The Psychology of Reading, 2nd Edition
Abstract
Reading is a highly complex skill that is prerequisite to success in many societies in which a great deal of information is communicated in written form. Since the 1970s, much has been learned about the reading process from research by cognitive psychologists. This book summarizes that important work and puts it into a coherent framework. Note that the full-text of this book is not available.
... However, these measures are highly sensitive to the physical features of the text and to language-based characteristics, such as word frequency and predictability. Where longer fixation durations usually reflect more cognitive processing, shorter saccades can indicate reading difficulties (Engbert et al., 2002;Rayner, 1998;Rayner et al., 2012). As cognitive processes typically unfold in time scales that are too fast for us to be consciously aware of (ranging from a few to hundreds of milliseconds), eye tracking is a valuable tool when attempting to capture the underlying dynamics in this intricate interplay. ...
... Writing research can benefit from eye-tracking studies regarding the mechanisms underlying reading, which show that this process varies in accordance with different text characteristics and reader purposes (Engbert et al., 2002;Rayner, 1998Rayner, , 2012. Some assumptions can further be made regarding gaze behavior and linguistic processing during writing: we can assume that when a familiar word is fixated, the reader has access to the word's morphology, syntax, and associated semantic information. ...
... However, if that is the purpose of the research, it must specifically be considered in the design. From an L2 perspective, this may mean controlling for both exogenous factors (such as morphology and syntax) and endogenous factors (such as task and expertise), since it is well known from the general eye movement literature that these factors influence gaze behavior (Rayner et al., 2012). Godfroid and Hui (2020) further describe the problem of not defining and justifying the use of eye tracking, that is, not motivating what eye-tracking data contributes to the study or how to interpret the data collected. ...
This volume brings together the perspectives of new and established scholars who have connected with the broad fields of first language (L1) and second language (L2) writing to discuss critically key methodological developments and challenges in the study of L2 writing processes. The focus is on studies of composing and of engagement with feedback on written drafts, with particular attention to methods of process-tracing through data such as concurrent or stimulated verbal reports, interviews, diaries, digital recording, visual screen capture, eye tracking, keystroke logging, questionnaires, and/or ethnographic observation. The chapters in the book illustrate how progress has been made in developing research methods and empirical understandings of writing processes, in introducing methodological innovations, and in pointing to future methodological directions. It will be an essential methodological guide for novice and experienced researchers, senior students, and educators investigating the processes of writing in additional languages.
... The discussion of this model is composed of two basic components, fixations and saccades. Fixation is the stationary attention during reading while saccade is the movement between two fixations, which is also known as the line between fixations (Rayner et al., 2012). The model ( Figure 3) highlights two core assumptions. ...
... For this process to happen, the word must be in the foveal view of the eyes (see Figure 4), also known as the high spatial frequency information (L1). However, this might be the case for low-frequency words (Rayner et al., 2012). According to Rayner et al. (2012), good readers tend to skip high-frequency words such as function words because they are highly predictable, where the semantic or syntactic constraints on the words are sufficient for them to be identified using only minimal visual information about the word. ...
... However, this might be the case for low-frequency words (Rayner et al., 2012). According to Rayner et al. (2012), good readers tend to skip high-frequency words such as function words because they are highly predictable, where the semantic or syntactic constraints on the words are sufficient for them to be identified using only minimal visual information about the word. Due to this phenomenon, some words do not have a duration value, i.e., 0 milliseconds (ms). ...
... Might it happen because the human brain, as well as the connectionist model, is sensitive to the frequencies that combinations of phonemes are matched to combinations of graphemes in the familiarization, i.e. statistically learns to read? In literature, this ability of generalization in reading is called "to make analogies", and explains why it is easy to read pseudowords, i.e. nonwords similar to words, almost as well as words (Rayner & Pollatsek, 1989;Goswami, 1999). ...
