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

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.

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

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1177/1747021820948019 ◽

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.

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Activating Gender Stereotypes During Online Spoken Language Processing

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000016 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 57 (2) ◽

pp. 126-133 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Pirita Pyykkönen ◽

Jukka Hyönä ◽

Roger P. G. van Gompel

Keyword(s):

Eye Tracking ◽

Mental Models ◽

Language Processing ◽

Gender Stereotypes ◽

Language Comprehension ◽

Spoken Language ◽

World Knowledge ◽

Tracking Method ◽

Spoken Language Processing ◽

Coherence Relation

This study used the visual world eye-tracking method to investigate activation of general world knowledge related to gender-stereotypical role names in online spoken language comprehension in Finnish. The results showed that listeners activated gender stereotypes elaboratively in story contexts where this information was not needed to build coherence. Furthermore, listeners made additional inferences based on gender stereotypes to revise an already established coherence relation. Both results are consistent with mental models theory (e.g., Garnham, 2001 ). They are harder to explain by the minimalist account ( McKoon & Ratcliff, 1992 ), which suggests that people limit inferences to those needed to establish coherence in discourse.

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Uses of Eye-Tracking Data in Second Language Sentence Processing Research

Annual Review of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1017/s026719051000005x ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 30 ◽

pp. 149-166 ◽

Cited By ~ 39

Author(s):

Paola E. Dussias

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Eye Movements ◽

Eye Tracking ◽

Language Processing ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Future Research ◽

Critical Question ◽

The People ◽

Recent Developments ◽

Eye Movements During Reading

When hearing or reading words and sentences in a second language (L2), we face many uncertainties about how the people and objects referred to are connected to one another. So what do we do under these conditions of uncertainty? Because relatively proficient L2 speakers have access to the grammar and lexicon of each language when comprehending words and sentences or when planning spoken utterances, and because the recent research suggests that these linguistic systems are not entirely independent, there is a critical question about how the knowledge of two languages affects basic aspects of language processing. In this article, I review how eye-tracking methodology has been used as a tool to address this question. I begin by discussing why eye movements are a useful methodology in language processing research, and I provide a description of one experimental paradigm developed to explore eye movements during reading. Second, I present recent developments in the use of eye tracking to study L2 spoken-language comprehension. I also highlight the importance of using multiple measures of online sentence processing by discussing results obtained using a moving window task and eye-tracking records while L2 speakers read syntactically ambiguous relative clauses. Next, I discuss research investigating syntactic processing when L2 speakers process mixed language. I end with suggestions for future research directions.

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Anticipatory sentence processing in children with specific language impairment: Evidence from eye movements during listening

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716411000592 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 34 (1) ◽

pp. 5-44 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

LLORENÇ ANDREU ◽

MÒNICA SANZ-TORRENT ◽

JOHN C. TRUESWELL

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Language Impairment ◽

Specific Language Impairment ◽

Time Course ◽

Sentence Comprehension ◽

Specific Language ◽

Fine Grained ◽

Anticipatory Eye Movements ◽

And Control

ABSTRACTTwenty-five children with specific language impairment (SLI; age 5 years, 3 months [5;3]–8;2), 50 typically developing children (3;3–8;2), and 31 normal adults participated in three eye-tracking experiments of spoken language comprehension that were designed to investigate the use of verb information during real-time sentence comprehension in Spanish. In Experiment 1, participants heard sentences like El niño recorta con cuidado el papel (The boy trims carefully the paper) in the presence of four depicted objects, only one of which satisfied the semantic restrictions of the verb recorta (e.g., paper, clock, fox, and dinosaur). Eye movements revealed that children with SLI, like other groups, were able to recognize and retrieve the meaning of the verb rapidly enough to anticipate the upcoming semantically appropriate referent, prior to actually hearing the noun phrase el papel (the paper). Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that for all groups of participants, anticipatory eye movements were also modulated by the semantic fit of the object serving as the patient/theme of the verb. Relatively fine-grained semantic information of a verb was computed fast enough even by children with SLI to result in anticipatory eye movements to semantically appropriate referents. Children with SLI did differ from age-matched controls, but only slightly in terms of overall anticipatory looking at target objects; the time course of looking between these groups was quite similar. In addition, no differences were found between children with SLI and control children matched for mean length of utterance. Implications for theories that characterize SLI are discussed.

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Exploring the Limits of Modularity

10.1093/oso/9780190464783.003.0003 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Merrill F. Garrett

Keyword(s):

Language Processing ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Language Production ◽

Sentence Comprehension ◽

Production Systems ◽

Contextual Information ◽

Interactive Effects ◽

Background Information ◽

Garden Path ◽

Basic Sentence

Psycholinguistic studies of language processing have revolved historically around “modular” and “interactive” accounts of language use. Experimental reports diverge in claims for the penetration of non-linguistic background information on processing for sentence comprehension. Syntactic processing effects can persist despite available contextual constraints that are sufficient to resolve temporary ambiguity or garden path errors. Nevertheless, there are multiple reports of interactive effects between basic sentence processing and both semantic and non-linguistic contextual information. The chapter suggests a rationalization of such conflicting findings in standard psycholinguistic and experimental pragmatic research, relying on interactions between language comprehension systems and language production systems. Production processes are designed to incorporate discourse and environmental constraints on linguistic formulation. These may be used to filter the products of comprehension mechanisms. A key feature of the argument for complementary roles of the two systems is a degree of modular processing for syntax to be found in both systems.

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The time-course of prediction in incremental sentence processing: Evidence from anticipatory eye movements

Journal of Memory and Language ◽

10.1016/s0749-596x(03)00023-8 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 49 (1) ◽

pp. 133-156 ◽

Cited By ~ 405

Author(s):

Yuki Kamide ◽

Gerry T.M Altmann ◽

Sarah L Haywood

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Time Course ◽

Anticipatory Eye Movements

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

Journal of Eye Movement Research ◽

10.16910/jemr.5.1.3 ◽

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.

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Visual context constrains language-mediated anticipatory eye movements

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1177/1747021819881615 ◽

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.

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