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Jingxin Wang; Jing Tian; Rong Wang; Valerie Benson Increased attentional focus modulates eye movements in a mixed antisaccade task for younger and older adults Journal Article PLoS ONE, 8 (4), pp. e61566, 2013. @article{Wang2013b, title = {Increased attentional focus modulates eye movements in a mixed antisaccade task for younger and older adults}, author = {Jingxin Wang and Jing Tian and Rong Wang and Valerie Benson}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0061566}, year = {2013}, date = {2013-01-01}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {8}, number = {4}, pages = {e61566}, publisher = {10. 1371/journal.pone.0061566}, address = {e61566. doi}, abstract = {We examined performance in the antisaccade task for younger and older adults by comparing latencies and errors in what we defined as high attentional focus (mixed antisaccades and prosaccades in the same block) and low attentional focus (antisaccades and prosaccades in separate blocks) conditions. Shorter saccade latencies for correctly executed eye movements were observed for both groups in mixed, compared to blocked, antisaccade tasks, but antisaccade error rates were higher for older participants across both conditions. The results are discussed in relation to the inhibitory hypothesis, the goal neglect theory and attentional control theory.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } We examined performance in the antisaccade task for younger and older adults by comparing latencies and errors in what we defined as high attentional focus (mixed antisaccades and prosaccades in the same block) and low attentional focus (antisaccades and prosaccades in separate blocks) conditions. Shorter saccade latencies for correctly executed eye movements were observed for both groups in mixed, compared to blocked, antisaccade tasks, but antisaccade error rates were higher for older participants across both conditions. The results are discussed in relation to the inhibitory hypothesis, the goal neglect theory and attentional control theory. |
Jingxin Wang; Liyuan He; Liping Jia; Jing Tian; Valerie Benson The 'Positive Effect' is present in older Chinese adults: Evidence from an eye tracking study Journal Article PLoS ONE, 10 (4), pp. e0121372, 2015. @article{Wang2015d, title = {The 'Positive Effect' is present in older Chinese adults: Evidence from an eye tracking study}, author = {Jingxin Wang and Liyuan He and Liping Jia and Jing Tian and Valerie Benson}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0121372}, year = {2015}, date = {2015-01-01}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {10}, number = {4}, pages = {e0121372}, abstract = {The 'Positive Effect' is defined as the phenomenon of preferential cognitive processing of positive affective information, and avoidance or dismissal of negative affective information in the social environment. The ‘Positive Effect' is found for older people compared with younger people in western societies and is believed to reflect a preference for positive emotional regulation in older adults. It is not known whether such an effect is Universal, and in East Asian cultures, there is a highly controversial debate concerning this question. In the current experiment we explored whether Chinese older participants showed a 'Positive Effect' when they inspected picture pairs that were either a positive or a negative picture presented with a neutral picture, or a positive and negative picture paired together. The results indicated that both groups of participants showed an attentional bias to both pleasant (more processing of) and unpleasant pictures (initial orienting to) when these were paired with neutral pictures. When pleasant and unpleasant pictures were paired together both groups showed an initial orientation bias for the pleasant picture, but the older participants showed this bias for initial orienting and increased processing measures, providing evidence of a ‘Positive Effect' in older Chinese adults.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The 'Positive Effect' is defined as the phenomenon of preferential cognitive processing of positive affective information, and avoidance or dismissal of negative affective information in the social environment. The ‘Positive Effect' is found for older people compared with younger people in western societies and is believed to reflect a preference for positive emotional regulation in older adults. It is not known whether such an effect is Universal, and in East Asian cultures, there is a highly controversial debate concerning this question. In the current experiment we explored whether Chinese older participants showed a 'Positive Effect' when they inspected picture pairs that were either a positive or a negative picture presented with a neutral picture, or a positive and negative picture paired together. The results indicated that both groups of participants showed an attentional bias to both pleasant (more processing of) and unpleasant pictures (initial orienting to) when these were paired with neutral pictures. When pleasant and unpleasant pictures were paired together both groups showed an initial orientation bias for the pleasant picture, but the older participants showed this bias for initial orienting and increased processing measures, providing evidence of a ‘Positive Effect' in older Chinese adults. |
Quan Wang; Lauren DiNicola; Perrine Heymann; Michelle Hampson; Katarzyna Chawarska Impaired value learning for faces in preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder Journal Article Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 57 (1), pp. 33–40, 2018. @article{Wang2018l, title = {Impaired value learning for faces in preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder}, author = {Quan Wang and Lauren DiNicola and Perrine Heymann and Michelle Hampson and Katarzyna Chawarska}, doi = {10.1016/j.jaac.2017.10.014}, year = {2018}, date = {2018-01-01}, journal = {Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry}, volume = {57}, number = {1}, pages = {33--40}, publisher = {Elsevier Inc}, abstract = {Objective One of the common findings in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is limited selective attention toward social objects, such as faces. Evidence from both human and nonhuman primate studies suggests that selection of objects for processing is guided by the appraisal of object values. We hypothesized that impairments in selective attention in ASD may reflect a disruption of a system supporting learning about object values in the social domain. Method We examined value learning in social (faces) and nonsocial (fractals) domains in preschoolers with ASD (n = 25) and typically developing (TD) controls (n = 28), using a novel value learning task implemented on a gaze-contingent eye-tracking platform consisting of value learning and a selective attention choice test. Results Children with ASD performed more poorly than TD controls on the social value learning task, but both groups performed similarly on the nonsocial task. Within-group comparisons indicated that value learning in TD children was enhanced on the social compared to the nonsocial task, but no such enhancement was seen in children with ASD. Performance in the social and nonsocial conditions was correlated in the ASD but not in the TD group. Conclusion The study provides support for a domain-specific impairment in value learning for faces in ASD, and suggests that, in ASD, value learning in social and nonsocial domains may rely on a shared mechanism. These findings have implications both for models of selective social attention deficits in autism and for identification of novel treatment targets.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Objective One of the common findings in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is limited selective attention toward social objects, such as faces. Evidence from both human and nonhuman primate studies suggests that selection of objects for processing is guided by the appraisal of object values. We hypothesized that impairments in selective attention in ASD may reflect a disruption of a system supporting learning about object values in the social domain. Method We examined value learning in social (faces) and nonsocial (fractals) domains in preschoolers with ASD (n = 25) and typically developing (TD) controls (n = 28), using a novel value learning task implemented on a gaze-contingent eye-tracking platform consisting of value learning and a selective attention choice test. Results Children with ASD performed more poorly than TD controls on the social value learning task, but both groups performed similarly on the nonsocial task. Within-group comparisons indicated that value learning in TD children was enhanced on the social compared to the nonsocial task, but no such enhancement was seen in children with ASD. Performance in the social and nonsocial conditions was correlated in the ASD but not in the TD group. Conclusion The study provides support for a domain-specific impairment in value learning for faces in ASD, and suggests that, in ASD, value learning in social and nonsocial domains may rely on a shared mechanism. These findings have implications both for models of selective social attention deficits in autism and for identification of novel treatment targets. |
Jingxin Wang; Lin Li; Sha Li; Fang Xie; Min Chang; Kevin B Paterson; Sarah J White; Victoria A McGowan Adult age differences in eye movements during reading: The evidence from Chinese Journal Article Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 73 (4), pp. 584–593, 2018. @article{Wang2018n, title = {Adult age differences in eye movements during reading: The evidence from Chinese}, author = {Jingxin Wang and Lin Li and Sha Li and Fang Xie and Min Chang and Kevin B Paterson and Sarah J White and Victoria A McGowan}, doi = {10.1093/geronb/gbw036}, year = {2018}, date = {2018-01-01}, journal = {Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences}, volume = {73}, number = {4}, pages = {584--593}, abstract = {Objectives: Substantial evidence indicates that older readers of alphabetic languages (e.g., English and German) compensate for age-related reading difficulty by employing a more risky reading strategy in which words are skipped more frequently. The effects of healthy aging on reading behavior for nonalphabetic languages, like Chinese, are largely unknown, although this would reveal the extent to which age-related changes in reading strategy are universal. Accordingly, the present research used measures of eye movements to investigate adult age differences in Chinese reading. Method: The eye movements of young (18–30 years) and older (60+ years) Chinese readers were recorded. Results: The older adults exhibited typical patterns of age-related reading difficulty. But rather than employing a more risky reading strategy compared with the younger readers, the older adults read more carefully by skipping words infre- quently, making shorter forward eye movements, and fixating closer to the beginnings of two-character target words in sentences. Discussion: In contrast with the findings for alphabetic languages, older Chinese readers appear to compensate for age- related reading difficulty by employing a more careful reading strategy. Age-related changes in reading strategy therefore appear to be language specific, rather than universal, and may reflect the specific visual and linguistic requirements of the writing system.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Objectives: Substantial evidence indicates that older readers of alphabetic languages (e.g., English and German) compensate for age-related reading difficulty by employing a more risky reading strategy in which words are skipped more frequently. The effects of healthy aging on reading behavior for nonalphabetic languages, like Chinese, are largely unknown, although this would reveal the extent to which age-related changes in reading strategy are universal. Accordingly, the present research used measures of eye movements to investigate adult age differences in Chinese reading. Method: The eye movements of young (18–30 years) and older (60+ years) Chinese readers were recorded. Results: The older adults exhibited typical patterns of age-related reading difficulty. But rather than employing a more risky reading strategy compared with the younger readers, the older adults read more carefully by skipping words infre- quently, making shorter forward eye movements, and fixating closer to the beginnings of two-character target words in sentences. Discussion: In contrast with the findings for alphabetic languages, older Chinese readers appear to compensate for age- related reading difficulty by employing a more careful reading strategy. Age-related changes in reading strategy therefore appear to be language specific, rather than universal, and may reflect the specific visual and linguistic requirements of the writing system. |
Jingxin Wang; Fang Xie; Liyuan He; Katie L Meadmore; Kevin B Paterson; Valerie Benson Eye movements reveal a similar positivity effect in Chinese and UK older adults Journal Article Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73 (11), pp. 1921–1929, 2020. @article{Wang2020cb, title = {Eye movements reveal a similar positivity effect in Chinese and UK older adults}, author = {Jingxin Wang and Fang Xie and Liyuan He and Katie L Meadmore and Kevin B Paterson and Valerie Benson}, doi = {10.1177/1747021820935861}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology}, volume = {73}, number = {11}, pages = {1921--1929}, abstract = {The “positivity effect” (PE) reflects an age-related increase in the preference for positive over negative information in attention and memory. The present experiment investigated whether Chinese and UK participants produce a similar PE. In one experiment, we presented pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures simultaneously and participants decided which picture they liked or disliked on a third of trials, respectively. We recorded participants' eye movements during this task and compared time looking at, and memory for, pictures. The results suggest that older but not younger adults from both China and UK participant groups showed a preference to focus on and remember pleasant pictures, providing evidence of a PE in both cultures. Bayes Factor analysis supported these observations. These findings are consistent with the view that older people preferentially focus on positive emotional information, and that this effect is observed cross-culturally.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The “positivity effect” (PE) reflects an age-related increase in the preference for positive over negative information in attention and memory. The present experiment investigated whether Chinese and UK participants produce a similar PE. In one experiment, we presented pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures simultaneously and participants decided which picture they liked or disliked on a third of trials, respectively. We recorded participants' eye movements during this task and compared time looking at, and memory for, pictures. The results suggest that older but not younger adults from both China and UK participant groups showed a preference to focus on and remember pleasant pictures, providing evidence of a PE in both cultures. Bayes Factor analysis supported these observations. These findings are consistent with the view that older people preferentially focus on positive emotional information, and that this effect is observed cross-culturally. |
Quan Wang; Joseph Chang; Katarzyna Chawarska Atypical value-driven selective attention in young children with autism spectrum disorder Journal Article JAMA Neetwork Open, 3 (5), pp. e204928, 2020. @article{Wang2020e, title = {Atypical value-driven selective attention in young children with autism spectrum disorder}, author = {Quan Wang and Joseph Chang and Katarzyna Chawarska}, doi = {10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.4928}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {JAMA Neetwork Open}, volume = {3}, number = {5}, pages = {e204928}, abstract = {Importance: Enhanced selective attention toward nonsocial objects and impaired attention to social stimuli constitute key clinical features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Yet, the mechanisms associated with atypical selective attention in ASD are poorly understood, which limits the development of more effective interventions. In typically developing individuals, selective attention to social and nonsocial stimuli is associated with the informational value of the stimuli, which is typically learned over the course of repeated interactions with the stimuli. Objective: To examine value learning (VL) of social and nonsocial stimuli and its association with selective attention in preschoolers with and without ASD. Design, Setting, and Participants: This case-control study compared children with ASD vs children with developmental delay (DD) and children with typical development (TD) recruited between March 3, 2017, and June 13, 2018, at a university-based research laboratory. Participants were preschoolers with ASD, DD, or TD. Main Outcomes and Measures: Procedure consisted of an eye-tracking gaze-contingent VL task involving social (faces) and nonsocial (fractals) stimuli and consisting of baseline, training, and choice test phases. Outcome measures were preferential attention to stimuli reinforced (high value) vs not reinforced (low value) during training. The hypotheses were stated before data collection. Results: Included were 115 preschoolers with ASD (n = 48; mean [SD] age, 38.30 [15.55] months; 37 [77%] boys), DD (n = 31; mean [SD] age, 45.73 [19.49] months; 19 [61%] boys), or TD (n = 36; mean [SD] age, 36.53 [12.39] months; 22 [61%] boys). The groups did not differ in sex distribution; participants with ASD or TD had similar chronological age; and participants with ASD or DD had similar verbal IQ and nonverbal IQ. After training, the ASD group showed preference for the high-value nonsocial stimuli (mean proportion, 0.61 [95% CI, 0.56-0.65]; P textless .001) but not for the high-value social stimuli (mean proportion, 0.51 [95% CI, 0.46-0.56]; P = .58). In contrast, the DD and TD groups demonstrated preference for the high-value social stimuli (DD mean proportion, 0.59 [95% CI, 0.54-0.64]; P = .001 and TD mean proportion, 0.57 [95% CI, 0.53-0.61]; P = .002) but not for the high-value nonsocial stimuli (DD mean proportion, 0.52 [95% CI, 0.44-0.59]; P = .64 and TD mean proportion, 0.50 [95% CI, 0.44-0.57]; P = .91). Controlling for age and nonverbal IQ, autism severity was positively correlated with enhanced learning in the nonsocial domain (r = 0.22; P = .03) and with poorer learning in the social domain (r = -0.26; P = .01). Conclusions and Relevance: Increased attention to objects in preschoolers with ASD may be associated with enhanced VL in the nonsocial domain. When paired with poor VL in the social domain, enhanced value-driven attention to objects may play a formative role in the emergence of autism symptoms by altering attentional priorities and thus learning opportunities in affected children.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Importance: Enhanced selective attention toward nonsocial objects and impaired attention to social stimuli constitute key clinical features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Yet, the mechanisms associated with atypical selective attention in ASD are poorly understood, which limits the development of more effective interventions. In typically developing individuals, selective attention to social and nonsocial stimuli is associated with the informational value of the stimuli, which is typically learned over the course of repeated interactions with the stimuli. Objective: To examine value learning (VL) of social and nonsocial stimuli and its association with selective attention in preschoolers with and without ASD. Design, Setting, and Participants: This case-control study compared children with ASD vs children with developmental delay (DD) and children with typical development (TD) recruited between March 3, 2017, and June 13, 2018, at a university-based research laboratory. Participants were preschoolers with ASD, DD, or TD. Main Outcomes and Measures: Procedure consisted of an eye-tracking gaze-contingent VL task involving social (faces) and nonsocial (fractals) stimuli and consisting of baseline, training, and choice test phases. Outcome measures were preferential attention to stimuli reinforced (high value) vs not reinforced (low value) during training. The hypotheses were stated before data collection. Results: Included were 115 preschoolers with ASD (n = 48; mean [SD] age, 38.30 [15.55] months; 37 [77%] boys), DD (n = 31; mean [SD] age, 45.73 [19.49] months; 19 [61%] boys), or TD (n = 36; mean [SD] age, 36.53 [12.39] months; 22 [61%] boys). The groups did not differ in sex distribution; participants with ASD or TD had similar chronological age; and participants with ASD or DD had similar verbal IQ and nonverbal IQ. After training, the ASD group showed preference for the high-value nonsocial stimuli (mean proportion, 0.61 [95% CI, 0.56-0.65]; P textless .001) but not for the high-value social stimuli (mean proportion, 0.51 [95% CI, 0.46-0.56]; P = .58). In contrast, the DD and TD groups demonstrated preference for the high-value social stimuli (DD mean proportion, 0.59 [95% CI, 0.54-0.64]; P = .001 and TD mean proportion, 0.57 [95% CI, 0.53-0.61]; P = .002) but not for the high-value nonsocial stimuli (DD mean proportion, 0.52 [95% CI, 0.44-0.59]; P = .64 and TD mean proportion, 0.50 [95% CI, 0.44-0.57]; P = .91). Controlling for age and nonverbal IQ, autism severity was positively correlated with enhanced learning in the nonsocial domain (r = 0.22; P = .03) and with poorer learning in the social domain (r = -0.26; P = .01). Conclusions and Relevance: Increased attention to objects in preschoolers with ASD may be associated with enhanced VL in the nonsocial domain. When paired with poor VL in the social domain, enhanced value-driven attention to objects may play a formative role in the emergence of autism symptoms by altering attentional priorities and thus learning opportunities in affected children. |
Quan Wang; Carla A Wall; Erin C Barney; Jessica L Bradshaw; Suzanne L Macari; Katarzyna Chawarska; Frederick Shic Promoting social attention in 3-year-olds with ASD through gaze-contingent eye tracking Journal Article Autism Research, 13 (1), pp. 61–73, 2020. @article{Wang2020l, title = {Promoting social attention in 3-year-olds with ASD through gaze-contingent eye tracking}, author = {Quan Wang and Carla A Wall and Erin C Barney and Jessica L Bradshaw and Suzanne L Macari and Katarzyna Chawarska and Frederick Shic}, doi = {10.1002/aur.2199}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-08-01}, journal = {Autism Research}, volume = {13}, number = {1}, pages = {61--73}, publisher = {Wiley}, abstract = {Young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) look less toward faces compared to their non-ASD peers, limiting access to social learning. Currently, no technologies directly target these core social attention difficulties. This study examines the feasibility of automated gaze modification training for improving attention to faces in 3-year-olds with ASD. Using free-viewing data from typically developing (TD) controls (n = 41), we implemented gaze-contingent adaptive cueing to redirect children with ASD toward normative looking patterns during viewing of videos of an actress. Children with ASD were randomly assigned to either (a) an adaptive Cue condition (Cue}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) look less toward faces compared to their non-ASD peers, limiting access to social learning. Currently, no technologies directly target these core social attention difficulties. This study examines the feasibility of automated gaze modification training for improving attention to faces in 3-year-olds with ASD. Using free-viewing data from typically developing (TD) controls (n = 41), we implemented gaze-contingent adaptive cueing to redirect children with ASD toward normative looking patterns during viewing of videos of an actress. Children with ASD were randomly assigned to either (a) an adaptive Cue condition (Cue |