... In this study, as in several laboratory experiments, a foreign language was used to test language learning without influence of previous experiences (see Hulstijn, 1997). The Japanese Hiragana was chosen, because it has a regular structure: it is not a stress-timed language, the syllables are usually with the form CV (consonant and vowel) and there is a one-to-one correspondence between the Hiragana symbols and the syllables (Rayner & Pollatsek, 1989). ...
... In order to be read, also complex words need to be divided in sublexical units, as morphemes (units of meaning), as FOOT-STOOL, or in prefix, root morpheme and suffix, as UNDER-STAND-ING, END-ED, DRAW-ER, UP-TOWN (Rayner & Pollatsek, 1989). ...
Recent theories on language acquisition underline the power of implicit learning, in all stages of life, from infancy to adulthood, learning a second language. "Statistical learning" is one of these achievements, because, as in some computational learning algorithms, the learning is due to the statistical properties of the underlying phenomena. It seems to be a general learning mechanism, stored in procedural memory, and not restricted to linguistic development, but used also in the visual domain, learning to recognize visual feature combinations. In reading and in spelling, both linguistic and visual abilities are needed, and statistical learning was found in children's learning to spell vowels, in English. The focus of this study is on some implicit achievements in learning to read a new language: statistical learning of grapheme combinations and statistical learning of grapheme-phoneme conversion rules in learning to read with the whole word approach, an old learning method of English literacy. The first might be helpful in graphemic parsing of written English, to recognize quickly sublexical units, which have to be converted in phonemes. The second was mimicked by Seidenberg's and McClelland's connectionist model (1989), which statistically "learned" to read new words, after a "training" with 2897 English monosyllabic words. This experiment was carried out with 31 adults (20-69 years old) on learning to read Japanese Hiragana, after some passive familiarisations in PowerPoint. The participants detected the more frequent grapheme combinations of Hiragana symbols when they were exposed to them, without other cues than the conditional probability between two symbols. After a passive familiarization with the reading of some whole words, they learned to recognize symbols and to recognize new written words, which they listened, when they were read aloud. The ability in detecting grapheme combinations was correlated with the reading abilities, learned with the whole word approach, also when the age was partialled out. Ageing seemed to influence negatively the statistical learning of grapheme combinations, but not the learning abilities in reading. The word meaning information seemed to have no influence in learning to read. The tests were forced 4-choices recognition test without any feedback.
... 2. If so, would eye movements show sensitivity to anomalies within a rhythmic 'gestalt'? 3. Can we observe eye-movements suggesting subvocalization of a rhythmic gestalt and if so, in which measures (Rayner, 2009;Rayner & Pollatsek, 1989)? Metrically regular, rhymed language (MRRL) Poetry, with traditional meter and rhyme, is considered melodic, being both music and language . ...
... We computed 4. the consonant vowel quotient (cvq), as an indicator of pronounceability (Kraxenberger et al., 2018;Lee et al., 2002;Rayner & Pollatsek, 1989;Xue et al., 2019). The calculation was based on letters rather than sounds. ...
The present study investigates effects of conventionally metered and rhymed poetry on eye-movements in silent reading. Readers saw MRRL poems (i.e., metrically regu-lar, rhymed language) in two layouts. In poem layout, verse endings coincided with line breaks. In prose layout verse endings could be mid-line. We also added metrical and rhyme anomalies. We hypothesized that silently reading MRRL results in build-ing up auditive expectations that are based on a rhythmic “audible gestalt” and pro-pose that rhythmicity is generated through subvocalization. Our results revealed that readers were sensitive to rhythmic-gestalt-anomalies but showed differential effects in poem and prose layouts. Metrical anomalies in particular resulted in robust reading disruptions across a variety of eye-movement measures in the poem layout and caused re-reading of the local context. Rhyme anomalies elicited stronger effects in prose layout and resulted in systematic re-reading of pre-rhymes. The presence or absence of rhythmic-gestalt-anomalies, as well as the layout manipulation, also af-fected reading in general. Effects of syllable number indicated a high degree of subvo-calization. The overall pattern of results suggests that eye-movements reflect, and are closely aligned with, the rhythmic subvocalization of MRRL.
