Marc Brysbaert

Ghent University | UGhent · Department of Experimental Psychology

Most current models of research on emotion recognize valence (how pleasant a stimulus is) and arousal (the level of activation or intensity a stimulus elicits) as important components in the classification of affective experiences (Feldman Barrett, 1998; Kuppens, Tuerlinckx, Russell, & Feldman Barrett, 2012). Here we present a set of norms for vale...

In this tutorial, we provide guidelines for conducting linear mixed effects (LME) analysis for simple designs. First, we discuss how LME analyses compare to traditional t-tests, ANOVAs and linear regression when participants are the only random variable. Then we extend the discussion to studies in which researchers want to generalize across both pa...

People are able to perceive emotions in the eyes of others and can therefore see emotions when individuals wear face masks. Research has been hampered by the lack of a good test to measure basic emotions in the eyes. In two studies with 358 and 200 participants, we developed a test to see anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise in ima...

Emotion is a fundamental aspect of human life and therefore is critically encoded in language. To facilitate research into the encoding of emotion in language and how emotion associations affect language processing, we present a new set of emotion norms for over 24, 000 Dutch words. The emotion norms include ratings of two key dimensions of emotion...

This is the first chapter of the new edition of our textbook. You can preview the book at https://www.routledge.com/Fundamentals-of-Cognition/Eysenck-Brysbaert/p/book/9781032471310

Silent reading often involves phonological encoding of the text in addition to orthographic processing. The nature of the phonological code is debated, however: Is it an abstract code or does it contain information about the pronunciation of the visual stimulus? To answer this question, we investigated the relationship between articulation speed an...

We investigated the extent to which language tests developed for native speakers (L1) can be used with advanced speakers of a second language (L2). We compared the performance of Dutch–English bilinguals with that of native English speakers on a series of English language tests, looking at vocabulary knowledge, crystallized intelligence, reading co...

This article presents the ENglish Reading Online (ENRO) project that offers data on English reading and listening comprehension from 7,338 university-level advanced learners and native speakers of English representing 19 countries. The database also includes estimates of reading rate and seven component skills of English, including vocabulary, spel...

A great majority of people around the world know more than one language. So, how does knowing one language affect the learning and use of additional languages? The question of cross-language influences is the focus of this book. Do bilinguals hear, understand, and produce language and meaning differently because of the languages they speak? How wel...

A great majority of people around the world know more than one language. So, how does knowing one language affect the learning and use of additional languages? The question of cross-language influences is the focus of this book. Do bilinguals hear, understand, and produce language and meaning differently because of the languages they speak? How wel...

Semantic gender norms are presented for 24,037 Dutch words. Eighty participants rated 6,017 words each on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from feminine to masculine. Each word was rated by 10 male and 10 female participants. The collected norms show high reliability and correlate well with similar norms in English. We show that semantic gender is di...

Semantic gender norms are presented for 24,037 Dutch words. Eighty participants rated 6,017 words each on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from feminine to masculine. Each word was rated by 10 male and 10 female participants. The collected norms show high reliability and correlate well with similar norms in English. We show that semantic gender is di...

Silent reading often involves phonological encoding of the text in addition to orthographic processing. A question related to the phonological code concerns its richness: Is it an abstract code or does it contain information about the pronunciation of the visual stimulus? To answer this question, we investigated the relationship between articulatio...

Concreteness describes the degree to which a word's meaning is understood through perception and action. Many studies use the Brysbaert et al. (2014) concreteness ratings to investigate language processing and text analysis. However, these ratings are limited to English single words and a few two-word expressions. Increasingly, attention is focused...

Morphological awareness contributes to vocabulary acquisition and reading in bilingual children who learned English after their native language. In line with these considerations, we further investigated L2 processing in late adult bilinguals where questions related to morphology need to be clarified. French-English speakers (N = 92) were assessed...

This chapter considers key questions and issues concerning the role of phonology in silent reading. It reviews classic findings that point to phonological effects in reading. Stronger evidence for the involvement of assembled phonology in visual word recognition in English comes from experiments using masked priming. There are two ways in which wri...

