scholarly journals The rhythm of cognition – Effects of an auditory beat on oculomotor control in reading and sequential scanning

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elke B. Lange ◽  
Aleksandra Pieczykolan ◽  
Hans A. Trukenbrod ◽  
Lynn Huestegge
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movement ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Movement Behavior ◽  
Oculomotor Control ◽  
Background Music ◽  
Cognitive Tasks ◽  
Text Reading ◽  
Musical Tempo ◽  
Sequential Scanning

Eye-movement behavior is inherently rhythmic. Even without cognitive input, the eyes never rest, as saccades are generated 3 to 4 times per second. Based on an embodied view of cognition, we asked whether mental processing in visual cognitive tasks is also rhythmic in nature by studying the effects of an external auditory beat (rhythmic background music) on saccade generation in exemplary cognitive tasks (reading and sequential scanning). While in applied settings background music has been demonstrated to impair reading comprehension, the effect of musical tempo on eye-movement control during reading or scanning has not been investigated so far. We implemented a tempo manipulation in four steps as well as a silent baseline condition, while participants completed a text reading or a sequential scanning task that differed from each other in terms of underlying cognitive processing requirements. The results revealed that increased tempo of the musical beat sped up fixations in text reading, while the presence (vs. absence) of the auditory stimulus generally reduced overall reading time. In contrast, sequential scanning was unaffected by the auditory pacemaker. These results were supported by additionally applying Bayesian inference statistics. Our study provides evidence against a cognitive load account (i.e., that spare resources during low-demand sequential scanning allow for enhanced processing of the external beat). Instead, the data suggest an interpretation in favor of a modulation of the oculomotor saccade timer by irrelevant background music in cases involving highly automatized oculomotor control routines (here: in text reading).

scholarly journals New Perspectives on Serialism and Parallelism in Oculomotor Control During Reading: The Multi-Constituent Unit Hypothesis

Vision ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuanli Zang
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movement ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Ambiguous Word ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
Oculomotor Control ◽  
Oculomotor Behavior ◽  
Good Account ◽  
Proposed Model

Currently there are several computational models of eye movement control that provide a good account of oculomotor behavior during reading of English and other alphabetic languages. I will provide an overview of two dominant models: E-Z Reader and SWIFT, as well as a recently proposed model: OB1-Reader. I will evaluate a critical issue of controversy among models, namely, whether words are lexically processed serially or in parallel. I will then consider reading in Chinese, a character-based, unspaced language with ambiguous word boundaries. Finally, I will evaluate the concepts of serialism and parallelism of process central to these models, and how these models might function in relation to lexical processing that is operationalized over parafoveal multi-constituent units.

The E-Z Reader model of eye-movement control in reading: Comparisons to other models

2003 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik D. Reichle ◽  
Keith Rayner ◽  
Alexander Pollatsek
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movement ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Word Identification ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Oculomotor Control ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Eye Movement Control ◽  
Neural Architecture ◽  
Components Of Reading ◽  
Eye Movements During Reading

The E-Z Reader model (Reichle et al. 1998; 1999) provides a theoretical framework for understanding how word identification, visual processing, attention, and oculomotor control jointly determine when and where the eyes move during reading. In this article, we first review what is known about eye movements during reading. Then we provide an updated version of the model (E-Z Reader 7) and describe how it accounts for basic findings about eye movement control in reading. We then review several alternative models of eye movement control in reading, discussing both their core assumptions and their theoretical scope. On the basis of this discussion, we conclude that E-Z Reader provides the most comprehensive account of eye movement control during reading. Finally, we provide a brief overview of what is known about the neural systems that support the various components of reading, and suggest how the cognitive constructs of our model might map onto this neural architecture.

Reading Disappearing Text

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Rayner ◽  
Simon P. Liversedge ◽  
Sarah J. White ◽  
Dorine Vergilino-Perez
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movement ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Oculomotor Control ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Normal Reading ◽  
Control Models

Participants read sentences containing high- or low-frequency target words under normal reading conditions or disappearing-text conditions (in which the word that was fixated disappeared after 60 ms). Even though the fixated word had disappeared after 60 ms, there was still a robust frequency effect wherein readers fixated longer on low-frequency words than on high-frequency words. Thus, the results are consistent with cognitive-control models of eye movement control and inconsistent with visual/oculomotor-control models. Although the uptake of visual information is clearly important for reading, it is the cognitive processes associated with understanding the fixated words that drive the eyes through the text.

scholarly journals Oculomotor control in children with Special Educational Needs (SEN): the development and piloting of a novel app-based therapeutic intervention

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosie Clark ◽  
Cathy Williams ◽  
Iain D. Gilchrist
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movement ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Educational Needs ◽  
Oculomotor Control ◽  
Special Educational Needs ◽  
Eye Movement Control ◽  
Movement Training ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Full Study ◽  
High Level

AbstractChildren with Special Educational Needs (SEN) often have impaired eye movement control which can impact on a wide range of everyday activities including in the classroom, socialising, participation in sport or crossing a road. Although some health practitioners offer eye movement therapies these tend not to have been systematically developed or evaluated. We have developed a new app to deliver eye movement training, based on detailed scientific understanding of eye movement control and extensive clinical experience with this patient group. We first investigated the acceptability of the app within several schools and made modifications based on detailed feedback from the children. Next, we conducted a pilot study to test the feasibility of using the app with 12 children (5–17 years old) who had SEN. The children successfully undertook app-based training for 10 min per day for 4–5 weeks. There was a high level of attendance and no attrition. We found some variation across participants in their ability to play on the app and the level of engagement. This indicates that pre-assessing children for ability and engagement may be important. This encouraging proof of concept study justifies the development of a full study. Given the time and money spent on existing commercially-offered or internet-based non-validated therapies, this would have substantial patient benefit regardless of the outcome: evidence of no effect could reassure parents that this kind of treatment was not needed, whilst evidence of effect suggests this as a useful treatment for children with poor oculomotor control.

