scholarly journals Spoken language-mediated anticipatory eye-movements are modulated by reading ability - Evidence from Indian low and high literates

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh K. Mishra ◽  
Niharika Singh ◽  
Aparna Pandey ◽  
Falk Huettig
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Target Word ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Visual Display ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Low Literacy ◽  
Anticipatory Eye Movements

We investigated whether levels of reading ability attained through formal literacy are related to anticipatory language-mediated eye movements. Indian low and high literates listened to simple spoken sentences containing a target word (e.g., "door") while at the same time looking at a visual display of four objects (a target, i.e. the door, and three distractors). The spoken sentences were constructed in such a way that participants could use semantic, associative, and syntactic information from adjectives and particles (preceding the critical noun) to anticipate the visual target objects. High literates started to shift their eye gaze to the target objects well before target word onset. In the low literacy group this shift of eye gaze occurred only when the target noun (i.e. "door") was heard, more than a second later. Our findings suggest that formal literacy may be important for the fine-tuning of language-mediated anticipatory mechanisms, abilities which proficient language users can then exploit for other cognitive activities such as spoken language-mediated eye gaze. In the conclusion, we discuss three potential mechanisms of how reading acquisition and practice may contribute to the differences in predictive spoken language processing between low and high literates.

scholarly journals Visual context constrains language-mediated anticipatory eye movements

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 458-467
Author(s):  
Florian Hintz ◽  
Antje S Meyer ◽  
Falk Huettig
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Target Object ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Selectional Restrictions ◽  
Anticipatory Eye Movements ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Visual Shape

Contemporary accounts of anticipatory language processing assume that individuals predict upcoming information at multiple levels of representation. Research investigating language-mediated anticipatory eye gaze typically assumes that linguistic input restricts the domain of subsequent reference (visual target objects). Here, we explored the converse case: Can visual input restrict the dynamics of anticipatory language processing? To this end, we recorded participants’ eye movements as they listened to sentences in which an object was predictable based on the verb’s selectional restrictions (“The man peels a banana”). While listening, participants looked at different types of displays: the target object (banana) was either present or it was absent. On target-absent trials, the displays featured objects that had a similar visual shape as the target object (canoe) or objects that were semantically related to the concepts invoked by the target (monkey). Each trial was presented in a long preview version, where participants saw the displays for approximately 1.78 s before the verb was heard (pre-verb condition), and a short preview version, where participants saw the display approximately 1 s after the verb had been heard (post-verb condition), 750 ms prior to the spoken target onset. Participants anticipated the target objects in both conditions. Importantly, robust evidence for predictive looks to objects related to the (absent) target objects in visual shape and semantics was found in the post-verb but not in the pre-verb condition. These results suggest that visual information can restrict language-mediated anticipatory gaze and delineate theoretical accounts of predictive processing in the visual world.

Children With Cochlear Implants Use Semantic Prediction to Facilitate Spoken Word Recognition

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Christina Blomquist ◽  
Rochelle S. Newman ◽  
Yi Ting Huang ◽  
Jan Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Target Word ◽  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Spoken Word Recognition ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Matched Group ◽  
Spoken Language Processing

Purpose Children with cochlear implants (CIs) are more likely to struggle with spoken language than their age-matched peers with normal hearing (NH), and new language processing literature suggests that these challenges may be linked to delays in spoken word recognition. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether children with CIs use language knowledge via semantic prediction to facilitate recognition of upcoming words and help compensate for uncertainties in the acoustic signal. Method Five- to 10-year-old children with CIs heard sentences with an informative verb ( draws ) or a neutral verb ( gets ) preceding a target word ( picture ). The target referent was presented on a screen, along with a phonologically similar competitor ( pickle ). Children's eye gaze was recorded to quantify efficiency of access of the target word and suppression of phonological competition. Performance was compared to both an age-matched group and vocabulary-matched group of children with NH. Results Children with CIs, like their peers with NH, demonstrated use of informative verbs to look more quickly to the target word and look less to the phonological competitor. However, children with CIs demonstrated less efficient use of semantic cues relative to their peers with NH, even when matched for vocabulary ability. Conclusions Children with CIs use semantic prediction to facilitate spoken word recognition but do so to a lesser extent than children with NH. Children with CIs experience challenges in predictive spoken language processing above and beyond limitations from delayed vocabulary development. Children with CIs with better vocabulary ability demonstrate more efficient use of lexical-semantic cues. Clinical interventions focusing on building knowledge of words and their associations may support efficiency of spoken language processing for children with CIs. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14417627

