Language researchers have long been pioneers in the use of eye tracking technology and many of the technical and methodological innovations in eye tracking have been driven by the field of psycholinguistics. As well as providing important insights into the reading process, gaze data can be used to understand spoken language comprehension through tasks such as the Visual World Paradigm. All this research has important applications for education. Eye trackers can also be used to study language production – both spoken and written. For decades, EyeLink eye trackers have dominated language and psycholinguistic research across the world.
Outstanding Spatial Accuracy: Average accuracy across the calibrated area of the screen of between 0.25-0.5 degrees minimizes ambiguity in word and letter level reading tasks.
High Sampling Rates: Combined with low noise levels allow very precise fixation durations to be determined, ensuring that even the smallest differences in dwell times across conditions can be detected.
Fast Real-Time Access to Eye Position: The combination of very rapid access to eye position (< 2ms at 1000 Hz) and a fast monitor ensures that display changes in gaze-contingent boundary crossing / moving window tasks occur as quickly as possible.
EyeLink 1000 Plus
- The Desktop Mount can be placed in front of monitors.
- The Tower Mount is perfect for tasks involving pointing and reaching.
EyeLink Portable Duo
- The Portable Duo is ideal for taking language research out of the lab and into settings such as schools and libraries.
- Easy to transport and very quick to set up – be ready to record laboratory quality data in minutes.
- Use with chin-rest for reading research; head free Remote Mode for Visual World type comprehension tasks.
Software Solutions for Psycholinguistic Research
- A wide range of Experiment Builder templates for common language tasks, including sentence reading / page reading, Visual World and many more.
- Easily modified Experiment Builder templates for many gaze-contingent reading tasks, including boundary crossing, moving window, and moving mask.
- Multi-language text presentation, with full control of text properties (font, size, color etc), including sophisticated formatting using html markup.
- Highly accurate playing and recording of audio content for language comprehension / production research.
- Implement automatic word-, sentence / phrase-, or even character-level interest area segmentation, with control over boundary placement.
Analysis Solutions for Psycholinguistic Research
- SR Research Data Viewer allows users to quickly calculate and output many standard reading measures, including first fixation duration, regression path duration, etc.
- Automated batch drift correction.
- Sophisticated 4-stage data cleaning for cross-study data equivalence.
- Merge / Delete / Shift fixations.
- Output detailed reports at the fixation, interest area and even sample levels.
- Output Time-Series (binning) reports for Visual World Task analysis.
You can also import EyeLink Data Files directly into MATLAB or R, or convert to ascii for import into other software packages for analysis.