David E Warren; Matthew J Thurtell; Joy N Carroll; Michael Wall Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, 54 (8), pp. 5778–5787, 2013. @article{Warren2013, title = {Perimetric evaluation of saccadic latency, saccadic accuracy, and visual threshold for peripheral visual stimuli in young compared with older adults}, author = {David E Warren and Matthew J Thurtell and Joy N Carroll and Michael Wall}, doi = {10.1167/iovs.13-12032}, year = {2013}, date = {2013-01-01}, journal = {Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science}, volume = {54}, number = {8}, pages = {5778--5787}, abstract = {PURPOSE. Using a novel automated perimetry technique, we tested the hypothesis that older adults will have increased latency and decreased accuracy of saccades, as well as higher visual thresholds, to peripheral visual stimuli when compared with younger adults. METHODS. We tested 20 healthy subjects aged 18 to 30 years (‘‘young'') and 21 healthy subjects at least 60 years old (‘‘older'') for detection of briefly flashed peripheral stimuli of differing sizes in eight locations along the horizontal meridian (648, 6128, 6208, and 6288). With the left eye occluded, subjects were instructed to look quickly toward any seen stimuli. Right eye movements were recorded with an EyeLink 1000 infrared camera system. Limiting our analysis to the four stimulus positions in the nasal hemifield (?48, ?128, ?208, and ?288), we evaluated for group-level differences in saccadic latency, accuracy, and visual threshold at each stimulus location. RESULTS. Saccadic latency increased as stimulus size decreased in both groups. Older subjects had significantly increased saccadic latencies (at all locations; P textless 0.05), decreased accuracies (at all locations; P textless 0.05), and higher visual thresholds (at the ?128, ?208, and ?288 locations; P textless 0.05). Additionally, there were significant relationships between visual threshold and latency, visual threshold and accuracy, and latency and accuracy (P textless 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS. Older adults have increased latency and decreased accuracy of saccades, as well as higher visual thresholds, to peripheral visual stimuli when compared with younger adults. Saccadic latency and accuracy are related to visual threshold, suggesting that saccadic latency and accuracy could be useful as perimetric outcome measures.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } PURPOSE. Using a novel automated perimetry technique, we tested the hypothesis that older adults will have increased latency and decreased accuracy of saccades, as well as higher visual thresholds, to peripheral visual stimuli when compared with younger adults. METHODS. We tested 20 healthy subjects aged 18 to 30 years (‘‘young'') and 21 healthy subjects at least 60 years old (‘‘older'') for detection of briefly flashed peripheral stimuli of differing sizes in eight locations along the horizontal meridian (648, 6128, 6208, and 6288). With the left eye occluded, subjects were instructed to look quickly toward any seen stimuli. Right eye movements were recorded with an EyeLink 1000 infrared camera system. Limiting our analysis to the four stimulus positions in the nasal hemifield (?48, ?128, ?208, and ?288), we evaluated for group-level differences in saccadic latency, accuracy, and visual threshold at each stimulus location. RESULTS. Saccadic latency increased as stimulus size decreased in both groups. Older subjects had significantly increased saccadic latencies (at all locations; P textless 0.05), decreased accuracies (at all locations; P textless 0.05), and higher visual thresholds (at the ?128, ?208, and ?288 locations; P textless 0.05). Additionally, there were significant relationships between visual threshold and latency, visual threshold and accuracy, and latency and accuracy (P textless 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS. Older adults have increased latency and decreased accuracy of saccades, as well as higher visual thresholds, to peripheral visual stimuli when compared with younger adults. Saccadic latency and accuracy are related to visual threshold, suggesting that saccadic latency and accuracy could be useful as perimetric outcome measures. |
Kayleigh L Warrington; Victoria A McGowan; Kevin B Paterson; Sarah J White Effects of aging, word frequency, and text stimulus quality on reading across the adult lifespan: Evidence from eye movements Journal Article Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 44 (11), pp. 1714–1729, 2018. @article{Warrington2018, title = {Effects of aging, word frequency, and text stimulus quality on reading across the adult lifespan: Evidence from eye movements}, author = {Kayleigh L Warrington and Victoria A McGowan and Kevin B Paterson and Sarah J White}, year = {2018}, date = {2018-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition}, volume = {44}, number = {11}, pages = {1714--1729}, abstract = {Reductions in stimulus quality may disrupt the reading performance of older adults more when compared with young adults because of sensory declines that begin early in middle age. However, few studies have investigated adult age differences in the effects of stimulus quality on reading, and none have examined how this affects lexical processing and eye movement control. Accordingly, we report two experiments that examine the effects of reduced stimulus quality on the eye movements of young (18–24 years), middle-aged (41–51 years), and older (65⫹ years) adult readers. In Experiment 1, participants read sentences that contained a high- or low-frequency critical word and that were presented normally or with contrast reduced so that words appeared faint. Experiment 2 further investigated effects of reduced stimulus quality using a gaze-contingent technique to present upcoming text normally or with contrast reduced. Typical patterns of age-related reading difficulty (e.g., slower reading, more regressions) were observed in both experiments. In addition, eye movements were disrupted more for older than younger adults when all text (Experiment 1) or just upcoming text (Experiment 2) appeared faint. Moreover, there was an interaction between stimulus quality and word frequency (Experiment 1), such that readers fixated faint low-frequency words for disproportionately longer. Crucially, this effect was similar across all age groups. Thus, although older readers suffer more from reduced stimulus quality, this additional difficulty primarily affects their visual processing of text. These findings have important implications for understanding the role of stimulus quality on reading behavior across the lifespan.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Reductions in stimulus quality may disrupt the reading performance of older adults more when compared with young adults because of sensory declines that begin early in middle age. However, few studies have investigated adult age differences in the effects of stimulus quality on reading, and none have examined how this affects lexical processing and eye movement control. Accordingly, we report two experiments that examine the effects of reduced stimulus quality on the eye movements of young (18–24 years), middle-aged (41–51 years), and older (65⫹ years) adult readers. In Experiment 1, participants read sentences that contained a high- or low-frequency critical word and that were presented normally or with contrast reduced so that words appeared faint. Experiment 2 further investigated effects of reduced stimulus quality using a gaze-contingent technique to present upcoming text normally or with contrast reduced. Typical patterns of age-related reading difficulty (e.g., slower reading, more regressions) were observed in both experiments. In addition, eye movements were disrupted more for older than younger adults when all text (Experiment 1) or just upcoming text (Experiment 2) appeared faint. Moreover, there was an interaction between stimulus quality and word frequency (Experiment 1), such that readers fixated faint low-frequency words for disproportionately longer. Crucially, this effect was similar across all age groups. Thus, although older readers suffer more from reduced stimulus quality, this additional difficulty primarily affects their visual processing of text. These findings have important implications for understanding the role of stimulus quality on reading behavior across the lifespan. |
Kayleigh L Warrington; Sarah J White; Kevin B Paterson Ageing and the misperception of words: Evidence from eye movements during reading Journal Article Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71 (1), pp. 75–84, 2018. @article{Warrington2018a, title = {Ageing and the misperception of words: Evidence from eye movements during reading}, author = {Kayleigh L Warrington and Sarah J White and Kevin B Paterson}, doi = {10.1080/17470218.2016.1251471}, year = {2018}, date = {2018-01-01}, journal = {Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology}, volume = {71}, number = {1}, pages = {75--84}, abstract = {Research with lexical neighbours (words that differ by a single letter while the number and order of letters are preserved) indicates that readers frequently misperceive a word as its higher frequency neighbour (HFN) even during normal reading. But how this lexical influence on word identification changes across the adult lifespan is largely unknown, although slower lexical processing and reduced visual abilities in later adulthood may lead to an increased incidence of word misperception errors. In particular, older adults may be more likely than younger adults to misidentify a word as its HFN, especially when the HFN is congruent with prior sentence context, although this has not been investigated. Accordingly, to address this issue, young and older adults read sentences containing target words with and without an HFN, where the HFN was either congruent with prior sentence context or not. Consistent with previous findings for young adults, eye movements were disrupted more for words with than without an HFN, especially when the HFN was congruent with prior context. Crucially, however, there was no indication of an adult age difference in this word misperception effect. We discuss these findings in relation to the nature of misperception effects in older age.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Research with lexical neighbours (words that differ by a single letter while the number and order of letters are preserved) indicates that readers frequently misperceive a word as its higher frequency neighbour (HFN) even during normal reading. But how this lexical influence on word identification changes across the adult lifespan is largely unknown, although slower lexical processing and reduced visual abilities in later adulthood may lead to an increased incidence of word misperception errors. In particular, older adults may be more likely than younger adults to misidentify a word as its HFN, especially when the HFN is congruent with prior sentence context, although this has not been investigated. Accordingly, to address this issue, young and older adults read sentences containing target words with and without an HFN, where the HFN was either congruent with prior sentence context or not. Consistent with previous findings for young adults, eye movements were disrupted more for words with than without an HFN, especially when the HFN was congruent with prior context. Crucially, however, there was no indication of an adult age difference in this word misperception effect. We discuss these findings in relation to the nature of misperception effects in older age. |
Kayleigh L Warrington; Victoria A McGowan; Kevin B Paterson; Sarah J White Effects of adult aging on letter position coding in reading: Evidence from eye movements Journal Article Psychology and Aging, 34 (4), pp. 598–612, 2019. @article{Warrington2019, title = {Effects of adult aging on letter position coding in reading: Evidence from eye movements}, author = {Kayleigh L Warrington and Victoria A McGowan and Kevin B Paterson and Sarah J White}, doi = {10.1037/pag0000342}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Psychology and Aging}, volume = {34}, number = {4}, pages = {598--612}, abstract = {It is well-established that young adults encode letter position flexibly during natural reading. However, given the visual changes that occur with normal aging, it is important to establish whether letter position coding is equivalent across adulthood. In 2 experiments, young (18-25 years) and older (65+ years) adults' were recorded while reading sentences with words containing transposed adjacent letters. Transpositions occurred at beginning (rpoblem), internal (porblem), or end (problme) locations in words. In Experiment 1, these transpositions were present throughout reading. By comparison, Experiment 2 used a gaze-contingent paradigm such that once the reader's gaze moved past a word containing a transposition, this word was shown correctly and did not subsequently change. Both age groups showed normal levels of comprehension for text including words with transposed letters. The pattern of letter transposition effects on eye movements was similar for the young and older adults, with greater increases in reading times when external relative to internal letters were transposed. In Experiment 1, however, effects of word beginning transpositions during rereading were larger for the older adults. In Experiment 2 there were no interactions, confirming that letter position coding is similar for both age groups at least during first-pass processing of words. These findings show that flexibility in letter position encoding during the initial processing of words is preserved across adulthood, although the interaction effect in rereading in Experiment 1 also suggests that older readers may use more stringent postlexical verification processes, for which the accuracy of word beginning letters is especially important.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } It is well-established that young adults encode letter position flexibly during natural reading. However, given the visual changes that occur with normal aging, it is important to establish whether letter position coding is equivalent across adulthood. In 2 experiments, young (18-25 years) and older (65+ years) adults' were recorded while reading sentences with words containing transposed adjacent letters. Transpositions occurred at beginning (rpoblem), internal (porblem), or end (problme) locations in words. In Experiment 1, these transpositions were present throughout reading. By comparison, Experiment 2 used a gaze-contingent paradigm such that once the reader's gaze moved past a word containing a transposition, this word was shown correctly and did not subsequently change. Both age groups showed normal levels of comprehension for text including words with transposed letters. The pattern of letter transposition effects on eye movements was similar for the young and older adults, with greater increases in reading times when external relative to internal letters were transposed. In Experiment 1, however, effects of word beginning transpositions during rereading were larger for the older adults. In Experiment 2 there were no interactions, confirming that letter position coding is similar for both age groups at least during first-pass processing of words. These findings show that flexibility in letter position encoding during the initial processing of words is preserved across adulthood, although the interaction effect in rereading in Experiment 1 also suggests that older readers may use more stringent postlexical verification processes, for which the accuracy of word beginning letters is especially important. |
Kayleigh L Warrington; Fang Xie; Jingxin Wang; Kevin B Paterson Aging effects on the visual span for alphabetic stimuli Journal Article Experimental Aging Research, 45 (5), pp. 387–399, 2019. @article{Warrington2019a, title = {Aging effects on the visual span for alphabetic stimuli}, author = {Kayleigh L Warrington and Fang Xie and Jingxin Wang and Kevin B Paterson}, doi = {10.1080/0361073X.2019.1664465}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Experimental Aging Research}, volume = {45}, number = {5}, pages = {387--399}, publisher = {Routledge}, abstract = {Background: The visual span (i.e., an estimate of the number of letters that can be recognized reliably on a single glance) is widely considered to impose an important sensory limitation on reading speed. With the present research, we investigated adult age differences in the visual span for alphabetic stimuli (i.e., Latin alphabetic letters), as aging effects on span size may make an important contribution to slower reading speeds in older adulthood. Method: A trigram task, in which sets of three letters were displayed randomly at specified locations to the right and left of a central fixation point, was used to estimate the size of the visual span for young (18–30 years) and older (65+years) adults while an eye tracker was used to ensure accurate central fixation during stimulus presentation. Participants also completed tests of visual acuity and visual crowding. Results: There were clear age differences in the size of the visual span. The older adults produced visual spans which were on average 1.2 letters smaller than the spans of young adults. However, both young and older adults produced spans smaller than those previously reported. In addition, span size correlated with measures of both visual acuity and measures of visual crowding. Conclusion: The findings show that the size of the visual span is smaller for older compared to young adults. The age-related reduction in span size is relatively small but may make a significant contribution to reduced parafoveal processing during natural reading so may play a role in the greater difficulty experienced by older adult readers. Moreover, these results highlight the importance of carefully controlling fixation location in visual span experiments.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Background: The visual span (i.e., an estimate of the number of letters that can be recognized reliably on a single glance) is widely considered to impose an important sensory limitation on reading speed. With the present research, we investigated adult age differences in the visual span for alphabetic stimuli (i.e., Latin alphabetic letters), as aging effects on span size may make an important contribution to slower reading speeds in older adulthood. Method: A trigram task, in which sets of three letters were displayed randomly at specified locations to the right and left of a central fixation point, was used to estimate the size of the visual span for young (18–30 years) and older (65+years) adults while an eye tracker was used to ensure accurate central fixation during stimulus presentation. Participants also completed tests of visual acuity and visual crowding. Results: There were clear age differences in the size of the visual span. The older adults produced visual spans which were on average 1.2 letters smaller than the spans of young adults. However, both young and older adults produced spans smaller than those previously reported. In addition, span size correlated with measures of both visual acuity and measures of visual crowding. Conclusion: The findings show that the size of the visual span is smaller for older compared to young adults. The age-related reduction in span size is relatively small but may make a significant contribution to reduced parafoveal processing during natural reading so may play a role in the greater difficulty experienced by older adult readers. Moreover, these results highlight the importance of carefully controlling fixation location in visual span experiments. |
Signy Wegener; Hua-Chen Wang; Peter de Lissa; Serje Robidoux; Kate Nation; Anne Castles Children reading spoken words: Interactions between vocabulary and orthographic expectancy Journal Article Developmental Science, 21 (3), pp. 1–9, 2018. @article{Wegener2018, title = {Children reading spoken words: Interactions between vocabulary and orthographic expectancy}, author = {Signy Wegener and Hua-Chen Wang and Peter de Lissa and Serje Robidoux and Kate Nation and Anne Castles}, doi = {10.1111/desc.12577}, year = {2018}, date = {2018-05-01}, journal = {Developmental Science}, volume = {21}, number = {3}, pages = {1--9}, publisher = {John Wiley & Sons, Ltd (10.1111)}, abstract = {There is an established association between children's oral vocabulary and their word reading but its basis is not well understood. Here, we present evidence from eye movements for a novel mechanism underlying this association. Two groups of 18 Grade 4 children received oral vocabulary training on one set of 16 novel words (e.g., ‘nesh', ‘coib'), but no training on another set. The words were assigned spellings that were either predictable from phonology (e.g., nesh) or unpredictable (e.g., koyb). These were subsequently shown in print, embedded in sentences. Reading times were shorter for orally familiar than unfamiliar items, and for words with predictable than unpredictable spellings but, importantly, there was an interaction between the two: children demonstrated a larger benefit of oral familiarity for predictable than for unpredictable items. These findings indicate that children form initial orthographic expectations about spoken words before first seeing them in print. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/jvpJwpKMM3E.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } There is an established association between children's oral vocabulary and their word reading but its basis is not well understood. Here, we present evidence from eye movements for a novel mechanism underlying this association. Two groups of 18 Grade 4 children received oral vocabulary training on one set of 16 novel words (e.g., ‘nesh', ‘coib'), but no training on another set. The words were assigned spellings that were either predictable from phonology (e.g., nesh) or unpredictable (e.g., koyb). These were subsequently shown in print, embedded in sentences. Reading times were shorter for orally familiar than unfamiliar items, and for words with predictable than unpredictable spellings but, importantly, there was an interaction between the two: children demonstrated a larger benefit of oral familiarity for predictable than for unpredictable items. These findings indicate that children form initial orthographic expectations about spoken words before first seeing them in print. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/jvpJwpKMM3E. |
Stephanie Wermelinger; Anja Gampe; Moritz M Daum The dynamics of the interrelation of perception and action across the life span Journal Article Psychological Research, 83 (1), pp. 116–131, 2019. @article{Wermelinger2019, title = {The dynamics of the interrelation of perception and action across the life span}, author = {Stephanie Wermelinger and Anja Gampe and Moritz M Daum}, doi = {10.1007/s00426-018-1058-8}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Psychological Research}, volume = {83}, number = {1}, pages = {116--131}, publisher = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg}, abstract = {Successful social interaction relies on the interaction partners' perception, anticipation and understanding of their respective actions. The perception of a particular action and the capability to produce this action share a common representational ground. So far, no study has explored the interrelation between action perception and production across the life span using the same tasks and the same measurement techniques. This study was designed to fill this gap. Participants between 3 and 80 years (N = 214) observed two multistep actions of different familiarities and then reproduced the according actions. Using eye tracking, we measured participants' action perception via their prediction of action goals during observation. To capture subtler perceptual processes, we additionally analysed the dynamics and recurrent patterns within participants' gaze behaviour. Action production was assessed via the accuracy of the participants' reproduction of the observed actions. No age-related differences were found for the perception of the familiar action, where participants of all ages could rely on previous experience. In the unfamiliar action, where participants had less experience, action goals were predicted more frequently with increasing age. The recurrence in participants' gaze behaviour was related to both, age and action production: gaze behaviour was more recurrent (i.e. less flexible) in very young and very old participants, and lower levels of recurrence (i.e. greater flexibility) were related to higher scores in action production across participants. Incorporating a life-span perspective, this study illustrates the dynamic nature of developmental differences in the associations of action production with action perception.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Successful social interaction relies on the interaction partners' perception, anticipation and understanding of their respective actions. The perception of a particular action and the capability to produce this action share a common representational ground. So far, no study has explored the interrelation between action perception and production across the life span using the same tasks and the same measurement techniques. This study was designed to fill this gap. Participants between 3 and 80 years (N = 214) observed two multistep actions of different familiarities and then reproduced the according actions. Using eye tracking, we measured participants' action perception via their prediction of action goals during observation. To capture subtler perceptual processes, we additionally analysed the dynamics and recurrent patterns within participants' gaze behaviour. Action production was assessed via the accuracy of the participants' reproduction of the observed actions. No age-related differences were found for the perception of the familiar action, where participants of all ages could rely on previous experience. In the unfamiliar action, where participants had less experience, action goals were predicted more frequently with increasing age. The recurrence in participants' gaze behaviour was related to both, age and action production: gaze behaviour was more recurrent (i.e. less flexible) in very young and very old participants, and lower levels of recurrence (i.e. greater flexibility) were related to higher scores in action production across participants. Incorporating a life-span perspective, this study illustrates the dynamic nature of developmental differences in the associations of action production with action perception. |