scholarly journals The information gathering framework - a cognitive model of regressive eye movements during reading

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Fiona Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Information Gathering ◽  
Movement Behavior ◽  
Eye Movement Control ◽  
Fixation Durations

In this article we present a new eye movement control framework that describes the interaction between fixation durations and regressive saccades during reading: The Information Gathering Framework (IGF). Based on the FC model proposed by Bicknell and Levy (2010), the basic idea of the IGF is that a confidence level for each word is computed while being monitored by three independent thresholds. These thresholds shape eye movement behavior by increasing fixation duration, triggering a regression, or guiding regression target selection. In this way, the IGF does not only account for regressive eye movements but also provides a framework able to model eye movement control during reading across different scenarios. Importantly, within the IGF it is assumed that two different types of regressive eye movements exist which differ with regard to their releases (integrations difficulties vs. missing evidence) but also with regard to their time course. We tested the predictions of the IGF by re-analyzing an experiment of Weiss et al. (2018) and found, inter alia, clear evidence for shorter fixation durations before regressive saccades relative to progressive saccades, with the exception of the last region. This clearly supports the assumptions of the IGF. In addition, we found evidence that there exists a window of about 15–20 characters to the left of the current fixation that plays an important role in target selection, probably indicating the perceptual span during a regressive saccade.

Visual word recognition and oculomotor control in reading

2003 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 487-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Huestegge ◽  
Jonathan Grainger ◽  
Ralph Radach
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Verbal Description ◽  
Oculomotor Control ◽  
Central Component ◽  
Computational Implementation ◽  
Processing Module ◽  
Processing Mechanism

A central component in the E-Z Reader model is a two-stage word processing mechanism made responsible for both the triggering of eye movements and sequential shifts of attention. We point to problems with both the verbal description of this mechanism and its computational implementation in the simulation. As an alternative, we consider the use of a connectionist processing module in combination with a more indirect form of cognitive eye-movement control.

scholarly journals Potsdam Eye-Movement Corpus for Scene Memorization and Search with Color and Spatial-Frequency Filtering

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anke Cajar ◽  
Ralf Engbert ◽  
Jochen Laubrock
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movement ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Peripheral Vision ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Time Dependent ◽  
Movement Behavior ◽  
Movement Data ◽  
Spatial Frequencies ◽  
Scene Viewing ◽  
Fixation Locations

The availability of large eye-movement corpora has become increasingly important over the past years. In scene viewing, scan-path analyses of time-ordered fixations, for example, allow for investigating individual differences in spatial correlations between fixation locations, or for predicting individual viewing behavior in the context of computational models. However, time-dependent analyses require many fixations per scene, and only few large eye-movement corpora are publicly available. This manuscript presents a new corpus with eye-movement data from two hundred participants. Viewers memorized or searched either color or grayscale scenes while high or low spatial frequencies were filtered in central or peripheral vision. Our database provides the scenes from the experiment with corresponding object annotations, preprocessed eye-movement data, and heatmaps and fixation clusters based on empirical fixation locations. Besides time-dependent analyses, the corpus data allow for investigating questions that have received little attention in scene-viewing research so far: (i) eye-movement behavior under different task instructions, (ii) the importance of color and spatial frequencies when performing these tasks, and (iii) the individual roles and interaction of central and peripheral vision during scene viewing. Furthermore, the corpus allows for validation of computational models of attention and eye-movement control, and finally, analyses on an object- or cluster-based level.

scholarly journals Attention capture outside the oculomotor range

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina M. Hanning ◽  
Heiner Deubel
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Attention Capture ◽  
Oculomotor Control ◽  
Exogenous Attention ◽  
Visual Orientation ◽  
Disruptive Effect ◽  
Attentional Orienting ◽  
Neurophysiological Studies

ABSTRACTNeurophysiological studies demonstrated that attentional orienting is performed by fronto-parietal brain areas which also play an important role in oculomotor control. Accordingly, several studies claimed that exogenous attention can only be allocated to where we can potentially make an eye movement, i.e. within the oculomotor range. We tested this assumption by assessing the disruptive effect of a salient distractor at locations within and beyond participants’ oculomotor range. Participants rotated their heads ~38° leftwards to prevent them from performing large rightward saccades. In this posture, participants fixated the screen center and focused their attention on a location on the left side of the screen, where they had to discriminate the orientation of a visual noise patch. While assessing visual orientation sensitivity – an established proxy of visual attention – at this endogenously attended location, we flashed a salient cue either at the attended location or at various locations inside or outside their oculomotor range. We found that whenever the salient cue occurred at a location other than the endogenously attended location, it withdrew visual attention and significantly disrupted endogenous attentional orienting. Crucially, this effect occurred regardless of whether the cue was presented within or beyond participants’ oculomotor range, demonstrating that exogenous events equally grab our attention both inside and outside the eyes reach. Since spatial exogenous attention was attracted unrestrictedly toward locations to which no saccade could be executed, the coupling of attention and eye movement control is less tight than, for example, the prominent “Premotor Theory of Attention” suggests. Rather, attention can be shifted freely over the entire visual range, independent of pathological and physiological limitations of the eye movement system.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document