This study introduces a two-stage approach to the analysis of long MRRL stimuli and contributes to the discussion of how the processing of rhythm in music and speech may overlap.
... Regressive saccades or "regressions", where the eyes return or backtrack to a previously fixated area of interest, tend to indicate processing difficulty during information encoding [36] and the presence of less meaningful cues [37]. Although for reading-related tasks most regressive saccades are very small, only skipping back a few letters or words, much larger phrase-length regressions can indicate confusion in terms of the higher-level processing and comprehension of text [36]. ...
... Regressive saccades or "regressions", where the eyes return or backtrack to a previously fixated area of interest, tend to indicate processing difficulty during information encoding [36] and the presence of less meaningful cues [37]. Although for reading-related tasks most regressive saccades are very small, only skipping back a few letters or words, much larger phrase-length regressions can indicate confusion in terms of the higher-level processing and comprehension of text [36]. Regressive saccades can also be used as a measure of "recognition value", in that there should be an inverse relationship between the number of regressions and the salience of information on the interface. ...
Eye-movement measures are popular in User Experience (UX) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research as a way to provide insights into the factors that hinder the usability of computer-based technologies. In this chapter we overview the various eye-movement metrics employed in UX and HCI research. In addition, we summarise studies that have used these metrics, focusing on examples of both pioneering research involving relatively simple and static interfaces as well as recent research involving more complex and dynamic interfaces (e.g., as arise in mobile computing). We also examine ongoing trends in eye-movement research in relation to UX and HCI, including the application of eye movements as an input mechanism, the use of eye-movement traces to elicit retrospective reports of interface problems, and the drive toward the automated identification and categorisation of eye-movement patterns that are diagnostic of interaction difficulties.
... The IP Hypothesis assumes that readers access implicit prosodic representations in the text through their inner speech, even when the speech sounds are not physically present. In other words, readers seem to mentally hear the "voice" of the text while they are reading it silently (Rayner et al., 2012). Considering Alexander and Nygaard's 2008 study, we suggest that the prosodic information in an auditory model helps readers pace their reading and read faster. ...
... The IP Hypothesis assumes that readers access implicit prosodic representations in the text through their inner speech, even when the speech sounds are not physically present. In other words, readers seem to mentally hear the "voice" of the text while they are reading it silently (Rayner et al., 2012). Considering Alexander and Nygaard's 2008 study, we suggest that the prosodic information in an auditory model helps readers pace their reading and read faster. ...
This paper examines learners' fluency development in L2 silent reading rate and comprehension. In both L1 and L2 readings, a positive relationship between readers' silent reading rate and comprehension has not been as firmly established as theories might propose. Based on Wallot et al. (2014), the paper indicates the need to look at readers' silent reading rates as a process rather than a result of the reading act. Variability L2 readers face while reading reflects their successful and unsuccessful attempts to comprehend the text they are reading. Through a new examination of unpublished data from Taguchi et al. (2012), the paper proposes to look at readers' silent reading fluency development across a longer period. In addition, it indicates the need to consider different purposes readers set for their reading to understand how their rates vary. This proposal has practical implications for not only researchers but also classroom practitioners.
... Because of this, the focus of the teaching and learning process was changed from mastering four English skills to mastering reading skills (Widyasari, 2016). According to Rayner et al., (2011) reading is a very complex skill that is very important in many societies where a great deal of knowledge is shared in writing. Since the 1970s, cognitive psychology researchers have acquired a great deal of knowledge about the reading process. ...