Stephanie Wermelinger; Anja Gampe; Moritz M Daum Higher levels of motor competence are associated with reduced interference in action perception across the lifespan Journal Article Psychological Research, 83 (3), pp. 432–444, 2019. @article{Wermelinger2019a, title = {Higher levels of motor competence are associated with reduced interference in action perception across the lifespan}, author = {Stephanie Wermelinger and Anja Gampe and Moritz M Daum}, doi = {10.1007/s00426-017-0941-z}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Psychological Research}, volume = {83}, number = {3}, pages = {432--444}, publisher = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg}, abstract = {Action perception and action production are tightly linked and elicit bi-directional influences on each other when performed simultaneously. In this study, we investigated whether age-related differences in manual fine-motor competence and/or age affect the (interfering) influence of action production on simultaneous action perception. In a cross-sectional eye-tracking study, participants of a broad age range (N = 181, 20–80 years) observed a manual grasp-and-transport action while performing an additional motor or cognitive distractor task. Action perception was measured via participants' frequency of anticipatory gaze shifts towards the action goal. Manual fine-motor competence was assessed with the Motor Performance Series. The interference effect in action perception was greater in the motor than the cognitive distractor task. Furthermore, manual fine-motor competence and age in years were both associated with this interference. The better the participants' manual fine-motor competence and the younger they were, the smaller the interference effect. However, when both influencing factors (age and fine-motor competence) were taken into account, a model including only age-related differences in manual fine-motor competence best fit with our data. These results add to the existing literature that motor competence and its age-related differences influence the interference effects between action perception and production.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Action perception and action production are tightly linked and elicit bi-directional influences on each other when performed simultaneously. In this study, we investigated whether age-related differences in manual fine-motor competence and/or age affect the (interfering) influence of action production on simultaneous action perception. In a cross-sectional eye-tracking study, participants of a broad age range (N = 181, 20–80 years) observed a manual grasp-and-transport action while performing an additional motor or cognitive distractor task. Action perception was measured via participants' frequency of anticipatory gaze shifts towards the action goal. Manual fine-motor competence was assessed with the Motor Performance Series. The interference effect in action perception was greater in the motor than the cognitive distractor task. Furthermore, manual fine-motor competence and age in years were both associated with this interference. The better the participants' manual fine-motor competence and the younger they were, the smaller the interference effect. However, when both influencing factors (age and fine-motor competence) were taken into account, a model including only age-related differences in manual fine-motor competence best fit with our data. These results add to the existing literature that motor competence and its age-related differences influence the interference effects between action perception and production. |
Jessica Werthmann; Anita Jansen; Anita C E Vreugdenhil; Chantal Nederkoorn; Ghislaine Schyns; Anne Roefs Food through the child's eye: An eye-tracking study on attentional bias for food in healthy-weight children and children with obesity. Journal Article Health Psychology, 34 (12), pp. 1123–1132, 2015. @article{Werthmann2015, title = {Food through the child's eye: An eye-tracking study on attentional bias for food in healthy-weight children and children with obesity.}, author = {Jessica Werthmann and Anita Jansen and Anita C E Vreugdenhil and Chantal Nederkoorn and Ghislaine Schyns and Anne Roefs}, year = {2015}, date = {2015-01-01}, journal = {Health Psychology}, volume = {34}, number = {12}, pages = {1123--1132}, abstract = {Objective: Obesity prevalence among children is high and knowledge on cognitive factors that contribute to children's reactivity to the "obesogenic" food environment could help to design effective treatment and prevention campaigns. Empirical studies in adults suggest that attention bias for food could be a risk factor for overeating. Accordingly, the current study tested if children with obesity have an elevated attention bias for food when compared to healthy-weight children. Another aim was to explore whether attention biases for food predicted weight-change after 3 and 6 months in obese children. Method: Obese children (n = 34) were recruited from an intervention program and tested prior to the start of this intervention. Healthy-weight children (n = 36) were recruited from local schools. First, attention biases for food were compared between children with obesity (n = 30) and matched healthy-weight children (n = 30). Second, regression analyses were conducted to test if food-related attention biases predicted weight changes after 3 and 6 months in children with obesity following a weight loss lifestyle intervention. Results: Results showed that obese children did not differ from healthy-weight children in their attention bias to food. Yet automatically directing attention toward food (i.e., initial orientation bias) was related to a reduced weight loss (R2 = .14}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Objective: Obesity prevalence among children is high and knowledge on cognitive factors that contribute to children's reactivity to the "obesogenic" food environment could help to design effective treatment and prevention campaigns. Empirical studies in adults suggest that attention bias for food could be a risk factor for overeating. Accordingly, the current study tested if children with obesity have an elevated attention bias for food when compared to healthy-weight children. Another aim was to explore whether attention biases for food predicted weight-change after 3 and 6 months in obese children. Method: Obese children (n = 34) were recruited from an intervention program and tested prior to the start of this intervention. Healthy-weight children (n = 36) were recruited from local schools. First, attention biases for food were compared between children with obesity (n = 30) and matched healthy-weight children (n = 30). Second, regression analyses were conducted to test if food-related attention biases predicted weight changes after 3 and 6 months in children with obesity following a weight loss lifestyle intervention. Results: Results showed that obese children did not differ from healthy-weight children in their attention bias to food. Yet automatically directing attention toward food (i.e., initial orientation bias) was related to a reduced weight loss (R2 = .14 |
Jan R Wessel; Kylie A Dolan; Andrew Hollingworth A blunted phasic autonomic response to errors indexes age-related deficits in error awareness Journal Article Neurobiology of Aging, 71 , pp. 13–20, 2018. @article{Wessel2018, title = {A blunted phasic autonomic response to errors indexes age-related deficits in error awareness}, author = {Jan R Wessel and Kylie A Dolan and Andrew Hollingworth}, doi = {10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2018.06.019}, year = {2018}, date = {2018-01-01}, journal = {Neurobiology of Aging}, volume = {71}, pages = {13--20}, publisher = {Elsevier Inc}, abstract = {Conscious error detection is impaired in older age, yet it is unclear which age-related changes in the nervous system contribute to this deficit. In younger adults, error commission is accompanied by phasic autonomic arousal, which purportedly contributes to conscious error detection. Because aging is associated with declining autonomic reactivity, reduced phasic arousal to errors may therefore contribute to age-related error detection deficits. To test this, we measured pupil dilation in younger (textless30 years) and older (60–80 years) healthy adults during an eye movement task. The task required a subjective assessment of response accuracy, as well as a “meta-judgment” of the certainty underlying that accuracy-assessment. This allowed for a precise quantification of subjective error awareness. Behaviorally, we found reduced error awareness in older adults. Furthermore, while younger adults showed “residual” awareness of error commission on unreported errors (indicated by decreased rating certainty compared with correct responses), this effect was absent in older adults. Notably, pupil dilation correlated with both measures: between subjects, greater pupil dilation to reported errors was correlated with greater subjective certainty of error detection, and greater pupil dilation to unreported errors was correlated with greater “residual” awareness of unreported errors. In line with this association, older adults showed a reduced pupil response to both reported and unreported errors. Notably, older adults showed no pupil dilation to unreported errors, in line with their lack of “residual” error awareness on such trials. Taken together, our results suggest that reduced autonomic reactivity may contribute to age-related error awareness deficits.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Conscious error detection is impaired in older age, yet it is unclear which age-related changes in the nervous system contribute to this deficit. In younger adults, error commission is accompanied by phasic autonomic arousal, which purportedly contributes to conscious error detection. Because aging is associated with declining autonomic reactivity, reduced phasic arousal to errors may therefore contribute to age-related error detection deficits. To test this, we measured pupil dilation in younger (textless30 years) and older (60–80 years) healthy adults during an eye movement task. The task required a subjective assessment of response accuracy, as well as a “meta-judgment” of the certainty underlying that accuracy-assessment. This allowed for a precise quantification of subjective error awareness. Behaviorally, we found reduced error awareness in older adults. Furthermore, while younger adults showed “residual” awareness of error commission on unreported errors (indicated by decreased rating certainty compared with correct responses), this effect was absent in older adults. Notably, pupil dilation correlated with both measures: between subjects, greater pupil dilation to reported errors was correlated with greater subjective certainty of error detection, and greater pupil dilation to unreported errors was correlated with greater “residual” awareness of unreported errors. In line with this association, older adults showed a reduced pupil response to both reported and unreported errors. Notably, older adults showed no pupil dilation to unreported errors, in line with their lack of “residual” error awareness on such trials. Taken together, our results suggest that reduced autonomic reactivity may contribute to age-related error awareness deficits. |
Gregory L West; Sandrine Mendizabal; Marie Pierre Carrière; Sarah Lippé Linear age-correlated development of inhibitory saccadic trajectory deviations Journal Article Developmental Psychology, 50 (9), pp. 2285–2290, 2014. @article{West2014, title = {Linear age-correlated development of inhibitory saccadic trajectory deviations}, author = {Gregory L West and Sandrine Mendizabal and Marie Pierre Carri{è}re and Sarah Lippé}, doi = {10.1037/a0037383}, year = {2014}, date = {2014-01-01}, journal = {Developmental Psychology}, volume = {50}, number = {9}, pages = {2285--2290}, abstract = {The present study examined development-related differences in saccade curvature during a goal-directed saccade task in the presence of distracting visual information. Participants were individuals who ranged in age from 6 to 30 years. Consistent with previous findings, all participants showed curvature toward the distractor stimulus at shorter saccadic reaction times (SRTs). Chronological age, however, was positively related to participants' ability to inhibit distracting information as revealed by curvature away from the distractor stimulus at longer SRTs. Interestingly, no significant differences in saccadic reaction times were observed. Results are discussed in the context of similar findings comparing older and younger adults and the putative frontal neural mechanisms that contribute to the observed developmental effect. Our present results suggest that saccadic curvature can be used a tool to measure fontal-oculomotor control interaction across the life span and can be further used to examine inhibitory functioning in special pediatric populations (e.g., having brain trauma, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, frontal epilepsy). WIBBLE:}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The present study examined development-related differences in saccade curvature during a goal-directed saccade task in the presence of distracting visual information. Participants were individuals who ranged in age from 6 to 30 years. Consistent with previous findings, all participants showed curvature toward the distractor stimulus at shorter saccadic reaction times (SRTs). Chronological age, however, was positively related to participants' ability to inhibit distracting information as revealed by curvature away from the distractor stimulus at longer SRTs. Interestingly, no significant differences in saccadic reaction times were observed. Results are discussed in the context of similar findings comparing older and younger adults and the putative frontal neural mechanisms that contribute to the observed developmental effect. Our present results suggest that saccadic curvature can be used a tool to measure fontal-oculomotor control interaction across the life span and can be further used to examine inhibitory functioning in special pediatric populations (e.g., having brain trauma, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, frontal epilepsy). WIBBLE: |
Gregory L West; Sarah Lippé The development of inhibitory saccadic trajectory deviations correlates with measures of antisaccadic inhibition Journal Article NeuroReport, 27 , pp. 1196–1201, 2016. @article{West2016, title = {The development of inhibitory saccadic trajectory deviations correlates with measures of antisaccadic inhibition}, author = {Gregory L West and Sarah Lippé}, doi = {10.1097/WNR.0000000000000672}, year = {2016}, date = {2016-01-01}, journal = {NeuroReport}, volume = {27}, pages = {1196--1201}, abstract = {Chronological age is related positively to a participant's ability to inhibit distracting information. Inhibition can be measured using the trajectory deviation of a saccade. Saccadic curvature away from distracting visual information is controlled through top–down inhibition mediated by the frontal eye fields. In the present study, we aimed to further test the saccadic trajectory deviation paradigm's sensitivity to the development of frontal inhibitory procuresses by comparing its measure of saccadic inhibition with that of a widely used paradigm, namely, the antisaccade task. We show that the later ‘inhibition' phase of the trajectory deviation function correlated strongly with the measure of antisaccadic inhibition obtained in the same individuals. As expected, the earlier ‘capture' phase of the trajectory deviation function, which does not represent the involvement of frontal structures, did not correlate with antisaccadic inhibition. Further, both measures of frontal inhibition increased with chronological age.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Chronological age is related positively to a participant's ability to inhibit distracting information. Inhibition can be measured using the trajectory deviation of a saccade. Saccadic curvature away from distracting visual information is controlled through top–down inhibition mediated by the frontal eye fields. In the present study, we aimed to further test the saccadic trajectory deviation paradigm's sensitivity to the development of frontal inhibitory procuresses by comparing its measure of saccadic inhibition with that of a widely used paradigm, namely, the antisaccade task. We show that the later ‘inhibition' phase of the trajectory deviation function correlated strongly with the measure of antisaccadic inhibition obtained in the same individuals. As expected, the earlier ‘capture' phase of the trajectory deviation function, which does not represent the involvement of frontal structures, did not correlate with antisaccadic inhibition. Further, both measures of frontal inhibition increased with chronological age. |
Nicole Wetzel; David Buttelmann; Andy Schieler; Andreas Widmann Infant and adult pupil dilation in response to unexpected sounds Journal Article Developmental Psychobiology, 58 (3), pp. 382–392, 2016. @article{Wetzel2016, title = {Infant and adult pupil dilation in response to unexpected sounds}, author = {Nicole Wetzel and David Buttelmann and Andy Schieler and Andreas Widmann}, doi = {10.1002/dev.21377}, year = {2016}, date = {2016-01-01}, journal = {Developmental Psychobiology}, volume = {58}, number = {3}, pages = {382--392}, abstract = {Surprisingly occurring sounds outside the focus of attention can involuntarily capture attention. This study focuses on the impact of deviant sounds on the pupil size as a marker of auditory involuntary attention in infants. We presented an oddball paradigm including four types of deviant sounds within a sequence of repeated standard sounds to 14-month-old infants and to adults. Environmental and noise deviant sounds elicited a strong pupil dilation response (PDR) in both age groups. In contrast, moderate frequency deviants elicited a significant PDR in adults only. Moreover, a principal component analysis revealed two components underlying the PDR. Component scores differ, depending on deviant types, between age groups. Results indicate age effects of parasympathetic inhibition and sympathetic activation of the pupil size caused by deviant sounds with a high arousing potential. Results demonstrate that the PDR is a sensitive tool for the investigation of involuntary attention to sounds in preverbal children.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Surprisingly occurring sounds outside the focus of attention can involuntarily capture attention. This study focuses on the impact of deviant sounds on the pupil size as a marker of auditory involuntary attention in infants. We presented an oddball paradigm including four types of deviant sounds within a sequence of repeated standard sounds to 14-month-old infants and to adults. Environmental and noise deviant sounds elicited a strong pupil dilation response (PDR) in both age groups. In contrast, moderate frequency deviants elicited a significant PDR in adults only. Moreover, a principal component analysis revealed two components underlying the PDR. Component scores differ, depending on deviant types, between age groups. Results indicate age effects of parasympathetic inhibition and sympathetic activation of the pupil size caused by deviant sounds with a high arousing potential. Results demonstrate that the PDR is a sensitive tool for the investigation of involuntary attention to sounds in preverbal children. |
Nicole Wetzel; Wolfgang Einhäuser; Andreas Widmann Picture-evoked changes in pupil size predict learning success in children Journal Article Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 192 , pp. 1–18, 2020. @article{Wetzel2020, title = {Picture-evoked changes in pupil size predict learning success in children}, author = {Nicole Wetzel and Wolfgang Einhäuser and Andreas Widmann}, doi = {10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104787}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Child Psychology}, volume = {192}, pages = {1--18}, publisher = {Elsevier Inc.}, abstract = {Episodic memory, the ability to remember past events in time and place, develops during childhood. Much knowledge about the underlying neuronal mechanisms has been gained from methods not suitable for children. We applied pupillometry to study memory encoding and recognition mechanisms. Children aged 8 and 9 years (n = 24) and adults (n = 24) studied a set of visual scenes to later distinguish them from new pictures. Children performed worse than adults, demonstrating immature episodic memory. During memorization, picture-related changes in pupil diameter predicted later successful recognition. This prediction effect was also observed on a single-trial level. During retrieval, novel pictures showed stronger pupil constriction than familiar pictures in both age groups. The statistically independent effects of objective familiarity (previously presented pictures) versus subjective familiarity (pictures evaluated as familiar independent of the prior presentation) suggest dissociable underlying brain mechanisms. In addition, we isolated principal components of the picture-related pupil response that were differently affected by the memorization and retrieval effects. Results are discussed in the context of the maturation of the medial temporal lobe and prefrontal networks. Our results demonstrate the dissociation of distinct contributions to episodic memory with a psychophysiological method that is suitable for a wide age spectrum.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Episodic memory, the ability to remember past events in time and place, develops during childhood. Much knowledge about the underlying neuronal mechanisms has been gained from methods not suitable for children. We applied pupillometry to study memory encoding and recognition mechanisms. Children aged 8 and 9 years (n = 24) and adults (n = 24) studied a set of visual scenes to later distinguish them from new pictures. Children performed worse than adults, demonstrating immature episodic memory. During memorization, picture-related changes in pupil diameter predicted later successful recognition. This prediction effect was also observed on a single-trial level. During retrieval, novel pictures showed stronger pupil constriction than familiar pictures in both age groups. The statistically independent effects of objective familiarity (previously presented pictures) versus subjective familiarity (pictures evaluated as familiar independent of the prior presentation) suggest dissociable underlying brain mechanisms. In addition, we isolated principal components of the picture-related pupil response that were differently affected by the memorization and retrieval effects. Results are discussed in the context of the maturation of the medial temporal lobe and prefrontal networks. Our results demonstrate the dissociation of distinct contributions to episodic memory with a psychophysiological method that is suitable for a wide age spectrum. |