Spoken language comprehension: insights from eye movements

2007 ◽  
pp. 308-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael K. Tanenhaus
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Language Production ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Response Measure ◽  
Visual World ◽  
Spoken Language Processing ◽  
Spoken Language Comprehension

Recently, eye movements have become a widely used response measure for studying spoken language processing in both adults and children, in situations where participants comprehend and generate utterances about a circumscribed “Visual World” while fixation is monitored, typically using a free-view eye-tracker. Psycholinguists now use the Visual World eye-movement method to study both language production and language comprehension, in studies that run the gamut of current topics in language processing. Eye movements are a response measure of choice for addressing many classic questions about spoken language processing in psycholinguistics. This article reviews the burgeoning Visual World literature on language comprehension, highlighting some of the seminal studies and examining how the Visual World approach has contributed new insights to our understanding of spoken word recognition, parsing, reference resolution, and interactive conversation. It considers some of the methodological issues that come to the fore when psycholinguists use eye movements to examine spoken language comprehension.

scholarly journals Ladies First: Gender Stereotypes Drive Anticipatory Eye-Movements During Incremental Sentence Interpretation

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernesto Guerra ◽  
Jasmin Bernotat ◽  
Héctor Carvacho ◽  
Gerd Bohner
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Gender Attitudes ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Male Characters ◽  
Anticipatory Eye Movements

Immediate contextual information and world knowledge allow comprehenders to anticipate incoming language in real time. The cognitive mechanisms that underlie such behavior are, however, still only partially understood. We examined the novel idea that gender attitudes may influence how people make predictions during sentence processing. To this end, we conducted an eye-tracking experiment where participants listened to passive-voice sentences expressing gender-stereotypical actions (e.g., “The wood is being painted by the florist”) while observing displays containing both female and male characters representing gender-stereotypical professions (e.g., florists, soldiers). In addition, we assessed participants’ explicit gender-related attitudes to explore whether they might predict potential effects of gender-stereotypical information on anticipatory eye movements. The observed gaze pattern reflected that participants used gendered information to predict who was agent of the action. These effects were larger for female- vs. male-stereotypical contextual information but were not related to participants’ gender-related attitudes. Our results showed that predictive language processing can be moderated by gender stereotypes, and that anticipation is stronger for female (vs. male) depicted characters. Further research should test the direct relation between gender-stereotypical sentence processing and implicit gender attitudes. These findings contribute to both social psychology and psycholinguistics research, as they extend our understanding of stereotype processing in multimodal contexts and regarding the role of attitudes (on top of world knowledge) in language prediction.

scholarly journals Effects of speech rate on anticipatory eye movements in the visual world paradigm: Evidence from aging, native, and non-native language processing

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (12) ◽  
pp. 2348-2361
Author(s):  
Leigh B Fernandez ◽  
Paul E Engelhardt ◽  
Angela G Patarroyo ◽  
Shanley EM Allen
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Anticipatory Eye Movements ◽  
Rate Experiment ◽  
Suprasegmental Cues ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Level Performance

Research has shown that suprasegmental cues in conjunction with visual context can lead to anticipatory (or predictive) eye movements. However, the impact of speech rate on anticipatory eye movements has received little empirical attention. The purpose of the current study was twofold. From a methodological perspective, we tested the impact of speech rate on anticipatory eye movements by systemically varying speech rate (3.5, 4.5, 5.5, and 6.0 syllables per second) in the processing of filler-gap dependencies. From a theoretical perspective, we examined two groups thought to show fewer anticipatory eye movements, and thus likely to be more impacted by speech rate. Experiment 1 compared anticipatory eye movements across the lifespan with younger (18–24 years old) and older adults (40–75 years old). Experiment 2 compared L1 speakers of English and L2 speakers of English with an L1 of German. Results showed that all groups made anticipatory eye movements. However, L2 speakers only made anticipatory eye movements at 3.5 syllables per second, older adults at 3.5 and 4.5 syllables per second, and younger adults at speech rates up to 5.5 syllables per second. At the fastest speech rate, all groups showed a marked decrease in anticipatory eye movements. This work highlights (1) the importance of speech rate on anticipatory eye movements, and (2) group-level performance differences in filler-gap prediction.