We present five studies aimed at developing an L1 vocabulary test for English-speaking university students. Such a test is useful as an indicator of crystallized intelligence and because vocabulary size correlates well with reading comprehension. In the first study, we tested 100 written words with four answer alternatives, based on Nation's Vocabu...

We investigated how efficient item translation is in a challenging language testing situation. We made Spanish translations of recently developed English tests for high-achieving L1 adults (mainly university students), who are a homogeneous group and therefore a clear example of range restriction. The set included a vocabulary test, a general knowl...

The Belgian Association for Psychological Sciences (BAPS) is a learned society founded in 1947. Its mission is to unite people in Belgium interested in the development and application of psychological sciences. It does so through the publication of Psychologica Belgica, the organisation of an annual scientific meeting, the award of prizes, initiati...

In this study, we compared the performance of Dutch-English bilinguals with that of native English speakers on a series of language tests, looking at vocabulary knowledge, crystallized intelligence, reading comprehension, and reading speed. In line with previous studies, we found that advanced L2 speakers know fewer words than native speakers and t...

Research into second language (L2) reading is an exponentially growing field. Yet, it still has a relatively short supply of comparable, ecologically valid data from readers representing a variety of first languages (L1). This article addresses this need by presenting a new data resource called MECO L2 (Multilingual Eye Movements Corpus), a rich be...

Concreteness describes the degree to which a word’s meaning is understood through perception and action. The Brysbaert et al. (2014) concreteness ratings have provided insight into language processing and text analysis. However, these ratings are limited to English single words and a few two-word expressions. Increasingly, attention is focused on t...

Short language proficiency tests are often needed for low-stakes assessment in education and research, particularly in second language settings. Vocabulary tests are a good candidate; they give rapid, useful estimates of language proficiency. Ideally, several formats are available so that language proficiency can be measured independently of the me...

Scientific studies of language behavior need to grapple with a large diversity of languages in the world and, for reading, a further variability in writing systems. Yet, the ability to form meaningful theories of reading is contingent on the availability of cross-linguistic behavioral data. This paper offers new insights into aspects of reading beh...

In the original version of this paper, the title was incorrect.

We present five studies aimed at developing a new vocabulary test for university students. Such a test is useful as an indication of crystallized intelligence and because vocabulary size correlates well with reading comprehension. In the first study, a list of 100 words based on Nation’s Vocabulary Size Test was presented to 195 participants and co...

We present five studies aimed at developing a new vocabulary test for university students. Such a test isuseful as an indication of crystallized intelligence and because vocabulary size correlates well withreading comprehension. In the first study, a list of 100 words based on Nation’s Vocabulary Size Test waspresented to 195 participants and compa...

Little research has been done about the neural substrate of the sublexical level of Chinese word recognition. In particular, it is unclear how radicals participate in Chinese word processing. We compared two measures of radical combinability, position-general radical combinability (GRC) and position-specific radical combinability (SRC) depending on...

Internationally, an increase in the numbers of students with dyslexia in higher education is noticeable. Consequently, more and more information has been collected on the cognitive profile of these students compared to their non-disabled peers. In this chapter an overview is provided on the cognitive functioning of this group of students and the im...

Little information is available on the study outcome of students with dyslexia in higher education. Data were collected from a group of 99 first generation students with dyslexia and a matched control group of 89 students. Results on two self-report questionnaires, a personality questionnaire (NEO-PI-R) and a study strategies questionnaire (LASSI),...

In this chapter I summarize the evidence that phonology is involved in visual word recognition and text reading. This is even the case in groups with suboptimal access to spoken language (such as people born deaf and students learning a second language in school). The phonological code helps to make reading fluent, as suggested by the finding that...

In this chapter I summarize the evidence that phonology is involved in visual word recognition and text reading. This is even the case in groups with suboptimal access to spoken language (such as people born deaf and students learning a second language in school). The phonological code helps to make reading fluent, as suggested by the finding that...

We present written naming norms from 153 young adult Dutch speakers for 1397 photographs (the BOSS set; see Brodeur, Dionne-Dostie, Montreuil, & Lepage, 2010; Brodeur, Guérard, & Bouras, 2014). From the norming study, we report the preferred (modal) name, alternative names, name agreement, and average object agreement. In addition, the data base in...