This study was aimed at finding out whether or not there was a significant correlation between students reading attitude and their reading achievement. The research adopts a quantitative approach. Census sampling was employed to result in 30 students. The data were collected by distributing questionnaire sheets and testing a reading test to assess students reading achievement in narrative texts. In measuring the data correlation, the researcher used Pearson-Product Moment through correlation technique using SPSS 23 program. The findings of the study showed that, there is a moderate correlation between reading attitudes and reading achievement among eleventh-grade students in the English class at Shailendra High School Palembang for the academic year 2023/2024. Keywords: Correlation, Reading Attitudes, Reading Achievement.
... Future work can build on these findings to use fNIRS to measure complex readingrelated and other cognitive processes in real-time, including mind wandering 49 , inferencing 8 , and error correction (i.e. regressions) 50 . This can be followed by using more naturalistic reading paradigms such as reading of long connected texts 51 with the goals of learning and retention, rather than individual sentences that the bulk of fMRI work on language processing is based on. ...
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has provided unparalleled insights into the fundamental neural mechanisms governing human cognition, including complex processes such as reading. Here, we leverage the wealth of prior fMRI work to capture reading outside the MRI scanner using functional near infra-red spectroscopy (fNIRS). In a large sample of participants (n = 82) we observe significant prefrontal and temporal fNIRS activations during reading, which are largely reliable across participants, therefore providing a robust validation of prior fMRI work on reading-related language processing. These results lay the groundwork towards developing adaptive systems capable of assisting these higher-level processes, for example to support readers and language learners. This work also contributes to bridging the gap between laboratory findings and real-world applications in the realm of cognitive neuroscience.
... A subvocalização refere-se à articulação inaudível com os órgãos responsáveis pela fala e desempenha um papel no processamento cognitivo e retenção de informações, reduzindo a carga cognitiva, como mencionado por Rayner et al. (2011). Já a eletromiografia (EMG) é uma técnica que permite registrar estas atividades elétricas musculares, abrindo caminho para várias aplicações clínicas e biomédicas, conforme destacado por Valderrama et al. (2021). ...
... The eye movements of a reader, namely fixations and saccades, are a window to the online cognitive processing of text with milliseconds accurateness (Rayner, 1998). Native speakers of different languages may exhibit different eye movement patterns when reading a foreign language, with those reading in their native language making shorter and more frequent fixations while making longer fixations due to the increased cognitive load when reading in other languages (Hopp, 2010;Rayner et al., 2012;Berzak et al., 2022). ...
... The bright pupil and the corneal reflections are processed using advanced imageprocessing software to obtain the instantaneous gaze direction with high accuracy and to calculate eye movements as saccades and fixations [21][22][23]. Thanks to these systems, it is possible to study the influence of factors such as text characteristics [24] or blur on eye movements [25]. In the field of PPLs, this technology has been widely used to study how lateral refractive errors of PPLs affect eye fixations. ...
Due to the lack of sensitivity of visual acuity (VA) measurement to quantify differences in visual performance between progressive power lenses (PPLs), in this study, we propose and evaluate an eye-tracking-based method to assess visual performance when wearing PPLs. A wearable eye-tracker system (Tobii-Pro Glasses 3) recorded the pupil position of 27 PPL users at near and distance vision during a VA test while wearing three PPL designs: a PPL for general use (PPL-Balance), a PPL optimized for near vision (PPL-Near), and a PPL optimized for distance vision (PPL-Distance). The participants were asked to recognize eye charts at both near and distance vision using centered and oblique gaze directions with each PPL design. The results showed no statistically significant differences between PPLs for VA. However, significant differences in eye-tracking parameters were observed between PPLs. Furthermore, PPL-Distance had a lower test duration, complete fixation time, and number of fixations at distance evaluation. PPL-Near has a lower test duration, complete fixation time, and number of fixations for near vision. In conclusion, the quality of vision with PPLs can be better characterized by incorporating eye movement parameters than the traditional evaluation method.