scholarly journals Cascading activation across levels of representation in children's lexical processing

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 644-661 ◽  
Author(s):  
YI TING HUANG ◽  
JESSE SNEDEKER
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Target Word ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Phonological Processing ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Levels Of Analysis ◽  
Semantic Representations ◽  
Unrelated Control ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Cascading Activation

ABSTRACTRecent work in adult psycholinguistics has demonstrated that activation of semantic representations begins long before phonological processing is complete. This incremental propagation of information across multiple levels of analysis is a hallmark of adult language processing but how does this ability develop? In two experiments, we elicit measures of incremental activation of semantic representations during word recognition in children. Five-year-olds were instructed to select a target (logs) while their eye-movements were measured to a competitor (key) that was semantically related to an absent phonological associate (lock). We found that, like adults, children made increased looks to competitors relative to unrelated control items. However, unlike adults, children continued to look at the competitor even after the target word was uniquely identified and were more likely to incorrectly select this item. Altogether, these results suggest that early lexical processing involves cascading activation but less efficient resolution of competing entries.

Neural correlates of individual differences in fixation duration during natural reading

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 314-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M Henderson ◽  
Wonil Choi ◽  
Steven G Luke ◽  
Joseph Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Fixation Duration ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Eye Movement Control

Reading requires integration of language and cognitive processes with attention and eye movement control. Individuals differ in their reading ability, but little is known about the neurocognitive processes associated with these individual differences. To investigate this issue, we combined eyetracking and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), simultaneously recording eye movements and blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) activity while subjects read text passages. We found that the variability and skew of fixation duration distributions across individuals, as assessed by ex-Gaussian analyses, decreased with increasing neural activity in regions associated with the cortical eye movement control network (left frontal eye fields [FEF], left intraparietal sulcus [IPS], left inferior frontal gyrus [IFG] and right IFG). The results suggest that individual differences in fixation duration during reading are related to underlying neurocognitive processes associated with the eye movement control system and its relationship to language processing. The results also show that eye movements and fMRI can be combined to investigate the neural correlates of individual differences in natural reading.

Rapid Gains in Speed of Verbal Processing by Infants in the 2nd Year

1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 228-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Fernald ◽  
John P. Pinto ◽  
Daniel Swingley ◽  
Amy Weinberg ◽  
Gerald W. McRoberts
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Target Word ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Language Ability ◽  
Verbal Processing ◽  
Efficient Performance ◽  
Correct Picture

Infants improve substantially in language ability during their 2nd year. Research on the early development of speech production shows that vocabulary begins to expand rapidly around the age of 18 months. During this period, infants also make impressive gains in understanding spoken language. We examined the time course of word recognition in infants ages 15 to 24 months, tracking their eye movements as they looked at pictures in response to familiar spoken words. The speed and efficiency of verbal processing increased dramatically over the 2nd year. Although 15-month-old infants did not orient to the correct picture until after the target word was spoken, 24-month-olds were significantly faster, shifting their gaze to the correct picture before the end of the spoken word. By 2 years of age, children are progressing toward the highly efficient performance of adults, making decisions about words based on incomplete acoustic information.

The Visual World Paradigm in Children with Spoken Language Disorders

2017 ◽  
pp. 262-282
Author(s):  
Llorenç Andreu ◽  
Mònica Sanz-Torrent
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Spoken Word Recognition ◽  
Language Disorders ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Developmental Studies ◽  
Eye Tracker ◽  
Visual World ◽  
Visual World Paradigm ◽  
Language Representation

Eye movements have become a commonly used response measure in studies of spoken language processing. These studies are included in the so-called ‘visual world paradigm' in which participants' eye movements are monitored during scene viewing in language comprehension and production activities. In this chapter the most important aspects for running eye-tracking studies in children are revised. Developmental studies using eye movements have increased in the last ten years from babies to adolescents. However, there are only a handful of papers based on the ‘visual world paradigm' that analyze the spoken language in children with language disorders. These studies using eye movements have explored spoken word recognition; verb argument and thematic relations; and narrative comprehension and production. Results has proven eye tracker to be an effective tool for understanding language representation and processing in children with language disorders.

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