scholarly journals Role of expectation and working memory constraints in Hindi comprehension: An eyetracking corpus analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arpit Agrawal ◽  
Sumeet Agarwal ◽  
Samar Husain
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Fixation Time ◽  
Storage Cost ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Total Fixation ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Cost Metrics

We used the Potsdam-Allahabad Hindi eye-tracking corpus to investigate the role of word-level and sentence-level factors during sentence comprehension in Hindi. Extending previous work that used this eye-tracking data, we investigate the role of surprisal and retrieval cost metrics during sentence processing. While controlling for word-level predictors (word complexity, syllable length, unigram and bigram frequencies) as well as sentence-level predictors such as integration and storage costs, we find a significant effect of surprisal on first-pass reading times (higher surprisal value leads to increase in FPRT). Effect of retrieval cost was only found for a higher degree of parser parallelism. Interestingly, while surprisal has a significant effect on FPRT, storage cost (another prediction-based metric) does not. A significant effect of storage cost shows up only in total fixation time (TFT), thus indicating that these two measures perhaps capture different aspects of prediction. The study replicates previous findings that both prediction-based and memory-based metrics are required to account for processing patterns during sentence comprehension. The results also show that parser model assumptions are critical in order to draw generalizations about the utility of a metric (e.g. surprisal) across various phenomena in a language.

scholarly journals Children do not overcome lexical biases where adults do: the role of the referential scene in garden-path recovery

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 222-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
EVAN KIDD ◽  
ANDREW J. STEWART ◽  
LUDOVICA SERRATRICE
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Test Sentence ◽  
Visual World ◽  
Garden Path ◽  
Initial Analysis ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
Scene Information ◽  
Lexical Cues

ABSTRACTIn this paper we report on a visual world eye-tracking experiment that investigated the differing abilities of adults and children to use referential scene information during reanalysis to overcome lexical biases during sentence processing. The results showed that adults incorporated aspects of the referential scene into their parse as soon as it became apparent that a test sentence was syntactically ambiguous, suggesting they considered the two alternative analyses in parallel. In contrast, the children appeared not to reanalyze their initial analysis, even over shorter distances than have been investigated in prior research. We argue that this reflects the children's over-reliance on bottom-up, lexical cues to interpretation. The implications for the development of parsing routines are discussed.

scholarly journals Eye-tracking and ERPs in multi-word expression research: A state-of-the-art review of the method and findings

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Siyanova
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Unique Role ◽  
Word Level ◽  
On Line ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Linguistic Phenomenon

In recent years, there has been growing interest in the mechanisms that underlie on-line processing (comprehension and production) of units above the word level, known as multi-word expressions (MWEs). MWEs are a heterogeneous family of expressions that vary greatly in their linguistic properties but are perceived as highly conventional by native speakers. Extensive behavioural research has demonstrated that, due to their frequency and predictability, MWEs are processed differently from novel strings of language. At the very least, MWEs have been shown to be processed faster than matched control phrases. However, behavioural measures are limited in what they can tell us about MWE processing in the brain above and beyond the speed of processing. The present paper argues in favour of two powerful psycho-and neurolinguistic techniques-eye-tracking and event-related brain potentials (ERPs)-and presents a case for why these techniques are particularly suited for the investigation of phrasal frequency and predictive linguistic mechanisms. A number of studies that have drawn on these methods in their exploration of MWEs are reviewed, with a particular emphasis on the unique role of the method and its ability to tap into the underlying mechanisms implicated in MWE processing. It is argued that the two techniques complement, rather than duplicate each other, providing an ever richer account of the (psycho)linguistic phenomenon that MWEs are. © John Benjamins Publishing Company.

The role of character positional frequency in oral reading: A developmental study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kunyu Lian ◽  
Jie Ma ◽  
Feifei Liang ◽  
Ling Wei ◽  
Shuwei Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Oral Reading ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Word Segmentation ◽  
Third Grade ◽  
Fixation Time ◽  
Developmental Study ◽  
Third Grade Students ◽  
Total Fixation

How frequently a character appears in a word (positional character frequency) is used as a cue in word segmentation when reading aloud in the Chinese language. In this study we created 176 sentences with a target word in the center of each. Participants were 76 college students (mature readers) and 76 third-grade students (beginner readers). Results show an interaction effect of age and positional frequency of the initial character in the word on gaze duration. Further analysis shows that the third-grade students’ gaze duration was significantly longer in high, relative to low, positional character frequency of the target words. This trend was consistent with refixation duration, and there was a marginally significant interaction between age and total fixation time. Overall, positional character frequency was an important cue for word segmentation in oral reading in the Chinese language, and third-grade students relied more heavily on this cue than did college students.