... Firstly, as it is named, FAB has a special function for participants to go both forward and backward in reading. Eye tracking that collects data on regressive eye movements (i.e., regressions; see Staub & Rayner, 2007 for review) is recognized as having high ecological validity because it allows comprehenders to return to previous segments (regressions) or swiftly alternate between segments (saccades) in the manner of ordinary reading (Dehaene, 2009;Rayner et al., 2012). Those regressive measures are also used in recent mouse-tracking experiments (Lin & Lin, 2020;Schoemann et al., 2021) and touchscreen experiments (Hatfield, 2016). ...
The self-paced reading paradigm has been popular and widely used in psycholinguistic research for several decades. The tool described in this paper, FAB (Forward and Backward reading), is a tool created to hopefully and maximally reduce the coding demands and simplify the operation costs for experimental researchers and clinical researchers who are doing experimental work, in their designing, coding, implementing, and analyzing self-paced reading tasks. Its basis in web languages (HTML, JavaScript) also promotes experimental implementation and material sharing in our era of open science. In addition, FAB has a unique forward-and-backward mode that can track regressive-like behaviors that are usually only recordable using eye-tracking or mouse-tracking equipment. In this paper, the specific application and usage of FAB is demonstrated in one laboratory and two online validation experiments. We hope this free and open-sourced tool can benefit research in a diverse range of contexts where self-paced reading is desirable.
... In the math domain, using eye-tracking, very preterm children at 10 years were slower in non-symbolic magnitude comparison with an atypical gaze in exploration [22]. These latter studies suggest the relevance of introducing the eye-tracking methodology to understand online processing when performing a specific task [23]. ...
Preterm birth is associated with weaknesses in reading skills that are usually less severe than those of children with dyslexia. To understand the characteristics of reading processes in preterm children, we adopted a cross-population and multi-modal approach comparing eye movements in reading tasks among three groups: children with preterm birth, children with a diagnosis of dyslexia, and children with typical development. The study involved 78 participants (10.5 years). Eye movements (number and duration of fixations, amplitude and number of saccades, number of regressions) were recorded during the silent reading of two texts; cognitive and reading standardized tasks were also administered. Children with dyslexia had more fixations and more frequent and smaller saccades compared to the preterm group and children with typical development. They also showed more regressions compared to the control group. Preterm children showed shorter fixations compared to the other groups. Cognitive and reading standardized tasks confirmed severe delays in reading in children with dyslexia and some weaknesses in text reading speed and comprehension in preterm children. These results are discussed with reference to candidate mechanisms that underlie reading processes in preterm children and considering possible implications for research.
... Despite these potential issues, reading research supports the link between visual and cognitive focus in eye-tracking data. For instance, reading less frequent and less predictable words is connected with increased fixation duration (Inhoff and Rayner 1986;Rayner and Pollatsek 1989). But most importantly, Hvelplund (2014: 211) argues that translation is cognitively demanding, which means that "there is arguably little room for much mind wandering, and we may cautiously assume that the majority of eye movements during translation relate to on-going, conscious, synchronous processing of the translation task." ...
While translation has always required the ability to find information, currently this process has moved almost entirely into the digital realm. The universal revolution in translation, which happened many years ago, has transformed the profession into something resembling piloting an airplane because of the numerous tools to aid the process and help find information (Gouadec 2007: 263). Information mining and the use of other tools, such as machine translation, has become fixed points in translation curricula, but there remains a scarcity of research into both of these aspects when related to translation trainees.