Veronica Whitford; Debra Titone The effects of word frequency and word predictability during first- and second-language paragraph reading in bilingual older and younger adults Journal Article Psychology and Aging, 32 (2), pp. 158–177, 2017. @article{Whitford2017, title = {The effects of word frequency and word predictability during first- and second-language paragraph reading in bilingual older and younger adults}, author = {Veronica Whitford and Debra Titone}, year = {2017}, date = {2017-01-01}, journal = {Psychology and Aging}, volume = {32}, number = {2}, pages = {158--177}, abstract = {We used eye movement measures of paragraph reading; varying in amount of current L2 experience. Our ke; across both early- and late-stage reading; word frequency effects were generally larger in ol; whereas word predictability effects were generally; across both age groups and both reading stages; word frequency effects were larger in the L2 than ; whereas word predictability effects were language-; graded differences in current L2 experience modula; but had no impact in older adults. Specifically; greater current L2 experience facilitated L2 word ; but impeded L1 word processing among younger adult; we draw 2 main conclusions. First; bilingual older adults experience changes in word-; potentially because lexical accessibility decrease; bilingual older adults experience changes in word-; potentially because lexical representations reach a functional ceiling over time.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } We used eye movement measures of paragraph reading; varying in amount of current L2 experience. Our ke; across both early- and late-stage reading; word frequency effects were generally larger in ol; whereas word predictability effects were generally; across both age groups and both reading stages; word frequency effects were larger in the L2 than ; whereas word predictability effects were language-; graded differences in current L2 experience modula; but had no impact in older adults. Specifically; greater current L2 experience facilitated L2 word ; but impeded L1 word processing among younger adult; we draw 2 main conclusions. First; bilingual older adults experience changes in word-; potentially because lexical accessibility decrease; bilingual older adults experience changes in word-; potentially because lexical representations reach a functional ceiling over time. |
Veronica Whitford; Marc F Joanisse Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 173 , pp. 318–337, 2018. @article{Whitford2018, title = {Do eye movements reveal differences between monolingual and bilingual children's first-language and second-language reading? A focus on word frequency effects}, author = {Veronica Whitford and Marc F Joanisse}, doi = {10.1016/j.jecp.2018.03.014}, year = {2018}, date = {2018-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Child Psychology}, volume = {173}, pages = {318--337}, publisher = {Elsevier Inc.}, abstract = {An extensive body of research has examined reading acquisition and performance in monolingual children. Surprisingly, however, much less is known about reading in bilingual children, who outnumber monolingual children globally. Here, we address this important imbalance in the literature by employing eye movement recordings to examine both global (i.e., text-level) and local (i.e., word-level) aspects of monolingual and bilingual children's reading performance across their first-language (L1) and second-language (L2). We also had a specific focus on lexical accessibility, indexed by word frequency effects. We had three main findings. First, bilingual children displayed reduced global and local L1 reading performance relative to monolingual children, including larger L1 word frequency effects. Second, bilingual children displayed reduced global and local L2 versus L1 reading performance, including larger L2 word frequency effects. Third, both groups of children displayed reduced global and local reading performance relative to adult comparison groups (across their known languages), including larger word frequency effects. Notably, our first finding was not captured by traditional offline measures of reading, such as standardized tests, suggesting that these measures may lack the sensitivity to detect such nuanced between-group differences in reading performance. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that bilingual children's simultaneous exposure to two reading systems leads to eye movement reading behavior that differs from that of monolingual children and has important consequences for how lexical information is accessed and integrated in both languages.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } An extensive body of research has examined reading acquisition and performance in monolingual children. Surprisingly, however, much less is known about reading in bilingual children, who outnumber monolingual children globally. Here, we address this important imbalance in the literature by employing eye movement recordings to examine both global (i.e., text-level) and local (i.e., word-level) aspects of monolingual and bilingual children's reading performance across their first-language (L1) and second-language (L2). We also had a specific focus on lexical accessibility, indexed by word frequency effects. We had three main findings. First, bilingual children displayed reduced global and local L1 reading performance relative to monolingual children, including larger L1 word frequency effects. Second, bilingual children displayed reduced global and local L2 versus L1 reading performance, including larger L2 word frequency effects. Third, both groups of children displayed reduced global and local reading performance relative to adult comparison groups (across their known languages), including larger word frequency effects. Notably, our first finding was not captured by traditional offline measures of reading, such as standardized tests, suggesting that these measures may lack the sensitivity to detect such nuanced between-group differences in reading performance. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that bilingual children's simultaneous exposure to two reading systems leads to eye movement reading behavior that differs from that of monolingual children and has important consequences for how lexical information is accessed and integrated in both languages. |
Veronica Whitford; Debra Titone Lexical entrenchment and cross-language activation: Two sides of the same coin for bilingual reading across the adult lifespan Journal Article Bilingualism, 22 (1), pp. 58–77, 2019. @article{Whitford2019, title = {Lexical entrenchment and cross-language activation: Two sides of the same coin for bilingual reading across the adult lifespan}, author = {Veronica Whitford and Debra Titone}, doi = {10.1017/S1366728917000554}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Bilingualism}, volume = {22}, number = {1}, pages = {58--77}, abstract = {We used eye movement measures of paragraph reading to examine whether two consequences of bilingualism, namely, reduced lexical entrenchment (i.e., reduced lexical quality and accessibility arising from less absolute language experience) and cross-language activation (i.e., simultaneous co-activation of target- and non-target-language lexical representations) interact during word processing in bilingual younger and older adults. Specifically, we focused on the interaction between word frequency (a predictor of lexical entrenchment) and cross-language neighborhood density (a predictor of cross-language activation) during first- and second-language reading. Across both languages and both age groups, greater cross-language (and within-language) neighborhood density facilitated word processing, indexed by smaller word frequency effects. Moreover, word frequency effects and, to a lesser extent, cross-language neighborhood density effects were larger in older versus younger adults, potentially reflecting age-related changes in lexical accessibility and cognitive control. Thus, lexical entrenchment and cross-language activation multiplicatively influence bilingual word processing across the adult lifespan.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } We used eye movement measures of paragraph reading to examine whether two consequences of bilingualism, namely, reduced lexical entrenchment (i.e., reduced lexical quality and accessibility arising from less absolute language experience) and cross-language activation (i.e., simultaneous co-activation of target- and non-target-language lexical representations) interact during word processing in bilingual younger and older adults. Specifically, we focused on the interaction between word frequency (a predictor of lexical entrenchment) and cross-language neighborhood density (a predictor of cross-language activation) during first- and second-language reading. Across both languages and both age groups, greater cross-language (and within-language) neighborhood density facilitated word processing, indexed by smaller word frequency effects. Moreover, word frequency effects and, to a lesser extent, cross-language neighborhood density effects were larger in older versus younger adults, potentially reflecting age-related changes in lexical accessibility and cognitive control. Thus, lexical entrenchment and cross-language activation multiplicatively influence bilingual word processing across the adult lifespan. |
Louise R Williams; Madeleine A Grealy; Steve W Kelly; Iona Henderson; Stephen H Butler Perceptual bias, more than age, impacts on eye movements during face processing Journal Article Acta Psychologica, 164 , pp. 127–135, 2016. @article{Williams2016, title = {Perceptual bias, more than age, impacts on eye movements during face processing}, author = {Louise R Williams and Madeleine A Grealy and Steve W Kelly and Iona Henderson and Stephen H Butler}, doi = {10.1016/j.actpsy.2015.12.012}, year = {2016}, date = {2016-01-01}, journal = {Acta Psychologica}, volume = {164}, pages = {127--135}, publisher = {Elsevier B.V.}, abstract = {Consistent with the right hemispheric dominance for face processing, a left perceptual bias (LPB) is typically demonstrated by younger adults viewing faces and a left eye movement bias has also been revealed. Hemispheric asymmetry is predicted to reduce with age and older adults have demonstrated a weaker LPB, particularly when viewing time is restricted. What is currently unclear is whether age also weakens the left eye movement bias. Additionally, a right perceptual bias (RPB) for facial judgments has less frequently been demonstrated, but whether this is accompanied by a right eye movement bias has not been investigated. To address these issues older and younger adults' eye movements and gender judgments of chimeric faces were recorded in two time conditions. Age did not significantly weaken the LPB or eye movement bias; both groups looked initially to the left side of the face and made more fixations when the gender judgment was based on the left side. A positive association was found between LPB and initial saccades in the freeview condition and with all eye movements (initial saccades, number and duration of fixations) when time was restricted. The accompanying eye movement bias revealed by LPB participants contrasted with RPB participants who demonstrated no eye movement bias in either time condition. Consequently, increased age is not clearly associated with weakened perceptual and eye movement biases. Instead an eye movement bias accompanies an LPB (particularly under restricted viewing time conditions) but not an RPB.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Consistent with the right hemispheric dominance for face processing, a left perceptual bias (LPB) is typically demonstrated by younger adults viewing faces and a left eye movement bias has also been revealed. Hemispheric asymmetry is predicted to reduce with age and older adults have demonstrated a weaker LPB, particularly when viewing time is restricted. What is currently unclear is whether age also weakens the left eye movement bias. Additionally, a right perceptual bias (RPB) for facial judgments has less frequently been demonstrated, but whether this is accompanied by a right eye movement bias has not been investigated. To address these issues older and younger adults' eye movements and gender judgments of chimeric faces were recorded in two time conditions. Age did not significantly weaken the LPB or eye movement bias; both groups looked initially to the left side of the face and made more fixations when the gender judgment was based on the left side. A positive association was found between LPB and initial saccades in the freeview condition and with all eye movements (initial saccades, number and duration of fixations) when time was restricted. The accompanying eye movement bias revealed by LPB participants contrasted with RPB participants who demonstrated no eye movement bias in either time condition. Consequently, increased age is not clearly associated with weakened perceptual and eye movement biases. Instead an eye movement bias accompanies an LPB (particularly under restricted viewing time conditions) but not an RPB. |
Michael T Willoughby; Benjamin Piper; Dunston Kwayumba; Megan McCune Measuring executive function skills in young children in Kenya Journal Article Child Neuropsychology, 25 (4), pp. 425–444, 2019. @article{Willoughby2019, title = {Measuring executive function skills in young children in Kenya}, author = {Michael T Willoughby and Benjamin Piper and Dunston Kwayumba and Megan McCune}, doi = {10.1080/09297049.2018.1486395}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Child Neuropsychology}, volume = {25}, number = {4}, pages = {425--444}, publisher = {Routledge}, abstract = {Interest in measuring executive function skills in young children in low- and middle-income country contexts has been stymied by the lack of assessments that are both easy to deploy and scalable. This study reports on an initial effort to develop a tablet-based battery of executive function tasks, which were designed and extensively studied in the United States, for use in Kenya. Participants were 193 children, aged 3–6 years old, who attended early childhood development and education centers. The rates of individual task completion were high (65–100%), and 85% of children completed three or more tasks. Assessors indicated that 90% of all task administrations were of acceptable quality. An executive function composite score was approximately normally distributed, despite higher-than-expected floor and ceiling effects on inhibitory control tasks. Children's simple reaction time ($beta$ = –0.20, p = .004), attention-related behaviors during testing ($beta$ = 0.24, p = .0005), and age ($beta$ = –0.24, p = .0009) were all uniquely related to performance on the executive function composite. Results are discussed as they inform efforts to develop valid and reliable measures of executive function skills among young children in developing country contexts.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Interest in measuring executive function skills in young children in low- and middle-income country contexts has been stymied by the lack of assessments that are both easy to deploy and scalable. This study reports on an initial effort to develop a tablet-based battery of executive function tasks, which were designed and extensively studied in the United States, for use in Kenya. Participants were 193 children, aged 3–6 years old, who attended early childhood development and education centers. The rates of individual task completion were high (65–100%), and 85% of children completed three or more tasks. Assessors indicated that 90% of all task administrations were of acceptable quality. An executive function composite score was approximately normally distributed, despite higher-than-expected floor and ceiling effects on inhibitory control tasks. Children's simple reaction time ($beta$ = –0.20, p = .004), attention-related behaviors during testing ($beta$ = 0.24, p = .0005), and age ($beta$ = –0.24, p = .0009) were all uniquely related to performance on the executive function composite. Results are discussed as they inform efforts to develop valid and reliable measures of executive function skills among young children in developing country contexts. |
Elizabeth Wonnacott; Holly S S L Joseph; James S Adelman; Kate Nation Is children's reading “good enough”? Links between online processing and comprehension as children read syntactically ambiguous sentences Journal Article Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69 (5), pp. 855–879, 2016. @article{Wonnacott2016, title = {Is children's reading “good enough”? Links between online processing and comprehension as children read syntactically ambiguous sentences}, author = {Elizabeth Wonnacott and Holly S S L Joseph and James S Adelman and Kate Nation}, doi = {10.1080/17470218.2015.1011176}, year = {2016}, date = {2016-01-01}, journal = {Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology}, volume = {69}, number = {5}, pages = {855--879}, abstract = {We monitored 8- and 10-year-old children's eye movements as they read sentences containing a temporary syntactic ambiguity to obtain a detailed record of their online processing. Children showed the classic garden-path effect in online processing. Their reading was disrupted following disambiguation, relative to control sentences containing a comma to block the ambiguity, although the disruption occurred somewhat later than would be expected for mature readers. We also asked children questions to probe their comprehension of the syntactic ambiguity offline. They made more errors following ambiguous sentences than following control sentences, demonstrating that the initial incorrect parse of the garden-path sentence influenced offline comprehension. These findings are consistent with "good enough" processing effects seen in adults. While faster reading times and more regressions were generally associated with better comprehension, spending longer reading the question predicted comprehension success specifically in the ambiguous condition. This suggests that reading the question prompted children to reconstruct the sentence and engage in some form of processing, which in turn increased the likelihood of comprehension success. Older children were more sensitive to the syntactic function of commas, and, overall, they were faster and more accurate than younger children.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } We monitored 8- and 10-year-old children's eye movements as they read sentences containing a temporary syntactic ambiguity to obtain a detailed record of their online processing. Children showed the classic garden-path effect in online processing. Their reading was disrupted following disambiguation, relative to control sentences containing a comma to block the ambiguity, although the disruption occurred somewhat later than would be expected for mature readers. We also asked children questions to probe their comprehension of the syntactic ambiguity offline. They made more errors following ambiguous sentences than following control sentences, demonstrating that the initial incorrect parse of the garden-path sentence influenced offline comprehension. These findings are consistent with "good enough" processing effects seen in adults. While faster reading times and more regressions were generally associated with better comprehension, spending longer reading the question predicted comprehension success specifically in the ambiguous condition. This suggests that reading the question prompted children to reconstruct the sentence and engage in some form of processing, which in turn increased the likelihood of comprehension success. Older children were more sensitive to the syntactic function of commas, and, overall, they were faster and more accurate than younger children. |
Timothy J Wright; Thomas Vitale; Walter R Boot; Neil Charness The impact of red light running camera flashes on younger and older drivers' attention and oculomotor control Journal Article Psychology and Aging, 30 (4), pp. 755–767, 2015. @article{Wright2015c, title = {The impact of red light running camera flashes on younger and older drivers' attention and oculomotor control}, author = {Timothy J Wright and Thomas Vitale and Walter R Boot and Neil Charness}, doi = {10.1037/pag0000052}, year = {2015}, date = {2015-01-01}, journal = {Psychology and Aging}, volume = {30}, number = {4}, pages = {755--767}, abstract = {Recent empirical evidence suggests that the flashes associated with red light running cameras (RLRCs) distract younger drivers, pulling attention away from the roadway and delaying processing of safety-relevant events. Considering the perceptual and attentional declines that occur with age, older drivers may be especially susceptible to the distracting effects of RLRC flashes, particularly in situations in which the flash is more salient (a bright flash at night compared to the day). The current study examined how age and situational factors potentially influence attention capture by RLRC flashes using covert (cuing effects) and overt (eye movement) indices of capture. We manipulated the salience of the flash by varying its luminance and contrast with respect to the background of the driving scene (either day or night scenes). Results of two experiments suggest that simulated RLRC flashes capture observers' attention, but, surprisingly, no age differences in capture were observed. However, an analysis examining early and late eye movements revealed that older adults may have been strategically delaying their eye movements in order to avoid capture. Additionally, older adults took longer to disengage attention following capture, suggesting at least one age-related disadvantage in capture situations. Findings have theoretical implications for understanding age differences in attention capture, especially with respect to capture in real-world scenes, and inform future work that should examine how the distracting effects of RLRC flashes influence driver behavior.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Recent empirical evidence suggests that the flashes associated with red light running cameras (RLRCs) distract younger drivers, pulling attention away from the roadway and delaying processing of safety-relevant events. Considering the perceptual and attentional declines that occur with age, older drivers may be especially susceptible to the distracting effects of RLRC flashes, particularly in situations in which the flash is more salient (a bright flash at night compared to the day). The current study examined how age and situational factors potentially influence attention capture by RLRC flashes using covert (cuing effects) and overt (eye movement) indices of capture. We manipulated the salience of the flash by varying its luminance and contrast with respect to the background of the driving scene (either day or night scenes). Results of two experiments suggest that simulated RLRC flashes capture observers' attention, but, surprisingly, no age differences in capture were observed. However, an analysis examining early and late eye movements revealed that older adults may have been strategically delaying their eye movements in order to avoid capture. Additionally, older adults took longer to disengage attention following capture, suggesting at least one age-related disadvantage in capture situations. Findings have theoretical implications for understanding age differences in attention capture, especially with respect to capture in real-world scenes, and inform future work that should examine how the distracting effects of RLRC flashes influence driver behavior. |
Chao Jung Wu; Chia Yu Liu; Chung Hsuan Yang; Yu Cin Jian Eye-movements reveal children's deliberative thinking and predict performance on arithmetic word problems Journal Article European Journal of Psychology of Education, pp. 1–18, 2020. @article{Wu2020, title = {Eye-movements reveal children's deliberative thinking and predict performance on arithmetic word problems}, author = {Chao Jung Wu and Chia Yu Liu and Chung Hsuan Yang and Yu Cin Jian}, doi = {10.1007/s10212-020-00461-w}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {European Journal of Psychology of Education}, pages = {1--18}, abstract = {Despite decades of research on the close link between eye movements and human cognitive processes, the exact nature of the link between eye movements and deliberative thinking in problem-solving remains unknown. Thus, this study explored the critical eye-movement indicators of deliberative thinking and investigated whether visual behaviors could predict performance on arithmetic word problems of various difficulties. An eye tracker and test were employed to collect 69 sixth-graders' eye-movement behaviors and responses. No significant difference was found between the successful and unsuccessful groups on the simple problems, but on the difficult problems, the successful problem-solvers demonstrated significantly greater gaze aversion, longer fixations, and spontaneous reflections. Notably, the model incorporating RT-TFD, NOF of 500 ms, and pupil size indicators could best predict participants' performance, with an overall hit rate of 74%, rising to 80% when reading comprehension screening test scores were included. These results reveal the solvers' engagement strategies or show that successful problem-solvers were well aware of problem difficulty and could regulate their cognitive resources efficiently. This study sheds light on the development of an adapted learning system with embedded eye tracking to further predict students' visual behaviors, provide real-time feedback, and improve their problem-solving performance.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Despite decades of research on the close link between eye movements and human cognitive processes, the exact nature of the link between eye movements and deliberative thinking in problem-solving remains unknown. Thus, this study explored the critical eye-movement indicators of deliberative thinking and investigated whether visual behaviors could predict performance on arithmetic word problems of various difficulties. An eye tracker and test were employed to collect 69 sixth-graders' eye-movement behaviors and responses. No significant difference was found between the successful and unsuccessful groups on the simple problems, but on the difficult problems, the successful problem-solvers demonstrated significantly greater gaze aversion, longer fixations, and spontaneous reflections. Notably, the model incorporating RT-TFD, NOF of 500 ms, and pupil size indicators could best predict participants' performance, with an overall hit rate of 74%, rising to 80% when reading comprehension screening test scores were included. These results reveal the solvers' engagement strategies or show that successful problem-solvers were well aware of problem difficulty and could regulate their cognitive resources efficiently. This study sheds light on the development of an adapted learning system with embedded eye tracking to further predict students' visual behaviors, provide real-time feedback, and improve their problem-solving performance. |