Use of a lexical knowledge base for information access systems

Terminology ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernardo Magnini
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Information Access ◽  
Dialogue Systems ◽  
Complex Sentence ◽  
Lexical Resources ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Sentence Level

The role of generic lexical resources as well as specialized terminology is crucial in the design of complex dialogue systems, where a human interacts with the computer using Natural Language. Lexicon and terminology are supposed to store information for several purposes, including the discrimination of semantic-ally inconsistent interpretations, the use of lexical variations, the compositional construction of a semantic representation for a complex sentence and the ability to access equivalencies across different languages. For these purposes it is necessary to rely on representational tools that are both theoretically motivated and operationally well defined. In this paper we propose a solution to lexical and terminology representation which is based on the combination of a linguistically motivated upper model and a multilingual WordNet. The upper model accounts for the linguistic analysis at the sentence level, while the multilingual WordNet accounts for lexical and conceptual relations at the word level.

Eye Movements While Reading Degraded On-Product Warnings

2007 ◽  
Vol 51 (20) ◽  
pp. 1388-1392
Author(s):  
Nathan T. Dorris ◽  
R. Brian Valimont ◽  
Eric J. Boelhouwer
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Tracking System ◽  
Fixation Time ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Matched Pairs ◽  
Warning Label ◽  
Gaze Patterns ◽  
Total Fixation

This investigation tested whether heavily degraded warnings affected gaze patterns and resulted in longer viewing times than lightly degraded warnings. The study included sixteen participants who viewed six matched pairs of lightly and heavily degraded warnings. Eye movements were recorded using an eye tracking system while the total time on task for each warning was collected. Fixation times were also collected as participants viewed the various panels of each warning. In the second part of the experiment, legibility and participant comprehension of each warning was tested. Paired t-tests showed that total time on task, total fixation time, and message panel fixation time were consistently significantly different for three of the six pairs of warnings, such that each of the three aforementioned times increased significantly when participants were viewing a highly degraded warning label. Additionally, participants were able to comprehend all warnings presented. This study also provides evidence that eye tracking can be a useful tool in warnings research.

scholarly journals An examination of prosody and second language sentence processing through pause insertion

2021 ◽  
pp. 136700692110187
Author(s):  
Lan Fang ◽  
Yiyang Xie ◽  
Keke Yu ◽  
Ruiming Wang ◽  
John W. Schwieter
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Auditory Comprehension ◽  
Prosodic Cues ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Syntactic Boundaries

Objectives: Research on second language (L2) sentence comprehension often has examined reliance on semantic and syntactic information but has left aside for the most part the role of prosodic cues. In the present study, we compare less- and more-proficient L2 learners’ integration of prosody and syntax structure during auditory L2 sentence comprehension. Design: Two group Chinese learners of L2 English learners (A2 and C1 levels) participated in an auditory comprehension task, which included sentences that had artificial pauses inserted either between or within syntactic boundaries. After hearing each sentence, learners were asked to judge the translation as ‘identical’ or ‘not identical’ on the keyboard. Data Analysis: We conducted t-tests and an analysis of variance to examine prosodic effects among the two learner groups. Findings: The results showed that both A2 and C1 learners were sensitive to pauses. However, the direction and magnitude of this sensitivity was significantly different for the two groups. A2 learners were faster to respond to auditory sentences in which a brief pause was placed within syntactic phrases. Contrarily, C1 learners responded faster when the brief pause was placed between syntactic phrases. Originality: Unique to the present study is the inclusion of the pause-insertion paradigm to examine the role of prosody in L2 auditory sentence processing. Implications: The results imply that the two groups of learners do not rely on prosodic and syntactic cues in the same manner when processing L2 sentences. We argue that the processing mechanisms involved in L2 sentence comprehension evolve hand-in-hand with L2 proficiency development. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research.