In line with the translation process research paradigm, this thesis is an attempt to bridge this gap in research and to discuss information searching in the process of translation and post- editing. The aim of this project is to investigate translation trainees and EFL students as they interact with machine translation and online resources during translation and post-editing tasks for two text types (operative-technical and informative-medical, cf. Reiss 1976). The first objective of the thesis is to examine whether both groups put more effort into information searching when translating than when post-editing. Two indicators of effort have been used to test this hypothesis: time spent in applications (temporal effort) and average fixation duration (cognitive effort). The results show that the task type significantly influences the amount of temporal effort put into the use of online resources – both on the global level of all resource categories considered together and for some of them considered separately. No such effect has been found for the cognitive effort indicators. The second hypothesis in the study posits that translation trainees exert more temporal and cognitive effort in both translation and post-editing than EFL students. Again, the results show that this can only be partially confirmed. Significant differences exist only for temporal effort variables: the time spent on Wikipedia and language reference websites (like the Polish language advice centre, Poradnia językowa PWN). In both cases trainees spent more time consulting these resources. The interaction of the group and task effect was found in the use of monolingual dictionaries and it turns out that EFL students put more effort into consulting them. The third hypothesis focuses on the range of consulted online resources in relation to task type and group membership. Contrary to expectations, there is no effect of either group or task on the range of consulted resources. For the fourth hypothesis, accuracy in translating source text rich points is examined. Contrary to the expected group effect on accuracy scores, there is no statistically significant difference between the groups in
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terms of how accurate they were. There is also no significant correlation between the accuracy of translations and the percentage of rich points (i.e. focal words or phrases) researched by a participant online. The fifth hypothesis concerns the relationship between the attitude towards machine translation and the percentage of time spent in online resources in relation to the whole task time during post-editing – the results show there is no statistically significant correlation between these variables, even for a follow-up correlational analysis between total task time and attitude scores. For the sixth hypothesis, an indicator of perceived effort is correlated with time spent in various online resource categories. The results reveal positive correlations with select temporal effort categories with reference to groups, tasks and texts as well as for each of these variables separately. For the last hypothesis, the correlation between the perceived effort indicator and the range of consulted online resources is examined. The results show a significant positive correlation only for one of the researched text types, i.e. a product description (operative-technical) – regardless of group membership or task type performed.
The results indicate that the relationship between effort, accuracy, and attitude in information searching during translation and post-editing is intensely nuanced. The findings of this study may be particularly valuable for translation trainers and translation process researchers. Although this project is limited in scope, it might provide a prelude into more extensive and focused studies of information searching in relation to translation training and translator competence development – and how machine translation influences the translation process as well. Examining the information searching process in translation students and incorporating self-reflection into translation pedagogy is likely to be beneficial for training more self-aware professionals, ready to commence the journey of life-long learning as translators.
... In visual arts, music and environmental science, silence can become visual and spatial, being employed to draw attention to important elements and serve various social, artistic and pragmatic functions (Ollin, 2008). In communication, a pause can serve as inner time for one to absorb and reflect (Bruneau, 1973); and silence can also be a voice, which 'can "say" something merely by leaving something articulation (Rayner and Pollatsek, 1989), or internalization of speech patterns (Mitchell and Myles, 1998). Dealing with silence in education is dealing with a complex assortment of voices. ...
What is the state of that which is not spoken? This book presents empirical research related to the phenomenon of reticence in the second language classroom, connecting current knowledge and theoretical debates in language learning and acquisition.
Why do language learners remain silent or exhibit reticence? In what ways can silence in the language learning classroom be justified? To what extent should learners employ or modify silence? Do quiet learners work more effectively with quiet or verbal learners? Looking at evidence from Australia, China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, the book presents research data on many internal and external forces that influence the silent mode of learning in contemporary education. This work gives the reader a chance to reflect more profoundly on cultural ways of learning languages.
... To provide a possible explanation to account for the lack of correlation between SI and average fixations duration, it should be pointed out that, unlike the average number of fixations, the duration of fixations is modulated by the stimulus difficulty in different contexts (e.g., reading, Rayner & Pollatsek, 1989;visual search, Vlaskamp & Hooge, 2006). In fact, the duration of fixations might be influenced by the speed of cognitive processing. ...