Jordana S Wynn; Rosanna K Olsen; Malcolm A Binns; Bradley R Buchsbaum; Jennifer D Ryan Fixation reinstatement supports visuospatial memory in older adults Journal Article Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 44 (7), pp. 1119–1127, 2018. @article{Wynn2018, title = {Fixation reinstatement supports visuospatial memory in older adults}, author = {Jordana S Wynn and Rosanna K Olsen and Malcolm A Binns and Bradley R Buchsbaum and Jennifer D Ryan}, doi = {10.1037/xhp0000522}, year = {2018}, date = {2018-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance}, volume = {44}, number = {7}, pages = {1119--1127}, abstract = {Research using eye movement monitoring suggests that recapitulating the pattern of eye movements made during stimulus encoding at subsequent retrieval supports memory by reinstating the spatial layout of the encoded stimulus. In the present study, the authors investigated whether recapitulation of encoding fixations during a poststudy, stimulus-free delay period—an effect that has been previously linked to memory maintenance in younger adults— can support mnemonic performance in older adults. Older adults showed greater delay-period fixation reinstatement than younger adults, and this reinstatement supported age-equivalent performance on a subsequent visuospatial-memory-based change detection task, whereas in younger adults, the performance-enhancing effects of fixation reinstatement increased with task difficulty. Taken together, these results suggest that fixation reinstatement might reflect a compensatory response to increased cognitive load. The present findings provide novel evidence of compensatory fixation reinstatement in older adults and demonstrate the utility of eye movement monitoring for aging and memory research. Public Significance Statement Eye movements can be used to boost memory. Here, we show that when asked to remember the locations of objects within a scene, older adults will spontaneously rehearse the locations by looking with their eyes at the spaces that had been previously occupied by those objects. This gaze pattern supports subsequent memory performance. This study enhances our understanding of the role eye movements play in memory and establishes eye-movement monitoring as a useful method in aging research.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Research using eye movement monitoring suggests that recapitulating the pattern of eye movements made during stimulus encoding at subsequent retrieval supports memory by reinstating the spatial layout of the encoded stimulus. In the present study, the authors investigated whether recapitulation of encoding fixations during a poststudy, stimulus-free delay period—an effect that has been previously linked to memory maintenance in younger adults— can support mnemonic performance in older adults. Older adults showed greater delay-period fixation reinstatement than younger adults, and this reinstatement supported age-equivalent performance on a subsequent visuospatial-memory-based change detection task, whereas in younger adults, the performance-enhancing effects of fixation reinstatement increased with task difficulty. Taken together, these results suggest that fixation reinstatement might reflect a compensatory response to increased cognitive load. The present findings provide novel evidence of compensatory fixation reinstatement in older adults and demonstrate the utility of eye movement monitoring for aging and memory research. Public Significance Statement Eye movements can be used to boost memory. Here, we show that when asked to remember the locations of objects within a scene, older adults will spontaneously rehearse the locations by looking with their eyes at the spaces that had been previously occupied by those objects. This gaze pattern supports subsequent memory performance. This study enhances our understanding of the role eye movements play in memory and establishes eye-movement monitoring as a useful method in aging research. |
Jordana S Wynn; Jennifer D Ryan; Morris Moscovitch Effects of prior knowledge on active vision and memory in younger and older adults Journal Article Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 149 (3), pp. 518–529, 2020. @article{Wynn2020b, title = {Effects of prior knowledge on active vision and memory in younger and older adults}, author = {Jordana S Wynn and Jennifer D Ryan and Morris Moscovitch}, doi = {10.1037/xge0000657}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: General}, volume = {149}, number = {3}, pages = {518--529}, abstract = {In our daily lives we rely on prior knowledge to make predictions about the world around us such as where to search for and locate common objects. Yet, equally important in visual search is the ability to inhibit such processes when those predictions fail. Mounting evidence suggests that relative to younger adults, older adults have difficulty retrieving episodic memories and inhibiting prior knowledge, even when that knowledge is detrimental to the task at hand. However, the consequences of these age-related changes for visual search remain unclear. In the present study, we used eye movement monitoring to investigate whether overreliance on prior knowledge alters the gaze patterns and performance of older adults during visual search. Younger and older adults searched for target objects in congruent or incongruent locations in real-world scenes. As predicted, targets in congruent locations were detected faster than targets in incongruent locations, and this effect was enhanced in older adults. Analysis of viewing behavior revealed that prior knowledge effects emerged early in search, as evidenced by initial saccades, and continued throughout search, with greater viewing of congruent regions by older relative to younger adults, suggesting that schema biasing of online processing increases with age. Finally, both younger and older adults showed enhanced memory for the location of congruent targets and the identity of incongruent targets, with schema-guided viewing during search predicting poor memory for schema-incongruent targets in younger adults on both tasks. Our results provide novel evidence that older adults' overreliance on prior knowledge has consequences for both active vision and memory.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } In our daily lives we rely on prior knowledge to make predictions about the world around us such as where to search for and locate common objects. Yet, equally important in visual search is the ability to inhibit such processes when those predictions fail. Mounting evidence suggests that relative to younger adults, older adults have difficulty retrieving episodic memories and inhibiting prior knowledge, even when that knowledge is detrimental to the task at hand. However, the consequences of these age-related changes for visual search remain unclear. In the present study, we used eye movement monitoring to investigate whether overreliance on prior knowledge alters the gaze patterns and performance of older adults during visual search. Younger and older adults searched for target objects in congruent or incongruent locations in real-world scenes. As predicted, targets in congruent locations were detected faster than targets in incongruent locations, and this effect was enhanced in older adults. Analysis of viewing behavior revealed that prior knowledge effects emerged early in search, as evidenced by initial saccades, and continued throughout search, with greater viewing of congruent regions by older relative to younger adults, suggesting that schema biasing of online processing increases with age. Finally, both younger and older adults showed enhanced memory for the location of congruent targets and the identity of incongruent targets, with schema-guided viewing during search predicting poor memory for schema-incongruent targets in younger adults on both tasks. Our results provide novel evidence that older adults' overreliance on prior knowledge has consequences for both active vision and memory. |
Fang Xie; Jingxin Wang; Lisha Hao; Xue Zhang; Kayleigh L Warrington Perceptual Span Is Independent of Font Size for Older and Young Readers: Evidence From Chinese Journal Article Psychology and Aging, 2020. @article{Xie2020a, title = {Perceptual Span Is Independent of Font Size for Older and Young Readers: Evidence From Chinese}, author = {Fang Xie and Jingxin Wang and Lisha Hao and Xue Zhang and Kayleigh L Warrington}, doi = {10.1037/pag0000549}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {Psychology and Aging}, abstract = {Research suggests that visual acuity plays a more important role in parafoveal processing in Chinese reading than in spaced alphabetic languages, such that in Chinese, as the font size increases, the size of the perceptual span decreases. The lack of spaces and the complexity of written Chinese may make characters in eccentric positions particularly hard to process. Older adults generally have poorer visual capabilities than young adults, particularly in parafoveal vision, and so may find large characters in the parafovea particularly hard to process compared with smaller characters because of their greater eccentricity. Therefore, the effect of font size on the perceptual span may be larger for older readers. Crucially, this possibility has not previously been investigated; however, this may represent a unique source of age-related reading difficulty in logographic languages. Accordingly, to explore the relationship between font size and parafoveal processing for both older and young adult readers, we manipulated font size and the amount of parafoveal information available with different masking stimuli in 2 silent-reading experiments. The results show that decreasing the font size disrupted reading behavior more for older readers, such that reading times were longer for smaller characters, but crucially, the influence of font size on the perceptual span was absent for both age groups. These findings provide new insight into age-related reading difficulty in Chinese by revealing that older adults can successfully process substantial parafoveal information across a range of font sizes. This indicates that older adults' parafoveal processing may be more robust than previously considered.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Research suggests that visual acuity plays a more important role in parafoveal processing in Chinese reading than in spaced alphabetic languages, such that in Chinese, as the font size increases, the size of the perceptual span decreases. The lack of spaces and the complexity of written Chinese may make characters in eccentric positions particularly hard to process. Older adults generally have poorer visual capabilities than young adults, particularly in parafoveal vision, and so may find large characters in the parafovea particularly hard to process compared with smaller characters because of their greater eccentricity. Therefore, the effect of font size on the perceptual span may be larger for older readers. Crucially, this possibility has not previously been investigated; however, this may represent a unique source of age-related reading difficulty in logographic languages. Accordingly, to explore the relationship between font size and parafoveal processing for both older and young adult readers, we manipulated font size and the amount of parafoveal information available with different masking stimuli in 2 silent-reading experiments. The results show that decreasing the font size disrupted reading behavior more for older readers, such that reading times were longer for smaller characters, but crucially, the influence of font size on the perceptual span was absent for both age groups. These findings provide new insight into age-related reading difficulty in Chinese by revealing that older adults can successfully process substantial parafoveal information across a range of font sizes. This indicates that older adults' parafoveal processing may be more robust than previously considered. |
Ming Yan; Jinger Pan; Jochen Laubrock; Reinhold Kliegl; Hua Shu Parafoveal processing efficiency in rapid automatized naming: A comparison between Chinese normal and dyslexic children Journal Article Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 115 (3), pp. 579–589, 2013. @article{Yan2013, title = {Parafoveal processing efficiency in rapid automatized naming: A comparison between Chinese normal and dyslexic children}, author = {Ming Yan and Jinger Pan and Jochen Laubrock and Reinhold Kliegl and Hua Shu}, doi = {10.1016/j.jecp.2013.01.007}, year = {2013}, date = {2013-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Child Psychology}, volume = {115}, number = {3}, pages = {579--589}, publisher = {Elsevier Inc.}, abstract = {Dyslexic children are known to be slower than normal readers in rapid automatized naming (RAN). This suggests that dyslexics encounter local processing difficulties, which presumably induce a narrower perceptual span. Consequently, dyslexics should suffer less than normal readers from removing parafoveal preview. Here we used a gaze-contingent moving window paradigm in a RAN task to experimentally test this prediction. Results indicate that dyslexics extract less parafoveal information than control children. We propose that more attentional resources are recruited to the foveal processing because of dyslexics' less automatized translation of visual symbols into phonological output, thereby causing a reduction of the perceptual span. This in turn leads to less efficient preactivation of parafoveal information and, hence, more difficulty in processing the next foveal item.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Dyslexic children are known to be slower than normal readers in rapid automatized naming (RAN). This suggests that dyslexics encounter local processing difficulties, which presumably induce a narrower perceptual span. Consequently, dyslexics should suffer less than normal readers from removing parafoveal preview. Here we used a gaze-contingent moving window paradigm in a RAN task to experimentally test this prediction. Results indicate that dyslexics extract less parafoveal information than control children. We propose that more attentional resources are recruited to the foveal processing because of dyslexics' less automatized translation of visual symbols into phonological output, thereby causing a reduction of the perceptual span. This in turn leads to less efficient preactivation of parafoveal information and, hence, more difficulty in processing the next foveal item. |
Ming Yan; Hong Li; Yongqiang Su; Yuqing Cao; Jinger Pan The perceptual span and individual differences among Chinese children Journal Article Scientific Studies of Reading, 24 (6), pp. 520–530, 2020. @article{Yan2020a, title = {The perceptual span and individual differences among Chinese children}, author = {Ming Yan and Hong Li and Yongqiang Su and Yuqing Cao and Jinger Pan}, doi = {10.1080/10888438.2020.1713789}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {Scientific Studies of Reading}, volume = {24}, number = {6}, pages = {520--530}, publisher = {Routledge}, abstract = {In the present study, we explored the perceptual span of typically developing Chinese children in Grade 3 (G3) during their reading of age-appropriate sentences, utilizing the gaze contingent moving window paradigm. Overall, these Chinese children had a smaller perceptual span than adults, covering only one character leftward and two characters rightward of the currently fixated one. In addition, individual differences in reading ability (i.e., number of characters correctly read aloud per minute) influenced the size of the perceptual span. Fluent readers' reading and eye-movement parameters benefited from previewing the third upcoming characters, whereas non-fluent readers reached their asymptotic performances in a smaller window revealing rightwards by only two characters. These results suggest that the perceptual span is modulated dynamically by reading ability. Non-fluent readers need to focus their attention on foveal words, leading to narrowed perceptual span and reduced parafoveal processing.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } In the present study, we explored the perceptual span of typically developing Chinese children in Grade 3 (G3) during their reading of age-appropriate sentences, utilizing the gaze contingent moving window paradigm. Overall, these Chinese children had a smaller perceptual span than adults, covering only one character leftward and two characters rightward of the currently fixated one. In addition, individual differences in reading ability (i.e., number of characters correctly read aloud per minute) influenced the size of the perceptual span. Fluent readers' reading and eye-movement parameters benefited from previewing the third upcoming characters, whereas non-fluent readers reached their asymptotic performances in a smaller window revealing rightwards by only two characters. These results suggest that the perceptual span is modulated dynamically by reading ability. Non-fluent readers need to focus their attention on foveal words, leading to narrowed perceptual span and reduced parafoveal processing. |
Angele Yazbec; Michael P Kaschak; Arielle Borovsky Developmental timescale of rapid adaptation to conflicting cues in real-time sentence processing Journal Article Cognitive Science, 43 (1), pp. 1–41, 2019. @article{Yazbec2019, title = {Developmental timescale of rapid adaptation to conflicting cues in real-time sentence processing}, author = {Angele Yazbec and Michael P Kaschak and Arielle Borovsky}, doi = {10.1111/cogs.12704}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Cognitive Science}, volume = {43}, number = {1}, pages = {1--41}, abstract = {Children and adults use established global knowledge to generate real-time linguistic predictions, but less is known about how listeners generate predictions in circumstances that semantically conflict with long-standing event knowledge. We explore these issues in adults and 5- to 10-year-old children using an eye-tracked sentence comprehension task that tests real-time activation of unexpected events that had been previously encountered in brief stories. Adults generated predictions for these previously unexpected events based on these discourse cues alone, whereas children overall did not override their established global knowledge to generate expectations for semantically conflicting material; however, they do show an increased ability to integrate discourse cues to generate appropriate predictions for sentential endings. These results indicate that the ability to rapidly integrate and deploy semantically conflicting knowledge has a long developmental trajectory, with adult-like patterns not emerging until later in childhood.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Children and adults use established global knowledge to generate real-time linguistic predictions, but less is known about how listeners generate predictions in circumstances that semantically conflict with long-standing event knowledge. We explore these issues in adults and 5- to 10-year-old children using an eye-tracked sentence comprehension task that tests real-time activation of unexpected events that had been previously encountered in brief stories. Adults generated predictions for these previously unexpected events based on these discourse cues alone, whereas children overall did not override their established global knowledge to generate expectations for semantically conflicting material; however, they do show an increased ability to integrate discourse cues to generate appropriate predictions for sentential endings. These results indicate that the ability to rapidly integrate and deploy semantically conflicting knowledge has a long developmental trajectory, with adult-like patterns not emerging until later in childhood. |
Lok-Kin Yeung; Jennifer D Ryan; Rosemary A Cowell; Morgan D Barense Recognition memory impairments caused by false recognition of novel objects Journal Article Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142 (4), pp. 1384–1397, 2013. @article{Yeung2013, title = {Recognition memory impairments caused by false recognition of novel objects}, author = {Lok-Kin Yeung and Jennifer D Ryan and Rosemary A Cowell and Morgan D Barense}, doi = {10.1037/a0034021}, year = {2013}, date = {2013-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: General}, volume = {142}, number = {4}, pages = {1384--1397}, abstract = {A fundamental assumption underlying most current theories of amnesia is that memory impairments arise because previously studied information either is lost rapidly or is made inaccessible (i.e., the old information appears to be new). Recent studies in rodents have challenged this view, suggesting instead that under conditions of high interference, recognition memory impairments following medial temporal lobe damage arise because novel information appears as though it has been previously seen. Here, we developed a new object recognition memory paradigm that distinguished whether object recognition memory impairments were driven by previously viewed objects being treated as if they were novel or by novel objects falsely recognized as though they were previously seen. In this indirect, eyetracking-based passive viewing task, older adults at risk for mild cognitive impairment showed false recognition to high-interference novel items (with a significant degree of feature overlap with previously studied items) but normal novelty responses to low-interference novel items (with a lower degree of feature overlap). The indirect nature of the task minimized the effects of response bias and other memory-based decision processes, suggesting that these factors cannot solely account for false recognition. These findings support the counterintuitive notion that recognition memory impairments in this memory-impaired population are not characterized by forgetting but rather are driven by the failure to differentiate perceptually similar objects, leading to the false recognition of novel objects as having been seen before.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } A fundamental assumption underlying most current theories of amnesia is that memory impairments arise because previously studied information either is lost rapidly or is made inaccessible (i.e., the old information appears to be new). Recent studies in rodents have challenged this view, suggesting instead that under conditions of high interference, recognition memory impairments following medial temporal lobe damage arise because novel information appears as though it has been previously seen. Here, we developed a new object recognition memory paradigm that distinguished whether object recognition memory impairments were driven by previously viewed objects being treated as if they were novel or by novel objects falsely recognized as though they were previously seen. In this indirect, eyetracking-based passive viewing task, older adults at risk for mild cognitive impairment showed false recognition to high-interference novel items (with a significant degree of feature overlap with previously studied items) but normal novelty responses to low-interference novel items (with a lower degree of feature overlap). The indirect nature of the task minimized the effects of response bias and other memory-based decision processes, suggesting that these factors cannot solely account for false recognition. These findings support the counterintuitive notion that recognition memory impairments in this memory-impaired population are not characterized by forgetting but rather are driven by the failure to differentiate perceptually similar objects, leading to the false recognition of novel objects as having been seen before. |