Comprehension of the copula: preschoolers (and sometimes adults) ignore subject–verb agreement during sentence processing

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 695-708
Author(s):  
Benjamin DAVIES ◽  
Nan XU RATTANASONE ◽  
Katherine DEMUTH
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Choice Task ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
The Status ◽  
Forced Choice Task ◽  
Australian English

AbstractSubject–verb (SV) agreement helps listeners interpret the number condition of ambiguous nouns (The sheep is/are fat), yet it remains unclear whether young children use agreement to comprehend newly encountered nouns. Preschoolers and adults completed a forced choice task where sentences contained singular vs. plural copulas (Where is/are the [novel noun(s)]?). Novel nouns were either morphologically unambiguous (tup/tups) or ambiguous (/geks/ = singular: gex / plural: gecks). Preschoolers (and some adults) ignored the singular copula, interpreting /ks/-final words as plural, raising questions about the role of SV agreement in learners’ sentence comprehension and the status of is in Australian English.

scholarly journals What Can Eye Movements Tell Us about Higher Level Comprehension?

Vision ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Anne E. Cook ◽  
Wei Wei
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Discourse Processing ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Anaphor Resolution ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Theoretical Issues

The majority of eye tracking studies in reading are on issues dealing with word level or sentence level comprehension. By comparison, relatively few eye tracking studies of reading examine questions related to higher level comprehension in processing of longer texts. We present data from an eye tracking study of anaphor resolution in order to examine specific issues related to this discourse phenomenon and to raise more general methodological and theoretical issues in eye tracking studies of discourse processing. This includes matters related to the design of materials as well as the interpretation of measures with regard to underlying comprehension processes. In addition, we provide several examples from eye tracking studies of discourse to demonstrate the kinds of questions that may be addressed with this methodology, particularly with respect to the temporality of processing in higher level comprehension and how such questions correspond to recent theoretical arguments in the field.

Eye-tracking and ERPs in multi-word expression research

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Siyanova-Chanturia
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Unique Role ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Linguistic Phenomenon

In recent years, there has been growing interest in the mechanisms that underlie online processing (comprehension and production) of units above the word level, known as multi-word expressions (MWEs). MWEs are a heterogeneous family of expressions that vary greatly in their linguistic properties but are perceived as highly conventional by native speakers. Extensive behavioural research has demonstrated that, due to their frequency and predictability, MWEs are processed differently from novel strings of language. At the very least, MWEs have been shown to be processed faster than matched control phrases. However, behavioural measures are limited in what they can tell us about MWE processing in the brain above and beyond the speed of processing. The present paper argues in favour of two powerful psycho- and neurolinguistic techniques — eye-tracking and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) — and presents a case for why these techniques are particularly suited for the investigation of phrasal frequency and predictive linguistic mechanisms. A number of studies that have drawn on these methods in their exploration of MWEs are reviewed, with a particular emphasis on the unique role of the method and its ability to tap into the underlying mechanisms implicated in MWE processing. It is argued that the two techniques complement, rather than duplicate each other, providing an ever richer account of the (psycho)linguistic phenomenon that MWEs are.

scholarly journals Information Structure and Word Order Canonicity in the Comprehension of Spanish Texts: An Eye-Tracking Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolina A. Gattei ◽  
Luis A. París ◽  
Diego E. Shalom
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Total Reading Time ◽  
Pragmatic Motivation

Word order alternation has been described as one of the most productive information structure markers and discourse organizers across languages. Psycholinguistic evidence has shown that word order is a crucial cue for argument interpretation. Previous studies about Spanish sentence comprehension have shown greater difficulty to parse sentences that present a word order that does not respect the order of participants of the verb's lexico-semantic structure, irrespective to whether the sentences follow the canonical word order of the language or not. This difficulty has been accounted as the cognitive cost related to the miscomputation of prominence status of the argument that precedes the verb. Nonetheless, the authors only analyzed the use of alternative word orders in isolated sentences, leaving aside the pragmatic motivation of word order alternation. By means of an eye-tracking task, the current study provides further evidence about the role of information structure for the comprehension of sentences with alternative word order and verb type, and sheds light on the interaction between syntax, semantics and pragmatics. We analyzed both “early” and “late” eye-movement measures as well as accuracy and response times to comprehension questions. Results showed an overall influence of information structure reflected in a modulation of late eye-movement measures as well as offline measures like total reading time and questions response time. However, effects related to the miscomputation of prominence status did not fade away when sentences were preceded by a context that led to non-canonical word order of constituents, showing that prominence computation is a core mechanism for argument interpretation, even in sentences preceded by context.

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