = {International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education}, abstract = {Science texts often use visual representations (e.g. diagrams, graphs, photographs) to help readers learn science knowledge. Reading an illustrated text for learning is one type of multimedia learning. Empirical research has increasingly confirmed the signaling principle's effectiveness in multimedia learning. Highlighting correspondences between text and pictures benefits learning outcomes. However, the signaling effect's cognitive processes and its generalizability to young readers are unknown. This study clarified these aspects using eye-tracking technology and reading tests. Eighty-nine sixth-grade students read an illustrated science text in one of three conditions: reading material with signals, without signals (identical labels of Diagram 1 and Diagram 2 in text and illustration), and with signals combined with reading instructions. Findings revealed that the signaling principle alone cannot be generalized to young readers. Specifically, “Diagram 1” and “Diagram 2” in parentheses mixed with science text content had limited signaling effect for students and reading instructions are necessary. Eye movements reflected cognitive processes of science reading; students who received reading instructions employed greater cognitive effort and time in reading illustrations and tried to integrate textual and pictorial information using signals.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Science texts often use visual representations (e.g. diagrams, graphs, photographs) to help readers learn science knowledge. Reading an illustrated text for learning is one type of multimedia learning. Empirical research has increasingly confirmed the signaling principle's effectiveness in multimedia learning. Highlighting correspondences between text and pictures benefits learning outcomes. However, the signaling effect's cognitive processes and its generalizability to young readers are unknown. This study clarified these aspects using eye-tracking technology and reading tests. Eighty-nine sixth-grade students read an illustrated science text in one of three conditions: reading material with signals, without signals (identical labels of Diagram 1 and Diagram 2 in text and illustration), and with signals combined with reading instructions. Findings revealed that the signaling principle alone cannot be generalized to young readers. Specifically, “Diagram 1” and “Diagram 2” in parentheses mixed with science text content had limited signaling effect for students and reading instructions are necessary. Eye movements reflected cognitive processes of science reading; students who received reading instructions employed greater cognitive effort and time in reading illustrations and tried to integrate textual and pictorial information using signals. |
Rebecca L Johnson; Sarah Rose Slate; Allison R Teevan; Barbara J Juhasz The processing of blend words in naming and sentence reading Journal Article Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72 (4), pp. 847–857, 2019. @article{Johnson2019, title = {The processing of blend words in naming and sentence reading}, author = {Rebecca L Johnson and Sarah Rose Slate and Allison R Teevan and Barbara J Juhasz}, doi = {10.1177/1747021818768441}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology}, volume = {72}, number = {4}, pages = {847--857}, abstract = {Research exploring the processing of morphologically complex words, such as compound words, has found that they are decomposed into their constituent parts during processing. Although much is known about the processing of compound words, very little is known about the processing of lexicalised blend words, which are created from parts of two words, often with phoneme overlap (e.g., brunch). In the current study, blends were matched with non-blend words on a variety of lexical characteristics, and blend processing was examined using two tasks: a naming task and an eye-tracking task that recorded eye movements during reading. Results showed that blend words were processed more slowly than non-blend control words in both tasks. Blend words led to longer reaction times in naming and longer processing times on several eye movement measures compared to non-blend words. This was especially true for blends that were long, rated low in word familiarity, but were easily recognisable as blends.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Research exploring the processing of morphologically complex words, such as compound words, has found that they are decomposed into their constituent parts during processing. Although much is known about the processing of compound words, very little is known about the processing of lexicalised blend words, which are created from parts of two words, often with phoneme overlap (e.g., brunch). In the current study, blends were matched with non-blend words on a variety of lexical characteristics, and blend processing was examined using two tasks: a naming task and an eye-tracking task that recorded eye movements during reading. Results showed that blend words were processed more slowly than non-blend control words in both tasks. Blend words led to longer reaction times in naming and longer processing times on several eye movement measures compared to non-blend words. This was especially true for blends that were long, rated low in word familiarity, but were easily recognisable as blends. |