EXPRESS: Similarities and Differences in Understanding Negative and Affirmative Counterfactuals and Causal Assertions: Evidence from Eye-Tracking

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110440
Author(s):  
Isabel Orenes ◽  
espino orlando ◽  
Ruth MJ Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Specific Item ◽  
Similarities And Differences

Two eye-tracking experiments compared affirmative and negative counterfactuals, “if she had (not) arrived early, she would (not) have bought roses” and affirmative and negative causal assertions, “Because she arrived (did not arrive) early, she bought (did not buy) roses”. When participants heard a counterfactual, they looked on screen at words corresponding to its conjecture (“roses”), and its presupposed facts (“no roses”), whereas for a causal assertion, they looked only at words corresponding to the facts. For counterfactuals, they looked at the conjecture first, and later the presupposed facts, and at the latter more than the former. The effect was more pronounced for negative counterfactuals than affirmative ones because the negative counterfactual’s presupposed facts identify a specific item (“she bought roses”), whereas the affirmative counterfactual’s presupposed facts do not (“she did not buy roses”). Hence, when participants were given a binary context, “she did not know whether to buy roses or carnations”, they looked primarily at the presupposed facts for both sorts of counterfactuals. We discuss the implications for theories of negation, the dual meaning of counterfactuals, and their relation to causal assertions.

scholarly journals Assessing Similarities and Differences between Males and Females in Visual Behaviors in Spatial Orientation Tasks

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Weihua Dong ◽  
Zhicheng Zhan ◽  
Hua Liao ◽  
Liqiu Meng ◽  
Jiping Liu
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Exponential Function ◽  
Spatial Orientation ◽  
Fixation Duration ◽  
Visual Behavior ◽  
Tracking Method ◽  
Visual Behaviors ◽  
Research Gap ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Similarities And Differences

Spatial orientation is an important task in human wayfinding. Existing research indicates sex-related similarities and differences in performance and strategies when executing spatial orientation behaviors, but few studies have investigated the similarities and differences in visual behaviors between males and females. To address this research gap, we explored visual behavior similarities and differences between males and females using an eye-tracking method. We recruited 40 participants to perform spatial orientation tasks in a desktop environment and recorded their eye-tracking data during these tasks. The results indicate that there are no significant differences between sexes in efficiency and accuracy of spatial orientation. In terms of visual behaviors, we found that males fixated significantly longer than females on roads. Males and females had similar fixation counts in building, signpost, map, and other objects. Males and females performed similarly in fixation duration for all five classes. Moreover, fixation duration was well fitted to an exponential function for both males and females. The base of the exponential function fitted by males’ fixation duration was significantly lower than that of females, and the coefficient difference of exponential function was not found. Females were more effective in switching from maps to signposts, but differences of switches from map to other classes were not found. The newfound similarities and differences between males and females in visual behavior may aid in the design of better human-centered outdoor navigation applications.

Comprehension of English plural-singular marking by Mandarin-L1, early L2-immersion learners

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-577
Author(s):  
Brian V. Rusk ◽  
Johanne Paradis ◽  
Juhani Järvikivi
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
English Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Early Age ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
Similarities And Differences

AbstractPrevious research has established that early second language (L2) learners in classroom immersion may not ultimately produce all L2 morphosyntactic features as first language (L1) speakers of the language do, whereas L2 comprehension outcomes are reported to be less divergent from those of L1 speakers. However, immersion learners’ L2 comprehension is typically assessed using tasks of holistic understanding, and therefore, little is known about fine-grained comprehension of specific morphosyntactic constructions. To address this, the present study examined online comprehension of English plural–singular marking by Mandarin-speaking, English-immersion learners in Taiwan. This semantically transparent feature differs from the L1 grammar and is a notable area of difficulty for Mandarin-speaking L2-English learners. The present study assesses middle school-aged immersion learners’ comprehension using a visual-world eye-tracking task combined with a picture decision task, comparing results to age-matched English-monolingual controls. After more than 8 years of L2 exposure, the immersion participants showed similarities and differences to monolinguals in plural–singular marking comprehension as measured by eye-tracking, and were less accurate in their interpretations on the picture decision task. This study shows that comprehension differences for a semantically transparent morphosyntactic construction can be apparent even after many years for learners who started immersion at an early age.