Henny H Yeung; Stephanie Denison; Scott P Johnson Infants' looking to surprising events: When eye-tracking reveals more than looking time Journal Article PLoS ONE, 11 (12), pp. e0164277, 2016. @article{Yeung2016, title = {Infants' looking to surprising events: When eye-tracking reveals more than looking time}, author = {Henny H Yeung and Stephanie Denison and Scott P Johnson}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0164277}, year = {2016}, date = {2016-01-01}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {11}, number = {12}, pages = {e0164277}, abstract = {Research on infants' reasoning abilities often rely on looking times, which are longer to surprising and unexpected visual scenes compared to unsurprising and expected ones. Few researchers have examined more precise visual scanning patterns in these scenes, and so, here, we recorded 8- to 11-month-olds' gaze with an eye tracker as we presented a sampling event whose outcome was either surprising, neutral, or unsurprising: A red (or yellow) ball was drawn from one of three visible containers populated 0%, 50%, or 100% with identically colored balls. When measuring looking time to the whole scene, infants were insensitive to the likelihood of the sampling event, replicating failures in similar paradigms. Nevertheless, a new analysis of visual scanning showed that infants did spend more time fixating specific areas-of-interest as a function of the event likelihood. The drawn ball and its associated container attracted more looking than the other containers in the 0% condition, but this pattern was weaker in the 50% condition, and even less strong in the 100% condition. Results suggest that measuring where infants look may be more sensitive than simply how much looking there is to the whole scene. The advantages of eye tracking measures over traditional looking measures are discussed.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Research on infants' reasoning abilities often rely on looking times, which are longer to surprising and unexpected visual scenes compared to unsurprising and expected ones. Few researchers have examined more precise visual scanning patterns in these scenes, and so, here, we recorded 8- to 11-month-olds' gaze with an eye tracker as we presented a sampling event whose outcome was either surprising, neutral, or unsurprising: A red (or yellow) ball was drawn from one of three visible containers populated 0%, 50%, or 100% with identically colored balls. When measuring looking time to the whole scene, infants were insensitive to the likelihood of the sampling event, replicating failures in similar paradigms. Nevertheless, a new analysis of visual scanning showed that infants did spend more time fixating specific areas-of-interest as a function of the event likelihood. The drawn ball and its associated container attracted more looking than the other containers in the 0% condition, but this pattern was weaker in the 50% condition, and even less strong in the 100% condition. Results suggest that measuring where infants look may be more sensitive than simply how much looking there is to the whole scene. The advantages of eye tracking measures over traditional looking measures are discussed. |
Lok-Kin Yeung; Rosanna K Olsen; Bryan Hong; Valentina Mihajlovic; Maria C D'Angelo; Arber Kacollja; Jennifer D Ryan; Morgan D Barense Object-in-place memory predicted by anterolateral entorhinal cortex and parahippocampal cortex in older adults Journal Article Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 31 (5), pp. 711–729, 2019. @article{Yeung2019, title = {Object-in-place memory predicted by anterolateral entorhinal cortex and parahippocampal cortex in older adults}, author = {Lok-Kin Yeung and Rosanna K Olsen and Bryan Hong and Valentina Mihajlovic and Maria C D'Angelo and Arber Kacollja and Jennifer D Ryan and Morgan D Barense}, doi = {10.1162/jocn}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience}, volume = {31}, number = {5}, pages = {711--729}, abstract = {The lateral portion of the entorhinal cortex is one of the first brain regions affected by tau pathology, an important biomarker for Alzheimer disease. Improving our understanding of this region's cognitive role may help identify better cognitive tests for early detection of Alzheimer disease. Based on its functional connections, we tested the idea that the human anterolateral entorhinal cortex (alERC) may play a role in integrating spatial information into object representations. We recently demonstrated that the volume of the alERC was related to processing the spatial relationships of the features within an object [Yeung, L. K., Olsen, R. K., Bild-Enkin, H. E. P., D'Angelo, M. C., Kacollja, A., McQuiggan, D. A., et al. Anterolateral entorhinal cortex volume predicted by altered intra-item configural processing. Journal of Neuroscience, 37, 5527–5538, 2017]. In this study, we investi- gated whether the human alERC might also play a role in processing the spatial relationships between an object and its environment using an eye-tracking task that assessed visual fixations to a critical object within a scene. Guided by rodent work, we measured both object-in-place memory, the association of an object with a given context [Wilson, D. I., Langston, R. F., Schlesiger, M. I., Wagner, M., Watanabe, S., & Ainge, J. A. Lateral entorhinal cortex is critical for novel object-context recog- nition. Hippocampus, 23,352–366, 2013], and object-trace memory, the memory for the former location of objects [Tsao, A., Moser, M. B., & Moser, E. I. Traces of experience in the lateral entorhinal cortex. Current Biology, 23,399–405, 2013]. In a group of older adults with varying stages of brain atrophy and cognitive decline, we found that the volume of the alERC and the volume of the parahippocampal cortex selectively predicted object-in-place memory, but not object-trace memory. These results provide support for the notion that the alERC may integrate spatial information into object representations.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The lateral portion of the entorhinal cortex is one of the first brain regions affected by tau pathology, an important biomarker for Alzheimer disease. Improving our understanding of this region's cognitive role may help identify better cognitive tests for early detection of Alzheimer disease. Based on its functional connections, we tested the idea that the human anterolateral entorhinal cortex (alERC) may play a role in integrating spatial information into object representations. We recently demonstrated that the volume of the alERC was related to processing the spatial relationships of the features within an object [Yeung, L. K., Olsen, R. K., Bild-Enkin, H. E. P., D'Angelo, M. C., Kacollja, A., McQuiggan, D. A., et al. Anterolateral entorhinal cortex volume predicted by altered intra-item configural processing. Journal of Neuroscience, 37, 5527–5538, 2017]. In this study, we investi- gated whether the human alERC might also play a role in processing the spatial relationships between an object and its environment using an eye-tracking task that assessed visual fixations to a critical object within a scene. Guided by rodent work, we measured both object-in-place memory, the association of an object with a given context [Wilson, D. I., Langston, R. F., Schlesiger, M. I., Wagner, M., Watanabe, S., & Ainge, J. A. Lateral entorhinal cortex is critical for novel object-context recog- nition. Hippocampus, 23,352–366, 2013], and object-trace memory, the memory for the former location of objects [Tsao, A., Moser, M. B., & Moser, E. I. Traces of experience in the lateral entorhinal cortex. Current Biology, 23,399–405, 2013]. In a group of older adults with varying stages of brain atrophy and cognitive decline, we found that the volume of the alERC and the volume of the parahippocampal cortex selectively predicted object-in-place memory, but not object-trace memory. These results provide support for the notion that the alERC may integrate spatial information into object representations. |
Tania S Zamuner; Charlotte Moore; Félix Desmeules-Trudel Toddlers' sensitivity to within-word coarticulation during spoken word recognition: Developmental differences in lexical competition Journal Article Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 152 , pp. 136–148, 2016. @article{Zamuner2016, title = {Toddlers' sensitivity to within-word coarticulation during spoken word recognition: Developmental differences in lexical competition}, author = {Tania S Zamuner and Charlotte Moore and Félix Desmeules-Trudel}, doi = {10.1016/j.jecp.2016.07.012}, year = {2016}, date = {2016-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Experimental Child Psychology}, volume = {152}, pages = {136--148}, publisher = {Elsevier Inc.}, abstract = {To understand speech, listeners need to be able to decode the speech stream into meaningful units. However, coarticulation causes phonemes to differ based on their context. Because coarticulation is an ever-present component of the speech stream, it follows that listeners may exploit this source of information for cues to the identity of the words being spoken. This research investigates the development of listeners' sensitivity to coarticulation cues below the level of the phoneme in spoken word recognition. Using a looking-while-listening paradigm, adults and 2- and 3-year-old children were tested on coarticulation cues that either matched or mismatched the target. Both adults and children predicted upcoming phonemes based on anticipatory coarticulation to make decisions about word identity. The overall results demonstrate that coarticulation cues are a fundamental component of children's spoken word recognition system. However, children did not show the same resolution as adults of the mismatching coarticulation cues and competitor inhibition, indicating that children's processing systems are still developing.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } To understand speech, listeners need to be able to decode the speech stream into meaningful units. However, coarticulation causes phonemes to differ based on their context. Because coarticulation is an ever-present component of the speech stream, it follows that listeners may exploit this source of information for cues to the identity of the words being spoken. This research investigates the development of listeners' sensitivity to coarticulation cues below the level of the phoneme in spoken word recognition. Using a looking-while-listening paradigm, adults and 2- and 3-year-old children were tested on coarticulation cues that either matched or mismatched the target. Both adults and children predicted upcoming phonemes based on anticipatory coarticulation to make decisions about word identity. The overall results demonstrate that coarticulation cues are a fundamental component of children's spoken word recognition system. However, children did not show the same resolution as adults of the mismatching coarticulation cues and competitor inhibition, indicating that children's processing systems are still developing. |
Tania S Zamuner; Stephanie Strahm; Elizabeth Morin-Lessard; Michael P A Page Reverse production effect: Children recognize novel words better when they are heard rather than produced Journal Article Developmental Science, 21 (4), pp. 1–13, 2018. @article{Zamuner2018, title = {Reverse production effect: Children recognize novel words better when they are heard rather than produced}, author = {Tania S Zamuner and Stephanie Strahm and Elizabeth Morin-Lessard and Michael P A Page}, doi = {10.1111/desc.12636}, year = {2018}, date = {2018-07-01}, journal = {Developmental Science}, volume = {21}, number = {4}, pages = {1--13}, publisher = {John Wiley & Sons, Ltd (10.1111)}, abstract = {This research investigates the effect of production on 4.5‐ to 6‐year‐old children's recognition of newly learned words. In Experiment 1, children were taught four novel words in a produced or heard training condition during a brief training phase. In Experiment 2, children were taught eight novel words, and this time training condition was in a blocked design. Immediately after training, children were tested on their recognition of the trained novel words using a preferential looking paradigm. In both experiments, children recognized novel words that were produced and heard during training, but demonstrated better recognition for items that were heard. These findings are opposite to previous results reported in the literature with adults and children. Our results show that benefits of speech production for word learning are dependent on factors such as task complexity and the developmental stage of the learner.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } This research investigates the effect of production on 4.5‐ to 6‐year‐old children's recognition of newly learned words. In Experiment 1, children were taught four novel words in a produced or heard training condition during a brief training phase. In Experiment 2, children were taught eight novel words, and this time training condition was in a blocked design. Immediately after training, children were tested on their recognition of the trained novel words using a preferential looking paradigm. In both experiments, children recognized novel words that were produced and heard during training, but demonstrated better recognition for items that were heard. These findings are opposite to previous results reported in the literature with adults and children. Our results show that benefits of speech production for word learning are dependent on factors such as task complexity and the developmental stage of the learner. |
Chuanli Zang; Manman Zhang; Xuejun Bai; Guoli Yan; Kevin B Paterson; Simon P Liversedge Effects of word frequency and visual complexity on eye movements of young and older Chinese readers Journal Article Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69 (7), pp. 1409–1425, 2016. @article{Zang2016a, title = {Effects of word frequency and visual complexity on eye movements of young and older Chinese readers}, author = {Chuanli Zang and Manman Zhang and Xuejun Bai and Guoli Yan and Kevin B Paterson and Simon P Liversedge}, doi = {10.1080/17470218.2015.1083594}, year = {2016}, date = {2016-01-01}, journal = {Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology}, volume = {69}, number = {7}, pages = {1409--1425}, publisher = {Taylor & Francis}, abstract = {Research using alphabetic languages shows that, compared to young adults, older adults employ a risky reading strategy in which they are more likely to guess word identities and skip words to compensate for their slower processing of text. However, little is known about how ageing affects reading behaviour for naturally unspaced, logographic languages like Chinese. Accordingly, to assess the generality of age-related changes in reading strategy across different writing systems we undertook an eye movement investigation of adult age differences in Chinese reading. Participants read sentences containing a target word (a single Chinese character) that had a high or low frequency of usage and was constructed from either few or many character strokes, and so either visually simple or complex. Frequency and complexity produced similar patterns of influence for both age groups on skipping rates and fixation times for target words. Both groups therefore demonstrated sensitivity to these manipulations. But compared to the young adults, the older adults made more and longer fixations and more forward and backward eye movements overall. They also fixated the target words for longer, especially when these were visually complex. Crucially, the older adults skipped words less and made shorter progressive saccades. Therefore, in contrast with findings for alphabetic languages, older Chinese readers appear to use a careful reading strategy according to which they move their eyes cautiously along lines of text and skip words infrequently. We propose they use this more careful reading strategy to compensate for increased difficulty processing word boundaries in Chinese.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Research using alphabetic languages shows that, compared to young adults, older adults employ a risky reading strategy in which they are more likely to guess word identities and skip words to compensate for their slower processing of text. However, little is known about how ageing affects reading behaviour for naturally unspaced, logographic languages like Chinese. Accordingly, to assess the generality of age-related changes in reading strategy across different writing systems we undertook an eye movement investigation of adult age differences in Chinese reading. Participants read sentences containing a target word (a single Chinese character) that had a high or low frequency of usage and was constructed from either few or many character strokes, and so either visually simple or complex. Frequency and complexity produced similar patterns of influence for both age groups on skipping rates and fixation times for target words. Both groups therefore demonstrated sensitivity to these manipulations. But compared to the young adults, the older adults made more and longer fixations and more forward and backward eye movements overall. They also fixated the target words for longer, especially when these were visually complex. Crucially, the older adults skipped words less and made shorter progressive saccades. Therefore, in contrast with findings for alphabetic languages, older Chinese readers appear to use a careful reading strategy according to which they move their eyes cautiously along lines of text and skip words infrequently. We propose they use this more careful reading strategy to compensate for increased difficulty processing word boundaries in Chinese. |
Andrea M Zawoyski; Scott P Ardoin; Katherine S Binder Using eye tracking to observe differential effects of repeated readings for second-grade students as a function of achievement level Journal Article Reading Research Quarterly, 50 (2), pp. 171–184, 2015. @article{Zawoyski2015, title = {Using eye tracking to observe differential effects of repeated readings for second-grade students as a function of achievement level}, author = {Andrea M Zawoyski and Scott P Ardoin and Katherine S Binder}, doi = {10.1002/rrq.91}, year = {2015}, date = {2015-01-01}, journal = {Reading Research Quarterly}, volume = {50}, number = {2}, pages = {171--184}, abstract = {Repeated readings (RR) is an evidence-based instructional technique in which students read the same text multiple times. Currently, little is known about how effects of RR may differ based on students' achievement levels. Eye tracking provides a means for closely examining instructional effects because it permits measurement of subtle changes that occur during RR. The current study measured changes in the reading behavior of second-grade students who were divided into two groups of 22 students each based on their reading achievement levels. Participants read a grade-level passage embedded with low-and high-frequency target words four times in a single session while their eye movements were recorded. Findings replicated those of previous research, suggesting that RR facilitated reading for students in both groups, particularly on low-frequency target words. Results indicated both similarities and differences in patterns of performance between lower and higher performing readers. Additionally, results implied that effects were greater for lower performing readers because they made greater improvements on high-frequency target words, whereas effects were diminished for higher performing readers. The findings have implications for improving future eye movement research investigating young students' reading and the efficiency of RR in the classroom.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Repeated readings (RR) is an evidence-based instructional technique in which students read the same text multiple times. Currently, little is known about how effects of RR may differ based on students' achievement levels. Eye tracking provides a means for closely examining instructional effects because it permits measurement of subtle changes that occur during RR. The current study measured changes in the reading behavior of second-grade students who were divided into two groups of 22 students each based on their reading achievement levels. Participants read a grade-level passage embedded with low-and high-frequency target words four times in a single session while their eye movements were recorded. Findings replicated those of previous research, suggesting that RR facilitated reading for students in both groups, particularly on low-frequency target words. Results indicated both similarities and differences in patterns of performance between lower and higher performing readers. Additionally, results implied that effects were greater for lower performing readers because they made greater improvements on high-frequency target words, whereas effects were diminished for higher performing readers. The findings have implications for improving future eye movement research investigating young students' reading and the efficiency of RR in the classroom. |
Andrea M Zawoyski; Scott P Ardoin Using eye-tracking technology to examine the impact of question format on reading behavior in elementary students Journal Article School Psychology Review, 48 (4), pp. 320–332, 2019. @article{Zawoyski2019, title = {Using eye-tracking technology to examine the impact of question format on reading behavior in elementary students}, author = {Andrea M Zawoyski and Scott P Ardoin}, doi = {10.17105/SPR-2018-0014.V48-4}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {School Psychology Review}, volume = {48}, number = {4}, pages = {320--332}, abstract = {Reading comprehension assessments often include multiple-choice (MC) questions, but some researchers doubt their validity in measuring comprehension. Consequently, new assessments may include more short-answer (SA) questions. The current study contributes to the research comparing MC and SA questions by evaluating the effects of anticipated question format on elementary students' reading behavior. Third- and fourth-grade participants were divided into the MC (n = 43) or SA condition (n = 44) and expected to answer questions consistent with their group assignment. Eye movements (EMs) were analyzed across the passage and on areas significant to its meaning. Correlational analyses between EMs and reading measures were conducted. Findings support modification of question format in reading assessments. Implications for school psychologists, teachers, and EM researchers are addressed.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Reading comprehension assessments often include multiple-choice (MC) questions, but some researchers doubt their validity in measuring comprehension. Consequently, new assessments may include more short-answer (SA) questions. The current study contributes to the research comparing MC and SA questions by evaluating the effects of anticipated question format on elementary students' reading behavior. Third- and fourth-grade participants were divided into the MC (n = 43) or SA condition (n = 44) and expected to answer questions consistent with their group assignment. Eye movements (EMs) were analyzed across the passage and on areas significant to its meaning. Correlational analyses between EMs and reading measures were conducted. Findings support modification of question format in reading assessments. Implications for school psychologists, teachers, and EM researchers are addressed. |