Short language proficiency tests are often needed for low-stakes assessment in education and research, particularly in second language settings. Vocabulary tests are a good candidate; they give rapid, useful estimates of language proficiency. Ideally, several formats are available so that language proficiency can be measured independently of the me...

Samenvatting Tussen 2009 en 2015 ging aan de Universiteit Gent een grootschalig, longitudinaal onderzoek van start naar studeren met dyslexie in het hoger. Het doel was een breed beeld te krijgen van studenten met dyslexie die starten in het hoger onderwijs in Vlaanderen. Daarnaast werden deze studenten gedurende 3 academiejaren gemonitord om een b...

At first sight, it is a no-brainer to make publicly funded research findings freely available to everyone. Ever increasing pay walls are unsustainable and publishers have been pushing their luck in the last decades. On the other hand, free lunches do not exist either. It is unrealistic for researchers to expect that their manuscripts can be evaluat...

Previous research in English has suggested that reading rate predictions can be improved considerably by taking average word length into account. In the present study, we investigated whether the same regularity holds for Dutch. The Dutch language is very similar to English, but words are on average half a letter longer: 5.1 letters per word (in no...

Is it possible that silent reading rate is the same as the most efficient listening rate? The hypothesis has been formulated in the past, but never got much traction because silent reading is almost twice as fast as typical speech. On the other hand, several studies have shown that listening comprehension retains high quality for spoken materials p...

Previous research in English has suggested that reading rate predictions can be improved considerably by taking average word length into account. In the present study, we investigated whether the same regularity holds for Dutch. The Dutch language is very similar to English, but words are on average half a letter longer: 5.1 letters per word (in no...

A second language can be learned inside and outside the classroom. In this study we investigated the English and French vocabulary knowledge of 110 Dutch-speaking children (age 10–12), who received 100 hours of instruction in French, whereas their contact with English came from out-of-school exposure only. We examined the role of individual differe...

Emotions play a fundamental role in language learning, use, and processing. Words denoting positivity account for a larger part of the lexicon than words denoting negativity, and they also tend to be used more frequently, a phenomenon known as positivity bias. However, language experience changes over an individual's lifetime, making the examinatio...

In this study we investigated 107 young learners’ L2 English receptive vocabulary knowledge and speaking skills at two points in time, before and after the onset of instruction. We also investigated the role of several individual difference variables: out-of-school exposure to English, length of instruction, analytic reasoning ability, working memo...

General knowledge questionnaires have been ubiquitously used to study a wide variety of phenomena, such as illusory truth, error correction and tip-ofthe-tongue situations. However, their normings are highly restricted to the territory and the time period they in which they were obtained. This requires that new normings are obtained for each new te...

We introduce a new Dutch receptive vocabulary test, the Dutch auditory & image vocabulary test (DAIVT). The test is multiple choice and assesses vocabulary knowledge for spoken words. The measure has an online format (available at https://tpsurvey.ugent.be/limesurvey315/index.php/923234?lang=nl), has free access, and allows easy data collection. Th...

Lateralization is a critical characteristic of language production and also plays a role in visual word recognition. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the interactions between visual input and spoken word representations are still unclear. We investigated the contribution of sub-lexical phonological information in visual word processing by...

While functional lateralization of the human brain has been a widely studied topic in the past decades, few studies to date have gone further than investigating lateralization of single, isolated processes. With the present study, we aimed to arrive at a more unified view by investigating lateralization patterns in face and word processing, and ass...

Previous research in English has suggested that reading rate predictions can be improved considerably by taking average word length into account. In the present study, we investigated whether the same regularity holds for Dutch. The Dutch language is very similar to English, but words are on average half a letter longer: 5.1 letters per word (in no...

This text is a version of the text I wrote for chapter 17 of the book: Brysbaert, M. (2020). Basic statistics for psychologists (2nd edition). In the meantime, Jamovi made progress and now it is possible to do LMM with the interface rather than having to go to the R module. The examples in the chapter allow you to check the quality of your implemen...