An Eye-Tracking Study on Audiovisual Speech Perception Strategies Adopted by Normal-Hearing and Deaf Adults Under Different Language Familiarities

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (7) ◽  
pp. 2245-2254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianrong Wang ◽  
Yumeng Zhu ◽  
Yu Chen ◽  
Abdilbar Mamat ◽  
Mei Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Audiovisual Speech ◽  
Audiovisual Speech Perception ◽  
Allocation Pattern ◽  
Deaf Adults ◽  
Bilingual Speaker ◽  
Primary Hypothesis ◽  
Standard Chinese

Purpose The primary purpose of this study was to explore the audiovisual speech perception strategies.80.23.47 adopted by normal-hearing and deaf people in processing familiar and unfamiliar languages. Our primary hypothesis was that they would adopt different perception strategies due to different sensory experiences at an early age, limitations of the physical device, and the developmental gap of language, and others. Method Thirty normal-hearing adults and 33 prelingually deaf adults participated in the study. They were asked to perform judgment and listening tasks while watching videos of a Uygur–Mandarin bilingual speaker in a familiar language (Standard Chinese) or an unfamiliar language (Modern Uygur) while their eye movements were recorded by eye-tracking technology. Results Task had a slight influence on the distribution of selective attention, whereas subject and language had significant influences. To be specific, the normal-hearing and the d10eaf participants mainly gazed at the speaker's eyes and mouth, respectively, in the experiment; moreover, while the normal-hearing participants had to stare longer at the speaker's mouth when they confronted with the unfamiliar language Modern Uygur, the deaf participant did not change their attention allocation pattern when perceiving the two languages. Conclusions Normal-hearing and deaf adults adopt different audiovisual speech perception strategies: Normal-hearing adults mainly look at the eyes, and deaf adults mainly look at the mouth. Additionally, language and task can also modulate the speech perception strategy.

Orosensory Perception, Speech Production, and Deafness

1973 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milo E. Bishop ◽  
Robert L. Ringel ◽  
Arthur S. House
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
The Other ◽  
Functional Disorders ◽  
Form Discrimination ◽  
School Subjects ◽  
Oral Form ◽  
Similarities And Differences

The oral form-discrimination abilities of 18 orally educated and oriented deaf high school subjects were determined and compared to those of manually educated and oriented deaf subjects and normal-hearing subjects. The similarities and differences among the responses of the three groups were discussed and then compared to responses elicited from subjects with functional disorders of articulation. In general, the discrimination scores separated the manual deaf from the other two groups, particularly when differences in form shapes were involved in the test. The implications of the results for theories relating orosensory-discrimination abilities are discussed. It is postulated that, while a failure in oroperceptual functioning may lead to disorders of articulation, a failure to use the oral mechanism for speech activities, even in persons with normal orosensory capabilities, may result in poor performance on oroperceptual tasks.

Animals as Social Objects

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 206-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Verónica Sevillano ◽  
Susan T. Fiske
Keyword(s):  
Social Perception ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Social Responses ◽  
Content Model ◽  
Stereotype Content ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Behavioral Tendencies ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Sphere Of Influence

Abstract. Nonhuman animals are typically excluded from the scope of social psychology. This article presents animals as social objects – targets of human social responses – overviewing the similarities and differences with human targets. The focus here is on perceiving animal species as social groups. Reflecting the two fundamental dimensions of humans’ social cognition – perceived warmth (benign or ill intent) and competence (high or low ability), proposed within the Stereotype Content Model ( Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002 ) – animal stereotypes are identified, together with associated prejudices and behavioral tendencies. In line with human intergroup threats, both realistic and symbolic threats associated with animals are reviewed. As a whole, animals appear to be social perception targets within the human sphere of influence and a valid topic for research.

Activation and Persistence of Implicit Causality Information in Spoken Language Comprehension

2010 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pirita Pyykkönen ◽  
Juhani Järvikivi
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Visual World ◽  
Implicit Causality ◽  
Causality Information ◽  
Spoken Language Comprehension

A visual world eye-tracking study investigated the activation and persistence of implicit causality information in spoken language comprehension. We showed that people infer the implicit causality of verbs as soon as they encounter such verbs in discourse, as is predicted by proponents of the immediate focusing account ( Greene & McKoon, 1995 ; Koornneef & Van Berkum, 2006 ; Van Berkum, Koornneef, Otten, & Nieuwland, 2007 ). Interestingly, we observed activation of implicit causality information even before people encountered the causal conjunction. However, while implicit causality information was persistent as the discourse unfolded, it did not have a privileged role as a focusing cue immediately at the ambiguous pronoun when people were resolving its antecedent. Instead, our study indicated that implicit causality does not affect all referents to the same extent, rather it interacts with other cues in the discourse, especially when one of the referents is already prominently in focus.

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