Two-year-olds’ eye movements reflect confidence in their understanding of words

We study the fundamental issue of whether children evaluate the reliability of their language interpretation, i.e., their confidence in understanding words. In two experiments, two-year- olds (n1 = 50; n2 = 60) saw two objects and heard one of them being named; both objects were then hidden behind screens and children were asked to look towards the named object, which was eventually revealed. When children knew the label used, they showed increased post-decision persistence after a correct compared to an incorrect anticipatory look, a marker of decision confidence in word comprehension (experiment 1). When interacting with an unreliable speaker, children showed accurate word comprehension, but reduced confidence in the accuracy of their own choice, indicating that children’s confidence estimates are influenced by social information (experiment 2). Thus, by 2 years, children can estimate their confidence during language comprehension, long before they can reflect upon and talk about their linguistic skills.

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An Eye Opening Experience: Using Eye Movements as a Measure of Spoken Language Comprehension

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e413812005-619 ◽

2002 ◽

Author(s):

Cori Page

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Language Comprehension ◽

Spoken Language ◽

Eye Opening ◽

Spoken Language Comprehension

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Using Eye Movements to Assess Language Comprehension in Toddlers Born Preterm and Full Term

The Journal of Pediatrics ◽

10.1016/j.jpeds.2016.10.004 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 180 ◽

pp. 124-129 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Elizabeth C. Loi ◽

Virginia A. Marchman ◽

Anne Fernald ◽

Heidi M. Feldman

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Language Comprehension ◽

Full Term

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Spoken language comprehension: insights from eye movements

The Oxford Handbook of Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198568971.013.0018 ◽

2007 ◽

pp. 308-326 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

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.

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Efficacy of spoken word comprehension therapy in patients with chronic aphasia: a cross-over randomised controlled trial with structural imaging

Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry ◽

10.1136/jnnp-2020-324256 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. jnnp-2020-324256

Author(s):

Victoria Fleming ◽

Sonia Brownsett ◽

Anna Krason ◽

Maria A Maegli ◽

Henry Coley-Fisher ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Language Comprehension ◽

Repeated Measures ◽

Standard Care ◽

Primary Outcome ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Spoken Language ◽

Spoken Word ◽

Word Comprehension ◽

Spoken Words ◽

Spoken Language Comprehension

ObjectiveThe efficacy of spoken language comprehension therapies for persons with aphasia remains equivocal. We investigated the efficacy of a self-led therapy app, ‘Listen-In’, and examined the relation between brain structure and therapy response.MethodsA cross-over randomised repeated measures trial with five testing time points (12-week intervals), conducted at the university or participants' homes, captured baseline (T1), therapy (T2-T4) and maintenance (T5) effects. Participants with chronic poststroke aphasia and spoken language comprehension impairments completed consecutive Listen-In and standard care blocks (both 12 weeks with order randomised). Repeated measures analyses of variance compared change in spoken language comprehension on two co-primary outcomes over therapy versus standard care. Three structural MRI scans (T2-T4) for each participant (subgroup, n=25) were analysed using cross-sectional and longitudinal voxel-based morphometry.ResultsThirty-five participants completed, on average, 85 hours (IQR=70–100) of Listen-In (therapy first, n=18). The first study-specific co-primary outcome (Auditory Comprehension Test (ACT)) showed large and significant improvements for trained spoken words over therapy versus standard care (11%, Cohen’s d=1.12). Gains were largely maintained at 12 and 24 weeks. There were no therapy effects on the second standardised co-primary outcome (Comprehensive Aphasia Test: Spoken Words and Sentences). Change on ACT trained words was associated with volume of pretherapy right hemisphere white matter and post-therapy grey matter tissue density changes in bilateral temporal lobes.ConclusionsIndividuals with chronic aphasia can improve their spoken word comprehension many years after stroke. Results contribute to hemispheric debates implicating the right hemisphere in therapy-driven language recovery. Listen-In will soon be available on GooglePlay.Trial registration numberNCT02540889.

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The effect of perceived ethnicity on spoken text comprehension under clear and adverse listening conditions

Linguistics Vanguard ◽

10.1515/lingvan-2017-0029 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Adriana Hanulíková

Keyword(s):

Speech Perception ◽

Language Comprehension ◽

Text Comprehension ◽

East Asian ◽

Social Information ◽

Nonnative Speakers ◽

Cultural Environment ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Asian Ethnicity ◽

Spoken Text

AbstractSocial information such as ethnicity affects metalinguistic judgments, speech perception and evaluation. This study tested whether previously reported negative effects of perceived East-Asian ethnicity on language comprehension and accentedness ratings would also be found for Moroccan ethnicity and in a socio-cultural environment with a population used to being and communicating with nonnative speakers. The results showed that accentedness ratings and comprehension scores do not depend upon the ethnicity of the speaker. We then tested whether the effect would change under adverse listening conditions and found an effect of perceived ethnicity on accentedness ratings but not on comprehension scores, suggesting that the effect of ethnicity on language comprehension is not altered under adverse listening conditions. Effects of ethnicity on accentedness ratings thus replicate previous findings, but only under suboptimal listening conditions. Although the effect of ethnicity on comprehension was not replicated in regards to Moroccan ethnicity and in a linguistically experienced population, negative correlations between accentedness ratings and the corresponding comprehension scores underlie the contribution of listeners’ characteristics to the comprehension and evaluation of nonnative speech.

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Voluntary Spatial Attention has Different Effects on Voluntary and Reflexive Saccades

The Scientific World JOURNAL ◽

10.1100/tsw.2003.72 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. 881-902 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Stephanie K. Seidlits ◽

Tammie Reza ◽

Kevin A. Briand ◽

Anne B. Sereno

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Spatial Attention ◽

Saccadic Eye Movements ◽

Fundamental Issue ◽

Fixation Condition ◽

The Subject ◽

Symbolic Cues ◽

The Relationship ◽

Reflexive Saccades ◽

Gap Paradigm

Although numerous studies have investigated the relationship between saccadic eye movements and spatial attention, one fundamental issue remains controversial. Some studies have suggested that spatial attention facilitates saccades, whereas others have claimed that eye movements are actually inhibited when spatial attention is engaged. However, these discrepancies may be because previous research has neglected to separate and specify the effects of attention for two distinct types of saccades, namely reflexive (stimulus-directed) and voluntary (antisaccades). The present study explored the effects of voluntary spatial attention on both voluntary and reflexive saccades. Results indicate that voluntary spatial attention has different effects on the two types of saccades. Antisaccades were always greatly facilitated following the engagement of spatial attention by symbolic cues (arrows) informing the subject where the upcoming saccade should be directed. Reflexive saccades showed little or no cueing effects and exhibited significant facilitation only when these cues were randomly intermixed with uncued trials. In addition, the present study tested the effects of fixation condition (gap, step, and overlap) on attentional modulation. Cueing effects did not vary due to fixation condition. Thus, voluntary spatial attention consistently showed different effects on voluntary and reflexive saccades, and there was no evidence in these studies that voluntary cues inhibit reflexive saccades, even in a gap paradigm.

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