Word meaning is thought to be grounded in the sensory modalities. In order to test such hypotheses in experiments, linguistic stimuli needs to be carefully selected and controlled for. To aid in such investigations, we present a new set of sensory modality norms for over 24,000 Dutch words. The sensory norms comprise perceptual strength ratings in...

Lateralization is a critical characteristic of language production and also plays a role in visual word recognition. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the interactions between visual input and spoken word representations are still unclear. We investigated the contribution of sub-lexical phonological information in visual word processing by...

In dit boek getuigen mensen met dyscalculie over de drempels die ze moeten overwinnen, maar ook over de diversiteitswaarde die zij te bieden hebben. De auteurs laten zien hoe studenten met dyscalculie hun studies tot een goed eind kunnen brengen, welke faciliteiten drempelverlagend werken, wat afgestudeerden kan helpen bij sollicitaties en hoe de a...

A number of recent developments in the research on bilingualism and visual word recognition have convinced me that the time is ripe to integrate both topics. As many of the developments were due to the use of the masked priming paradigm, the present book may indeed be the ideal outlet to summarise the main findings in these research areas and to di...

Low power in empirical studies can be compared to blurred vision. It makes the signal ambiguous, so that conclusions depend more on interpretation than on observation. Data patterns that look sensible are published as evidence for theoretical positions and unclear patterns are discarded as noise, whereas both could be due to sampling error or could...

We investigated how eye movements are influenced by different reading goals in participants' first (L1) and second language (L2). Participants read or studied the contents of texts while their eye movements were recorded. One group was asked to read L1 and L2 texts as they would read any expository text (informational reading). Another group was as...

For students to be successful in higher education, they need not only have motivation and sufficient intellectual ability, but also a wide range of study skills as well as the metacognitive ability to determine when a change in strategy is needed. We examined whether first-year undergraduates with dyslexia (N=100) differ from peers without learning...

With academic internationalisation at full speed, English is increasingly used as a medium of instruction in higher education. The question arises whether unbalanced bilinguals remember study materials in a non-native language (L2) as well as in a first language (L1). In previous studies, we found a disadvantage for students recalling short, exposi...

Emotions play a fundamental role in language learning, use and processing. Words denoting positivity account for a larger part of the lexicon than words denoting negativity, and they also tend to be used more frequently, a phenomenon known as positivity bias. However, language experience changes over an individual’s lifetime making the examination...

Low power in empirical studies can be compared to blurred vision. It makes the signal ambiguous, so that conclusions depend more on interpretation than on observation. Data patterns that look sensible are published as evidence for theoretical positions and unclear patterns are discarded as noise, whereas both could be due to sampling error or could...

To have more information about the English words known by second language (L2) speakers, we ran a large-scale crowdsourcing vocabulary test, which yielded 17 million useful responses. It provided us with a list of 445 words known to nearly all participants. The list was compared to various existing lists of words advised to include in the first sta...

This is an extension of the BLC paper "Power considerations in bilingualism research", related to a 2x2 split-plot design. We are investigating an interaction in a 2x2 design consisting of 2 groups and 2 within-subjects conditions. We simulate 2000 experiments. Group sizes range from 2x10 participants to 2x300 participants. In the first simulatio...

To have more information about the English words known by L2 speakers, we ran a large-scale crowdsourcing vocabulary test, which yielded 17 million useful responses. It provided us with a list of 445 words known to nearly all participants. The list was compared to various existing lists of words advised to include in the first stages of English L2...

We introduce a new Dutch receptive vocabulary test, the Dutch auditory & image vocabulary test (DAIVT). The test is multiple choice and assesses vocabulary knowledge for spoken words. The measure has an online format, has free access, and allows easy data collection. The test was developed with the intent to enable testing for research purposes wit...

We introduce a new Dutch receptive vocabulary test, the Dutch auditory & image vocabulary test (DAIVT). The test is multiple choice and assesses vocabulary knowledge for spoken words. The measure has an online format, has free access, and allows easy data collection. The test was developed with the intent to enable testing for research purposes wit...