Chen Zhang; Angelina Paolozza; Po He Tseng; James N Reynolds; Douglas P Munoz; Laurent Itti Detection of children/youth with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder through eye movement, psychometric, and neuroimaging data Journal Article Frontiers in Neurology, 10 (FEB), pp. 1–15, 2019. @article{Zhang2019a, title = {Detection of children/youth with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder through eye movement, psychometric, and neuroimaging data}, author = {Chen Zhang and Angelina Paolozza and Po He Tseng and James N Reynolds and Douglas P Munoz and Laurent Itti}, doi = {10.3389/fneur.2019.00080}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Frontiers in Neurology}, volume = {10}, number = {FEB}, pages = {1--15}, abstract = {Background: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) is one of the most common causes of developmental disabilities and neurobehavioral deficits. Despite the high-prevalence of FASD, the current diagnostic process is challenging and time- and money-consuming, with underreported profiles of the neurocognitive and neurobehavioral impairments because of limited clinical capacity. We assessed children/youth with FASD from a multimodal perspective and developed a high-performing, low-cost screening protocol using a machine learning framework. Methods and Findings: Participants with FASD and age-matched typically developing controls completed up to six assessments, including saccadic eye movement tasks (prosaccade, antisaccade, and memory-guided saccade), free viewing of videos, psychometric tests, and neuroimaging of the corpus callosum. We comparatively investigated new machine learning methods applied to these data, toward the acquisition of a quantitative signature of the neurodevelopmental deficits, and the development of an objective, high-throughput screening tool to identify children/youth with FASD. Our method provides a comprehensive profile of distinct measures in domains including sensorimotor and visuospatial control, visual perception, attention, inhibition, working memory, academic functions, and brain structure. We also showed that a combination of four to six assessments yields the best FASD vs. control classification accuracy; however, this protocol is expensive and time consuming. We conducted a cost/benefit analysis of the six assessments and developed a high-performing, low-cost screening protocol based on a subset of eye movement and psychometric tests that approached the best result under a range of constraints (time, cost, participant age, required administration, and access to neuroimaging facility). Using insights from the theory of value of information, we proposed an optimal annual screening procedure for children at risk of FASD. Conclusions: We developed a high-capacity, low-cost screening procedure under constrains, with high expected monetary benefit, substantial impact of the referral and diagnostic process, and expected maximized long-term benefits to the tested individuals and to society. This annual screening procedure for children/youth at risk of FASD can be easily and widely deployed for early identification, potentially leading to earlier intervention and treatment. This is crucial for neurodevelopmental disorders, to mitigate the severity of the disorder and/or frequency of secondary comorbidities.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Background: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) is one of the most common causes of developmental disabilities and neurobehavioral deficits. Despite the high-prevalence of FASD, the current diagnostic process is challenging and time- and money-consuming, with underreported profiles of the neurocognitive and neurobehavioral impairments because of limited clinical capacity. We assessed children/youth with FASD from a multimodal perspective and developed a high-performing, low-cost screening protocol using a machine learning framework. Methods and Findings: Participants with FASD and age-matched typically developing controls completed up to six assessments, including saccadic eye movement tasks (prosaccade, antisaccade, and memory-guided saccade), free viewing of videos, psychometric tests, and neuroimaging of the corpus callosum. We comparatively investigated new machine learning methods applied to these data, toward the acquisition of a quantitative signature of the neurodevelopmental deficits, and the development of an objective, high-throughput screening tool to identify children/youth with FASD. Our method provides a comprehensive profile of distinct measures in domains including sensorimotor and visuospatial control, visual perception, attention, inhibition, working memory, academic functions, and brain structure. We also showed that a combination of four to six assessments yields the best FASD vs. control classification accuracy; however, this protocol is expensive and time consuming. We conducted a cost/benefit analysis of the six assessments and developed a high-performing, low-cost screening protocol based on a subset of eye movement and psychometric tests that approached the best result under a range of constraints (time, cost, participant age, required administration, and access to neuroimaging facility). Using insights from the theory of value of information, we proposed an optimal annual screening procedure for children at risk of FASD. Conclusions: We developed a high-capacity, low-cost screening procedure under constrains, with high expected monetary benefit, substantial impact of the referral and diagnostic process, and expected maximized long-term benefits to the tested individuals and to society. This annual screening procedure for children/youth at risk of FASD can be easily and widely deployed for early identification, potentially leading to earlier intervention and treatment. This is crucial for neurodevelopmental disorders, to mitigate the severity of the disorder and/or frequency of secondary comorbidities. |
Xiaoxian Zhang; Wanlu Fu; Licheng Xue; Jing Zhao; Zhiguo Wang Children with mathematical learning difficulties are sluggish in disengaging attention Journal Article Frontiers in Psychology, 10 , pp. 1–9, 2019. @article{Zhang2019f, title = {Children with mathematical learning difficulties are sluggish in disengaging attention}, author = {Xiaoxian Zhang and Wanlu Fu and Licheng Xue and Jing Zhao and Zhiguo Wang}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00932}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {10}, pages = {1--9}, abstract = {Mathematical learning difficulties (MLD) refer to a variety of deficits in math skills, typically pertaining to the domains of arithmetic and problem solving. The present study examined the time course of attentional orienting in MLD children with a spatial cueing task, by parametrically manipulating the cue-target onset asynchrony (CTOA). The results of Experiment 1 revealed that, in contrast to typical developing children, the inhibitory aftereffect of attentional orienting-frequently referred to as inhibition of return (IOR)-was not observed in the MLD children, even at the longest CTOA tested (800 ms). However, robust early facilitation effects were observed in the MLD children, suggesting that they have difficulties in attentional disengagement rather than attentional engagement. In a second experiment, a secondary cue was introduced to the cueing task to encourage attentional disengagement and IOR effects were observed in the MLD children. Taken together, the present experiments indicate that MLD children are sluggish in disengaging spatial attention.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Mathematical learning difficulties (MLD) refer to a variety of deficits in math skills, typically pertaining to the domains of arithmetic and problem solving. The present study examined the time course of attentional orienting in MLD children with a spatial cueing task, by parametrically manipulating the cue-target onset asynchrony (CTOA). The results of Experiment 1 revealed that, in contrast to typical developing children, the inhibitory aftereffect of attentional orienting-frequently referred to as inhibition of return (IOR)-was not observed in the MLD children, even at the longest CTOA tested (800 ms). However, robust early facilitation effects were observed in the MLD children, suggesting that they have difficulties in attentional disengagement rather than attentional engagement. In a second experiment, a secondary cue was introduced to the cueing task to encourage attentional disengagement and IOR effects were observed in the MLD children. Taken together, the present experiments indicate that MLD children are sluggish in disengaging spatial attention. |
Felicia Zhang; Sagi Jaffe-Dax; Robert C Wilson; Lauren L Emberson Prediction in infants and adults: A pupillometry study Journal Article Developmental Science, 22 (4), pp. 1–9, 2019. @article{Zhang2019h, title = {Prediction in infants and adults: A pupillometry study}, author = {Felicia Zhang and Sagi Jaffe-Dax and Robert C Wilson and Lauren L Emberson}, doi = {10.1111/desc.12780}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-12-01}, journal = {Developmental Science}, volume = {22}, number = {4}, pages = {1--9}, publisher = {John Wiley & Sons, Ltd (10.1111)}, abstract = {Adults use both bottom-up sensory inputs and top-down signals to generate predictions about future sensory inputs. Infants have also been shown to make predictions with simple stimuli and recent work has suggested top-down processing is available early in infancy. However, it is unknown whether this indicates that top-down prediction is an ability that is continuous across the lifespan or whether an infant's ability to predict is different from an adult's, qualitatively or quantitatively. We employed pupillometry to provide a direct comparison of prediction abilities across these disparate age groups. Pupil dilation response (PDR) was measured in 6-month olds and adults as they completed an identical implicit learning task designed to help learn associations between sounds and pictures. We found significantly larger PDR for visual omission trials (i.e. trials that violated participants' predictions without the presentation of new stimuli to control for bottom-up signals) compared to visual present trials (i.e. trials that confirmed participants' predictions) in both age groups. Furthermore, a computational learning model that is closely linked to prediction error (Rescorla-Wagner model) demonstrated similar learning trajectories suggesting a continuity of predictive capacity and learning across the two age groups.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Adults use both bottom-up sensory inputs and top-down signals to generate predictions about future sensory inputs. Infants have also been shown to make predictions with simple stimuli and recent work has suggested top-down processing is available early in infancy. However, it is unknown whether this indicates that top-down prediction is an ability that is continuous across the lifespan or whether an infant's ability to predict is different from an adult's, qualitatively or quantitatively. We employed pupillometry to provide a direct comparison of prediction abilities across these disparate age groups. Pupil dilation response (PDR) was measured in 6-month olds and adults as they completed an identical implicit learning task designed to help learn associations between sounds and pictures. We found significantly larger PDR for visual omission trials (i.e. trials that violated participants' predictions without the presentation of new stimuli to control for bottom-up signals) compared to visual present trials (i.e. trials that confirmed participants' predictions) in both age groups. Furthermore, a computational learning model that is closely linked to prediction error (Rescorla-Wagner model) demonstrated similar learning trajectories suggesting a continuity of predictive capacity and learning across the two age groups. |
Li Zhang; Guoli Yan; Li Zhou; Zebo Lan; Valerie Benson Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 50 , pp. 500–512, 2020. @article{Zhang2020e, title = {The influence of irrelevant visual distractors on eye movement control in Chinese children with autism spectrum disorder: Evidence from the remote distractor paradigm}, author = {Li Zhang and Guoli Yan and Li Zhou and Zebo Lan and Valerie Benson}, doi = {10.1007/s10803-019-04271-y}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders}, volume = {50}, pages = {500--512}, publisher = {Springer US}, abstract = {The current study examined eye movement control in autistic (ASD) children. Simple targets were presented in isolation, or with central, parafoveal, or peripheral distractors synchronously. Sixteen children with ASD (47–81 months) and nineteen age and IQ matched typically developing children were instructed to look to the target as accurately and quickly as possible. Both groups showed high proportions (40%) of saccadic errors towards parafoveal and peripheral distractors. For correctly executed eye movements to the targets, centrally presented distractors produced the longest latencies (time taken to initiate eye movements), followed by parafoveal and peripheral distractor conditions. Central distractors had a greater effect in the ASD group, indicating evidence for potential atypical voluntary attentional control in ASD children.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The current study examined eye movement control in autistic (ASD) children. Simple targets were presented in isolation, or with central, parafoveal, or peripheral distractors synchronously. Sixteen children with ASD (47–81 months) and nineteen age and IQ matched typically developing children were instructed to look to the target as accurately and quickly as possible. Both groups showed high proportions (40%) of saccadic errors towards parafoveal and peripheral distractors. For correctly executed eye movements to the targets, centrally presented distractors produced the longest latencies (time taken to initiate eye movements), followed by parafoveal and peripheral distractor conditions. Central distractors had a greater effect in the ASD group, indicating evidence for potential atypical voluntary attentional control in ASD children. |
Jing Zhao; Hang Yang; Xuchu Weng; Zhiguo Wang Emergent attentional bias toward visual word forms in the environment: Evidence from eye movements Journal Article Frontiers in Psychology, 9 , pp. 1–7, 2018. @article{Zhao2018, title = {Emergent attentional bias toward visual word forms in the environment: Evidence from eye movements}, author = {Jing Zhao and Hang Yang and Xuchu Weng and Zhiguo Wang}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01378}, year = {2018}, date = {2018-01-01}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {9}, pages = {1--7}, abstract = {Young children are frequently exposed to environmental prints (e.g., billboards and product labels) that contain visual word forms on a daily basis. As the visual word forms in environmental prints are frequently used to convey information critical to an individual's survival and wellbeing (e.g., "STOP" in the stop sign), it is conceivable that an attentional bias toward words in the environment may emerge as the reading ability of young children develops. Empirical findings relevant to this issue, however, are inconclusive so far. The present study examines this issue in children in the early stages of formal reading training (grades 1, 3, and 5) with the eye-tracking technique. Children viewed images with word and non-word visual information (environmental prints) and images with the same words in standard typeface on a plain background (standard prints). For children in grade 1, the latency of their first fixations on words in environmental prints was longer than those in standard prints. This latency cost, however, was markedly reduced in grades 3 and 5, suggesting that in older children an attentional bias toward words has emerged to help filter out the non-word visual information in environmental prints. Importantly, this attentional bias was found to correlate moderately with word reading ability. These findings show that an attentional bias toward visual word forms emerges shortly after the start of formal schooling and it is closely linked to the development of reading skills.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Young children are frequently exposed to environmental prints (e.g., billboards and product labels) that contain visual word forms on a daily basis. As the visual word forms in environmental prints are frequently used to convey information critical to an individual's survival and wellbeing (e.g., "STOP" in the stop sign), it is conceivable that an attentional bias toward words in the environment may emerge as the reading ability of young children develops. Empirical findings relevant to this issue, however, are inconclusive so far. The present study examines this issue in children in the early stages of formal reading training (grades 1, 3, and 5) with the eye-tracking technique. Children viewed images with word and non-word visual information (environmental prints) and images with the same words in standard typeface on a plain background (standard prints). For children in grade 1, the latency of their first fixations on words in environmental prints was longer than those in standard prints. This latency cost, however, was markedly reduced in grades 3 and 5, suggesting that in older children an attentional bias toward words has emerged to help filter out the non-word visual information in environmental prints. Importantly, this attentional bias was found to correlate moderately with word reading ability. These findings show that an attentional bias toward visual word forms emerges shortly after the start of formal schooling and it is closely linked to the development of reading skills. |
Sijia Zhao; Gabriela Bury; Alice Milne; Maria Chait Pupillometry as an objective measure of sustained attention in young and older listeners Journal Article Trends in Hearing, 23 , 2019. @article{Zhao2019a, title = {Pupillometry as an objective measure of sustained attention in young and older listeners}, author = {Sijia Zhao and Gabriela Bury and Alice Milne and Maria Chait}, doi = {10.1101/579540}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Trends in Hearing}, volume = {23}, abstract = {The ability to sustain attention on a task-relevant sound-source whilst avoiding distraction from other concurrent sounds is fundamental to listening in crowded environments. To isolate this aspect of hearing we designed a paradigm that continuously measured behavioural and pupillometry responses during 25-second-long trials in young (18-35 yo) and older (63-79 yo) participants. The auditory stimuli consisted of a number (1, 2 or 3) of concurrent, spectrally distinct tone streams. On each trial, participants detected brief silent gaps in one of the streams whilst resisting distraction from the others. Behavioural performance demonstrated increasing difficulty with time-on-task and with number/proximity of distractor streams. In young listeners (N=20), pupillometry revealed that pupil diameter (on the group and individual level) was dynamically modulated by instantaneous task difficulty such that periods where behavioural performance revealed a strain on sustained attention, were also accompanied by increased pupil diameter. Only trials on which participants performed successfully were included in the pupillometry analysis. Therefore, the observed effects reflect consequences of task demands as opposed to failure to attend.In line with existing reports, we observed global changes to pupil dynamics in the older group, including decreased pupil diameter, a limited dilation range, and reduced temporal variability. However, despite these changes, the older group showed similar effects of attentive tracking to those observed in the younger listeners. Overall, our results demonstrate that pupillometry can be a reliable and time-sensitive measure of the effort associated with attentive tracking over long durations in both young and (with some caveats) older listeners.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The ability to sustain attention on a task-relevant sound-source whilst avoiding distraction from other concurrent sounds is fundamental to listening in crowded environments. To isolate this aspect of hearing we designed a paradigm that continuously measured behavioural and pupillometry responses during 25-second-long trials in young (18-35 yo) and older (63-79 yo) participants. The auditory stimuli consisted of a number (1, 2 or 3) of concurrent, spectrally distinct tone streams. On each trial, participants detected brief silent gaps in one of the streams whilst resisting distraction from the others. Behavioural performance demonstrated increasing difficulty with time-on-task and with number/proximity of distractor streams. In young listeners (N=20), pupillometry revealed that pupil diameter (on the group and individual level) was dynamically modulated by instantaneous task difficulty such that periods where behavioural performance revealed a strain on sustained attention, were also accompanied by increased pupil diameter. Only trials on which participants performed successfully were included in the pupillometry analysis. Therefore, the observed effects reflect consequences of task demands as opposed to failure to attend.In line with existing reports, we observed global changes to pupil dynamics in the older group, including decreased pupil diameter, a limited dilation range, and reduced temporal variability. However, despite these changes, the older group showed similar effects of attentive tracking to those observed in the younger listeners. Overall, our results demonstrate that pupillometry can be a reliable and time-sensitive measure of the effort associated with attentive tracking over long durations in both young and (with some caveats) older listeners. |
Sainan Zhao; Lin Li; Min Chang; Jingxin Wang; Kevin B Paterson A further look at ageing and word predictability effects in Chinese reading: Evidence from one-character words Journal Article Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74 (1), pp. 68–78, 2021. @article{Zhao2021, title = {A further look at ageing and word predictability effects in Chinese reading: Evidence from one-character words}, author = {Sainan Zhao and Lin Li and Min Chang and Jingxin Wang and Kevin B Paterson}, doi = {10.1177/1747021820951131}, year = {2021}, date = {2021-01-01}, journal = {Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology}, volume = {74}, number = {1}, pages = {68--78}, abstract = {Older adults are thought to compensate for slower lexical processing by making greater use of contextual knowledge, relative to young adults, to predict words in sentences. Accordingly, compared to young adults, older adults should produce larger contextual predictability effects in reading times and skipping rates for words. Empirical support for this account is nevertheless scarce. Perhaps the clearest evidence to date comes from a recent Chinese study showing larger word predictability effects for older adults in reading times but not skipping rates for two-character words. However, one possibility is that the absence of a word-skipping effect in this experiment was due to the older readers skipping words infrequently because of difficulty processing two-character words parafoveally. We therefore took a further look at this issue, using one-character target words to boost word-skipping. Young (18–30 years) and older (65+ years) adults read sentences containing a target word that was either highly predictable or less predictable from the prior sentence context. Our results replicate the finding that older adults produce larger word predictability effects in reading times but not word-skipping, despite high skipping rates. We discuss these findings in relation to ageing effects on reading in different writing systems.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Older adults are thought to compensate for slower lexical processing by making greater use of contextual knowledge, relative to young adults, to predict words in sentences. Accordingly, compared to young adults, older adults should produce larger contextual predictability effects in reading times and skipping rates for words. Empirical support for this account is nevertheless scarce. Perhaps the clearest evidence to date comes from a recent Chinese study showing larger word predictability effects for older adults in reading times but not skipping rates for two-character words. However, one possibility is that the absence of a word-skipping effect in this experiment was due to the older readers skipping words infrequently because of difficulty processing two-character words parafoveally. We therefore took a further look at this issue, using one-character target words to boost word-skipping. Young (18–30 years) and older (65+ years) adults read sentences containing a target word that was either highly predictable or less predictable from the prior sentence context. Our results replicate the finding that older adults produce larger word predictability effects in reading times but not word-skipping, despite high skipping rates. We discuss these findings in relation to ageing effects on reading in different writing systems. |
Peng Zhou; Stephen Crain; Likan Zhan Sometimes children are as good as adults -- The pragmatic use of prosody in children's on-line sentence processing Journal Article Journal of Memory and Language, 67 (8), pp. 149–164, 2012. @article{Zhou2012a, title = {Sometimes children are as good as adults -- The pragmatic use of prosody in children's on-line sentence processing}, author = {Peng Zhou and Stephen Crain and Likan Zhan}, year = {2012}, date = {2012-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Memory and Language}, volume = {67}, number = {8}, pages = {149--164}, abstract = {This study examined 4-year-old Mandarin-speaking children's sensitivity to prosodic cues in resolving speech act ambiguities, using eye-movement recordings. Most previous on- line studies have focused on children's use of prosody in resolving structural ambiguities. Although children have been found to be sensitive to prosodic information, they use such information less effectively than adults in on-line sentence processing. The present study takes advantage of special properties of Mandarin Chinese to investigate the role of pros- ody in children's on-line processing of ambiguities in which prosody serves to signal the illocutionary meaning of an utterance (i.e., whether the speaker is asking a question or making a statement). We found that the effect of prosody in this case was as robust in chil- dren as it was in adults. This suggests that children are as sensitive as adults in using pros- ody in on-line sentence processing, when prosody is used to resolve a pragmatic ambiguity.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } This study examined 4-year-old Mandarin-speaking children's sensitivity to prosodic cues in resolving speech act ambiguities, using eye-movement recordings. Most previous on- line studies have focused on children's use of prosody in resolving structural ambiguities. Although children have been found to be sensitive to prosodic information, they use such information less effectively than adults in on-line sentence processing. The present study takes advantage of special properties of Mandarin Chinese to investigate the role of pros- ody in children's on-line processing of ambiguities in which prosody serves to signal the illocutionary meaning of an utterance (i.e., whether the speaker is asking a question or making a statement). We found that the effect of prosody in this case was as robust in chil- dren as it was in adults. This suggests that children are as sensitive as adults in using pros- ody in on-line sentence processing, when prosody is used to resolve a pragmatic ambiguity. |
