1,720,965 research outputs found
Linguistic and non-linguistic influences on the eyes' landing positions during reading.
Full text linkTwo eye tracking experiments show that, for near launch sites, the eyes land nearer to the beginning of words with orthographically irregular than with regular initial letter sequences. In addition, the characteristics of words, at least at the level of orthography, influence the direction and length of within-word saccades. Importantly, these effects hold both for lower case and for visually less distinctive upper case text. Furthermore, contrary to previous evidence (Tinker & Paterson, 1939), there is little effect of type case on reading times. Additional analyses of oculomotor behaviour suggest that there is an inverted optimal viewing position for single fixation durations on words. Both the supplementary analyses and the effects of orthography on fixation positions are relevant to current models of eye movements in reading
Psycholinguistic processes affect fixation durations and orthographic information affects fixation locations: can E-Z reader cope?
No full textThis commentary focuses on two aspects of eye movement behaviour that E-Z Reader 7 currently makes no attempt to explain: the influence of higher order psycholinguistic processes on fixation durations, and orthographic influences on initial and refixation locations on words. From our understanding of the current version of the model, it is not clear how it may be readily modified to account for existing empirical data
Processing of Arabic diacritical marks: phonological–syntactic disambiguation of homographic verbs and visual crowding effects
Full text linkDiacritics convey vowel sounds in Arabic, allowing accurate word pronunciation. Mostly, modern Arabic is printed nondiacritized. Otherwise, diacritics appear either only on homographic words when not disambiguated by surrounding text or on all words as in religious or educational texts. In an eye-tracking experiment, we examined sentence processing in the absence of diacritics and when diacritics were presented in either modes. Heterophonic homographic target verbs that have different pronunciations in active and passive (e.g., ? /daraba/, hit; ? /doriba/, was hit) were embedded in temporarily ambiguous sentences in which in the absence of diacritics, readers cannot be certain whether the verb was active or passive. Passive sentences were disambiguated by an extra word (e.g., ? /bijad/, by the hand of). Our results show that readers benefitted from the disambiguating diacritics when present only on the homographic verb. When disambiguating diacritics were absent, Arabic readers followed their parsing preference for active verb analysis, and garden path effects were observed. When reading fully diacritized sentences, readers incurred only a small cost, likely due to increased visual crowding, but did not extensively process the (mostly superfluous) diacritics, thus resulting in a lack of benefit from the disambiguating diacritics on the passive verb
Change blindness and the primacy of object appearance.
Full text linkWe examined whether the onset of a new object defined by illusory contours is detected with greater frequency than offset when neither is associated with a unique sensory transient. Observers performed a “one-shot” change detection task in which offsetting or onsetting elements of high luminance contrast circles generated the appearance or disappearance of a Kanizsa figure. Presenting “illusory figures” via this “flicker” method ensures that (1) any unique luminance transients associated with the two types of change are eliminated, and (2) the objects themselves can only be represented at a relatively high level. Results showed that offsets were detected more frequently than onsets only when they generated the onset of a Kanizsa figure. We argue that object appearance dominates object disappearance via mechanisms that operate at the level at which objects are constructed
Onset of illusory figures attenuates change blindness.