Peng Zhou; Yi Su; Stephen Crain; Liqun Gao; Likan Zhan Children's use of phonological information in ambiguity resolution: A view from Mandarin Chinese Journal Article Journal of Child Language, 39 (4), pp. 687–730, 2012. @article{Zhou2012b, title = {Children's use of phonological information in ambiguity resolution: A view from Mandarin Chinese}, author = {Peng Zhou and Yi Su and Stephen Crain and Liqun Gao and Likan Zhan}, doi = {10.1017/S0305000911000249}, year = {2012}, date = {2012-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Child Language}, volume = {39}, number = {4}, pages = {687--730}, abstract = {How do children develop the mapping between prosody and other levels of linguistic knowledge? This question has received considerable attention in child language research. In the present study two experiments were conducted to investigate four- to five-year-old Mandarin-speaking children's sensitivity to prosody in ambiguity resolution. Experiment 1 used eye-tracking to assess children's use of stress in resolving structural ambiguities. Experiment 2 took advantage of special properties of Mandarin to investigate whether children can use intonational cues to resolve ambiguities involving speech acts. The results of our experiments show that children's use of prosodic information in ambiguity resolution varies depending on the type of ambiguity involved. Children can use prosodic information more effectively to resolve speech act ambiguities than to resolve structural ambiguities. This finding suggests that the mapping between prosody and semantics/pragmatics in young children is better established than the mapping between prosody and syntax.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } How do children develop the mapping between prosody and other levels of linguistic knowledge? This question has received considerable attention in child language research. In the present study two experiments were conducted to investigate four- to five-year-old Mandarin-speaking children's sensitivity to prosody in ambiguity resolution. Experiment 1 used eye-tracking to assess children's use of stress in resolving structural ambiguities. Experiment 2 took advantage of special properties of Mandarin to investigate whether children can use intonational cues to resolve ambiguities involving speech acts. The results of our experiments show that children's use of prosodic information in ambiguity resolution varies depending on the type of ambiguity involved. Children can use prosodic information more effectively to resolve speech act ambiguities than to resolve structural ambiguities. This finding suggests that the mapping between prosody and semantics/pragmatics in young children is better established than the mapping between prosody and syntax. |
Peng Zhou; Stephen Crain; Likan Zhan Grammatical aspect and event recognition in children's online sentence comprehension Journal Article Cognition, 133 (1), pp. 262–276, 2014. @article{Zhou2014, title = {Grammatical aspect and event recognition in children's online sentence comprehension}, author = {Peng Zhou and Stephen Crain and Likan Zhan}, doi = {10.1016/j.cognition.2014.06.018}, year = {2014}, date = {2014-01-01}, journal = {Cognition}, volume = {133}, number = {1}, pages = {262--276}, publisher = {133}, abstract = {This study investigated whether or not the temporal information encoded in aspectual morphemes can be used immediately by young children to facilitate event recognition during online sentence comprehension. We focused on the contrast between two grammatical aspectual morphemes in Mandarin Chinese, the perfective morpheme -le and the (imperfective) durative morpheme -zhe. The perfective morpheme -le is often used to indicate that an event has been completed, whereas the durative morpheme -zhe indicates that an event is still in progress or continuing. We were interested to see whether young children are able to use the temporal reference encoded in the two aspectual morphemes (i.e., completed versus ongoing) as rapidly as adults to facilitate event recognition during online sentence comprehension. Using the visual world eye-tracking paradigm, we tested 34 Mandarin-speaking adults and 99 Mandarin-speaking children (35 three-year-olds, 32 four-year-olds and 32 five-year-olds). On each trial, participants were presented with spoken sentences containing either of the two aspectual morphemes while viewing a visual image containing two pictures, one representing a completed event and one representing an ongoing event. Participants' eye movements were recorded from the onset of the spoken sentences. The results show that both the adults and the three age groups of children exhibited a facilitatory effect trigged by the aspectual morpheme: hearing the perfective morpheme -le triggered more eye movements to the completed event area, whereas hearing the durative morpheme -zhe triggered more eye movements to the ongoing event area. This effect occurred immediately after the onset of the aspectual morpheme, both for the adults and the three groups of children. This is evidence that young children are able to use the temporal information encoded in aspectual morphemes as rapidly as adults to facilitate event recognition. Children's eye movement patterns reflect a rapid mapping of grammatical aspect onto the temporal structures of events depicted in the visual scene.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } This study investigated whether or not the temporal information encoded in aspectual morphemes can be used immediately by young children to facilitate event recognition during online sentence comprehension. We focused on the contrast between two grammatical aspectual morphemes in Mandarin Chinese, the perfective morpheme -le and the (imperfective) durative morpheme -zhe. The perfective morpheme -le is often used to indicate that an event has been completed, whereas the durative morpheme -zhe indicates that an event is still in progress or continuing. We were interested to see whether young children are able to use the temporal reference encoded in the two aspectual morphemes (i.e., completed versus ongoing) as rapidly as adults to facilitate event recognition during online sentence comprehension. Using the visual world eye-tracking paradigm, we tested 34 Mandarin-speaking adults and 99 Mandarin-speaking children (35 three-year-olds, 32 four-year-olds and 32 five-year-olds). On each trial, participants were presented with spoken sentences containing either of the two aspectual morphemes while viewing a visual image containing two pictures, one representing a completed event and one representing an ongoing event. Participants' eye movements were recorded from the onset of the spoken sentences. The results show that both the adults and the three age groups of children exhibited a facilitatory effect trigged by the aspectual morpheme: hearing the perfective morpheme -le triggered more eye movements to the completed event area, whereas hearing the durative morpheme -zhe triggered more eye movements to the ongoing event area. This effect occurred immediately after the onset of the aspectual morpheme, both for the adults and the three groups of children. This is evidence that young children are able to use the temporal information encoded in aspectual morphemes as rapidly as adults to facilitate event recognition. Children's eye movement patterns reflect a rapid mapping of grammatical aspect onto the temporal structures of events depicted in the visual scene. |
Peng Zhou; Weiyi Ma Children's use of morphological cues in real-time event representation Journal Article Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 47 (1), pp. 241–260, 2018. @article{Zhou2018a, title = {Children's use of morphological cues in real-time event representation}, author = {Peng Zhou and Weiyi Ma}, doi = {10.1007/s10936-017-9530-y}, year = {2018}, date = {2018-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Psycholinguistic Research}, volume = {47}, number = {1}, pages = {241--260}, publisher = {Springer US}, abstract = {The present study investigated whether and how fast young children can use information encoded in morphological markers during real-time event representation. Using the visual world paradigm, we tested 35 adults, 34 5-year-olds and 33 3-year-olds. The results showed that the adults, the 5-year-olds and the 3-year-olds all exhibited eye gaze patterns that reflected a rapid use of morphological cues during real-time event representation. There was no difference in the time course of the eye gaze patterns of the 5-year-olds and those of the adults, indicating that 5-year-old children already have adult-like processing abilities and they can use morphological cues as effectively as adults during real-time event representation. However, a 400 ms delay was observed in the eye gaze patterns by the 3-year-olds as compared to the 5-year-olds and the adults. We proposed that the observed difference might reflect a difference in the general cognitive processing abilities between the three age groups. Due to the immature cognitive processing abilities of 3-year-olds, it took longer for them to progress their eye movements to the target pictures as compared to older children and adults.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The present study investigated whether and how fast young children can use information encoded in morphological markers during real-time event representation. Using the visual world paradigm, we tested 35 adults, 34 5-year-olds and 33 3-year-olds. The results showed that the adults, the 5-year-olds and the 3-year-olds all exhibited eye gaze patterns that reflected a rapid use of morphological cues during real-time event representation. There was no difference in the time course of the eye gaze patterns of the 5-year-olds and those of the adults, indicating that 5-year-old children already have adult-like processing abilities and they can use morphological cues as effectively as adults during real-time event representation. However, a 400 ms delay was observed in the eye gaze patterns by the 3-year-olds as compared to the 5-year-olds and the adults. We proposed that the observed difference might reflect a difference in the general cognitive processing abilities between the three age groups. Due to the immature cognitive processing abilities of 3-year-olds, it took longer for them to progress their eye movements to the target pictures as compared to older children and adults. |
Wei Zhou; Hua Shu; Kevin Miller; Ming Yan Reliance on orthography and phonology in reading of Chinese: A developmental study Journal Article Journal of Research in Reading, 41 (2), pp. 370–391, 2018. @article{Zhou2018e, title = {Reliance on orthography and phonology in reading of Chinese: A developmental study}, author = {Wei Zhou and Hua Shu and Kevin Miller and Ming Yan}, doi = {10.1111/1467-9817.12111}, year = {2018}, date = {2018-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Research in Reading}, volume = {41}, number = {2}, pages = {370--391}, abstract = {Background: Disruptions of reading processes due to text substitutions can measure how readers use lexical information. Methods: With eye-movement recording, children and adults viewed sentences with either identical, orthographically similar, homophonic or unrelated substitutions of the first characters in target words. To the extent that readers rely on orthographic or phonological cues, substitutions that contain such cues should cause less disruption reading than do unrelated substitutions. Results: On pretarget words, there was a reliable reduction in gaze duration due to homophonic substitution only for children. On target words, we observed reliable recovery effects due to orthographic similarity for adults. On post-target words, adults had better orthographic-based and phonological-based recovery abilities than children. Conclusions: The combination of eye movement recording and the error detection paradigm offers a novel implicit paradigm for studying reading development: during sentence reading, beginning readers of Chinese may rely on phonological mediation, while skilled readers have more direct access to semantics from orthography.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Background: Disruptions of reading processes due to text substitutions can measure how readers use lexical information. Methods: With eye-movement recording, children and adults viewed sentences with either identical, orthographically similar, homophonic or unrelated substitutions of the first characters in target words. To the extent that readers rely on orthographic or phonological cues, substitutions that contain such cues should cause less disruption reading than do unrelated substitutions. Results: On pretarget words, there was a reliable reduction in gaze duration due to homophonic substitution only for children. On target words, we observed reliable recovery effects due to orthographic similarity for adults. On post-target words, adults had better orthographic-based and phonological-based recovery abilities than children. Conclusions: The combination of eye movement recording and the error detection paradigm offers a novel implicit paradigm for studying reading development: during sentence reading, beginning readers of Chinese may rely on phonological mediation, while skilled readers have more direct access to semantics from orthography. |
Peng Zhou; Likan Zhan; Huimin Ma Predictive language processing in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder: An eye-tracking study Journal Article Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 48 (2), pp. 431–452, 2019. @article{Zhou2019, title = {Predictive language processing in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder: An eye-tracking study}, author = {Peng Zhou and Likan Zhan and Huimin Ma}, doi = {10.1007/s10936-018-9612-5}, year = {2019}, date = {2019-01-01}, journal = {Journal of Psycholinguistic Research}, volume = {48}, number = {2}, pages = {431--452}, publisher = {Springer US}, abstract = {Sentence comprehension relies on the abilities to rapidly integrate different types of linguistic and non-linguistic information. The present study investigated whether Mandarin-speaking preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are able to use verb information predictively to anticipate the upcoming linguistic input during real-time sentence comprehension. 26 five-year-olds with ASD, 25 typically developing (TD) five-year-olds and 24 TD four-year-olds were tested using the visual world eye-tracking paradigm. The results showed that the 5-year-olds with ASD, like their TD peers, exhibited verb-based anticipatory eye movements during real-time sentence comprehension. No difference was observed between the ASD and TD groups in the time course of their eye gaze patterns, indicating that Mandarin-speaking preschool children with ASD are able to use verb information as effectively and rapidly as TD peers to predict the upcoming linguistic input.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Sentence comprehension relies on the abilities to rapidly integrate different types of linguistic and non-linguistic information. The present study investigated whether Mandarin-speaking preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are able to use verb information predictively to anticipate the upcoming linguistic input during real-time sentence comprehension. 26 five-year-olds with ASD, 25 typically developing (TD) five-year-olds and 24 TD four-year-olds were tested using the visual world eye-tracking paradigm. The results showed that the 5-year-olds with ASD, like their TD peers, exhibited verb-based anticipatory eye movements during real-time sentence comprehension. No difference was observed between the ASD and TD groups in the time course of their eye gaze patterns, indicating that Mandarin-speaking preschool children with ASD are able to use verb information as effectively and rapidly as TD peers to predict the upcoming linguistic input. |
Peng Zhou; Weiyi Ma; Likan Zhan A deficit in using prosodic cues to understand communicative intentions by children with autism spectrum disorders: An eye-tracking study Journal Article First Language, 40 (1), pp. 41–63, 2020. @article{Zhou2020, title = {A deficit in using prosodic cues to understand communicative intentions by children with autism spectrum disorders: An eye-tracking study}, author = {Peng Zhou and Weiyi Ma and Likan Zhan}, doi = {10.1177/0142723719885270}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {First Language}, volume = {40}, number = {1}, pages = {41--63}, abstract = {The present study investigated whether Mandarin-speaking preschool children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) were able to use prosodic cues to understand others' communicative intentions. Using the visual world eye-tracking paradigm, the study found that unlike typically developing (TD) 4-year-olds, both 4-year-olds with ASD and 5-year-olds with ASD exhibited an eye gaze pattern that reflected their inability to use prosodic cues to infer the intended meaning of the speaker. Their performance was relatively independent of their verbal IQ and mean length of utterance. In addition, the findings also show that there was no development in this ability from 4 years of age to 5 years of age. The findings indicate that Mandarin-speaking preschool children with ASD exhibit a deficit in using prosodic cues to understand the communicative intentions of the speaker, and this ability might be inherently impaired in ASD.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } The present study investigated whether Mandarin-speaking preschool children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) were able to use prosodic cues to understand others' communicative intentions. Using the visual world eye-tracking paradigm, the study found that unlike typically developing (TD) 4-year-olds, both 4-year-olds with ASD and 5-year-olds with ASD exhibited an eye gaze pattern that reflected their inability to use prosodic cues to infer the intended meaning of the speaker. Their performance was relatively independent of their verbal IQ and mean length of utterance. In addition, the findings also show that there was no development in this ability from 4 years of age to 5 years of age. The findings indicate that Mandarin-speaking preschool children with ASD exhibit a deficit in using prosodic cues to understand the communicative intentions of the speaker, and this ability might be inherently impaired in ASD. |
Maryam Ziaei; William von Hippel; Julie D Henry; Stefanie I Becker Are age effects in positivity influenced by the valence of distractors? Journal Article PLoS ONE, 10 (9), pp. e0137604, 2015. @article{Ziaei2015, title = {Are age effects in positivity influenced by the valence of distractors?}, author = {Maryam Ziaei and William von Hippel and Julie D Henry and Stefanie I Becker}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0137604}, year = {2015}, date = {2015-01-01}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {10}, number = {9}, pages = {e0137604}, abstract = {An age-related ‘positivity' effect has been identified, in which older adults show an information- processing bias towards positive emotional items in attention and memory. In the present study, we examined this positivity bias by using a novel paradigm in which emotional and neutral distractors were presented along with emotionally valenced targets. Thirty-five older and 37 younger adults were asked during encoding to attend to emotional targets paired with distractors that were either neutral or opposite in valence to the target. Pupillary responses were recorded during initial encoding as well as a later incidental recognition task. Memory and pupillary responses for negative items were not affected by the valence of distractors, suggesting that positive distractors did not automatically attract older adults' attention while they were encoding negative targets. Additionally, the pupil dilation to negative items mediated the relation between age and positivity in memory. Overall, memory and pupillary responses provide converging support for a cognitive control account of positivity effects in late adulthood and suggest a link between attentional processes and the memory positivity effect.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } An age-related ‘positivity' effect has been identified, in which older adults show an information- processing bias towards positive emotional items in attention and memory. In the present study, we examined this positivity bias by using a novel paradigm in which emotional and neutral distractors were presented along with emotionally valenced targets. Thirty-five older and 37 younger adults were asked during encoding to attend to emotional targets paired with distractors that were either neutral or opposite in valence to the target. Pupillary responses were recorded during initial encoding as well as a later incidental recognition task. Memory and pupillary responses for negative items were not affected by the valence of distractors, suggesting that positive distractors did not automatically attract older adults' attention while they were encoding negative targets. Additionally, the pupil dilation to negative items mediated the relation between age and positivity in memory. Overall, memory and pupillary responses provide converging support for a cognitive control account of positivity effects in late adulthood and suggest a link between attentional processes and the memory positivity effect. |
Vladislav I Zubov; Tatiana E Petrova Lexically or grammatically adapted texts: What is easier to process for secondary school children? Journal Article Procedia Computer Science, 176 , pp. 2117–2124, 2020. @article{Zubov2020, title = {Lexically or grammatically adapted texts: What is easier to process for secondary school children?}, author = {Vladislav I Zubov and Tatiana E Petrova}, doi = {10.1016/j.procs.2020.09.248}, year = {2020}, date = {2020-01-01}, journal = {Procedia Computer Science}, volume = {176}, pages = {2117--2124}, publisher = {Elsevier B.V.}, abstract = {This article presents the results of an eye-tracking experiment on Russian language material, exploring the reading process in secondary school children with general speech underdevelopment. The objective of the study is to reveal what type of a text is better to use to make the reading and comprehension easier: lexically adapted text or grammatically adapted text? The data from Russian-speaking participants from the compulsory school (experimental group) and 28 secondary school children with normal speech development (control group) indicate that both types of adaptation proved to be efficient for recalling the information from the text. Though, we revealed that in teenagers with language disorders in anamnesis lower perceptual processes are partially compensated (parameters of eye movements), but higher comprehension processes remain affected.}, keywords = {}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } This article presents the results of an eye-tracking experiment on Russian language material, exploring the reading process in secondary school children with general speech underdevelopment. The objective of the study is to reveal what type of a text is better to use to make the reading and comprehension easier: lexically adapted text or grammatically adapted text? The data from Russian-speaking participants from the compulsory school (experimental group) and 28 secondary school children with normal speech development (control group) indicate that both types of adaptation proved to be efficient for recalling the information from the text. Though, we revealed that in teenagers with language disorders in anamnesis lower perceptual processes are partially compensated (parameters of eye movements), but higher comprehension processes remain affected. |