Full text linkWe examined whether the onset of a new object defined by illusory contours is detected with greater frequency than offset when neither is associated with a unique sensory transient. Observers performed a “one-shot” change detection task in which offsetting or onsetting elements of high luminance contrast circles generated the appearance or disappearance of a Kanizsa figure. Presenting “illusory figures” via this “flicker” method ensures that (1) any unique luminance transients associated with the two types of change are eliminated, and (2) the objects themselves can only be represented at a relatively high level. Results showed that offsets were detected more frequently than onsets only when they generated the onset of a Kanizsa figure. We argue that object appearance dominates object disappearance via mechanisms that operate at the level at which objects are constructed
Children's interpretation of ambiguous focus in sentences with "only"
No full textWe report 3 studies investigating children's and adults' interpretation of ambiguous focus in sentences containing the focus-sensitive quantifier only. In each experiment, child and adult participants compared sentences with only in a preverbal position and counterpart sentences without only against a series of pictures depicting events that matched or mismatched with the sentence meaning. The sentences with only were ambiguous between an analysis with contrastive focus assigned to the verb phrase (VP) and one with contrastive focus assigned to the direct object. The results indicate that both children and adults interpreted sentences with only as excluding the possibility of events that formed a contrast with VP constituents. Children also appeared to interpret sentences without only as excluding the possibility of these events despite the absence of grammatical cues that might indicate contrastive focus. We consider these results in relation to a processing account of focus interpretation (Crain, Ni, and Conway (1994))
Binocular coordination of the eyes during reading: word frequency and case alternation affect fixation duration but not fixation disparity.
No full textThis experiment investigated whether properties of the text being read affect binocular coordination of the eyes during reading. Readers' binocular eye movements were recorded while they read sentences that contained high- and low-frequency words. In addition, half of the sentences were presented in normal case, and half were presented in alternating case (i.e., AlTeRnAtInG cAsE). Past research has suggested that the visual system tolerates less binocular fixation disparity with alternating than with normal case (Heller & Radach, 1999). While both word frequency and alternating case produced large effects on fixation durations on the target word, neither manipulation affected the magnitude of fixation disparity. It is concluded that linguistic and visual properties of the text being read do not influence binocular coordination of the eyes during reading. Additional analyses also showed no difference in fixation disparity between reading and a nonlinguistic task. Implications of these results for split-fovea models of reading are discussed
The influence of parafoveal word length and contextual constraint on fixation durations and word skipping in reading
No full textThe present study examined the relationship between the predictability of words within a sentence and the availability of parafoveal word length information, on when and where the eyes move in reading. Predictability influenced first-pass reading times when parafoveal word length preview information was correct, but not when it was incorrect. Similarly, for saccades launched from near the target word (word n), predictability influenced the probability with which it was skipped only when the word length preview was correct. By contrast, for saccades launched farther away from word n, predictability influenced word skipping regardless of the parafoveal word length preview. Taken together, the data suggest that parafoveal word length preview and predictability can act as a joint constraint on the decision of when and where to move the eyes
Processing doubly quantified sentences: evidence from eye movements.
No full textWe investigated the processing of doubly quantified sentences, such as Kelly showed a photo to every critic, that are ambiguous as to whether the indefinite (a photo) specifies single or multiple referents. Ambiguity resolution requires the computation of relative quantifier scope: Whether a or every takes wide scope, thereby determining how many entities or events are to be represented. In an eye-tracking experiment, we manipulated quantifier order and whether continuations were singular or plural, for constructions with the direct or the indirect object occurring first. We obtained effects consistent with the on-line processing of relative scope at the doubly quantified phrase and considered two possible explanations for a preference for singular continuations to the quantified sentence. We conclude that relative quantifier scope is computed on line during reading but may not be a prerequisite for the resolution of definite anaphors, unless required by secondary tasks
Focus identification during sentence comprehension: evidence from eye movements.
No full textThree eye movement experiments investigated focus identification during sentence comprehension. Participants read dative or double-object sentences (i.e., either the direct or indirect object occurred first), and a replacive continuation supplied a contrast that was congruous with either the direct or the indirect object. Experiments 1 and 2 manipulated focus by locating only adjacent to either the direct or indirect object of dative (Experiment 1) or double-object (Experiment 2) sentences. Reading-time effects indicated that the surface position of the focus particle influenced processing. In addition, Experiment 1 reading times were longer when the replacive was incongruous with the constituent that only adjoined, and particle position modulated a similar effect in Experiment 2. Experiment 3 showed that this effect was absent when only was omitted. We conclude that the surface position of a focus particle modulates focus identification during on-line sentence comprehension
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