This study investigated eye movements associated with the production of different Rorschach responses involving the use of the inkless (or “white space”) areas of the inkblots. More specifically, we examined whether Space Integration (SI) and Space Reversal (SR) responses associated with different test-taker’s approaches to visually inspecting the Rorschach inkblots while completing the test. We retrieved archival data from 71 non-clinical volunteers who took the Rorschach test while their eye movements were being registered. The results of our analyses indicated that: (a) SI, but not SR, positively associated with the overall number of eye fixations recorded while scanning the Rorschach inkblots; (b) SR, but not SI, associated with a proportionally greater visual focus (i.e., greater number of fixations and longer duration of fixations) on white than non-white areas of inkblots. Taken together, these findings support Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS) determination to interpret SI and SR responses differently.
... There are a large number of studies in the area of reading comprehension both in the first and second or foreign language. However, to a great extent, to understand the nature of the reading comprehension processes, lower-level cognitive processes such as word recognition, lexical access, syntactic parsing and sentence comprehension have been explored in the related literature (Carver, 1997(Carver, , 1998Just & Carpenter, 1992;Perfetti, 1991;Rayner & Pollatsek, 1989;Rumelhart & McClelland, 1986). The studies done from this perspective, in line with the cognitive psychology, primarily attempted to give a detailed account of lower-level cognitive processing such as word recognition and syntactic parsing for the efficiency of reading and envisaged reading as a process of meaning making within the boundaries of a sentence. ...
Reading comprehension skill is widely used in EFL settings. English language learners, especially, in academic settings, are provided with a high level of literacy and comprehension of texts, where they are provided with a considerable portion of knowledge fused into written documents. Therefore, the skill of processing texts efficiently with sufficient comprehension gains significance in students’ academic accomplishments. Nevertheless, the concept of reading as a general term and strategic reading as an enabling skill should be differentiated in reading comprehension instruction. Providing students with written texts without Empowering them to deal with the texts cannot yield fruitful results in designated goals of reading comprehension. In view of that, the present research tried to introduce strategic reading as a holistic concept and endeavored to enlighten each aspect of it using reading models and frameworks presented in the related literature on reading comprehension. Instructors, with the awareness of strategic reading as an important reading skill, can determinedly instruct and implement it in their classrooms to enable students resourcefully for their educational goals which eventually leads to academic and professional achievements.
... Workload has also been reported to decrease microsaccade rates but increase their amplitudes (Siegenthaler et al., 2014), increase fixation duration (Rayner & Pollatsek, 1989) and decrease horizontal scanning during driving (Recarte & Nunes, 2003). Mental fatigue and workload have been found to affect saccade and microsaccade dynamics during visual search (Di Stasi et (2000) 1435 developed a model using regression analyses from eye movement data on a surveillance tracking task, showing that fixation duration, blink duration and mean pupil dilation combined to a robust and reliable predictor of the performance of surveillance tracking. ...
In this paper, we present a review of how the various aspects of any study using an eye tracker (such as the instrument, methodology, environment, participant, etc.) affect the quality of the recorded eye-tracking data and the obtained eye-movement and gaze measures. We take this review to represent the empirical foundation for reporting guidelines of any study involving an eye tracker. We compare this empirical foundation to five existing reporting guidelines and to a database of 207 published eye-tracking studies. We find that reporting guidelines vary substantially and do not match with actual reporting practices. We end by deriving a minimal, flexible reporting guideline based on empirical research (Section 6).<br/
... A key feature of reading is the fact that skilled readers routinely make regressions (eye movements in the opposite direction to the direction of reading, i.e., saccades from left to right in the reading of a language like English) (Schotter, Tran, & Rayner, 2014). According to Rayner, Pollatsek, Ashby and Clifton (2012), between 10% and 25% of eye movements are regressions, during which viewers revisit sections of the text either because of an oculomotor error, or, more interestingly, because they did not obtain sufficient information during firstpass reading and have to return to it to resolve an ambiguity, or correct for comprehension breakdown (cf. Eskenazi & Folk, 2017;Inhoff, Kim & Radach, 2019;Schotter, Tran, & Rayner, 2014). ...
High subtitle speed undoubtedly impacts the viewer experience. However, little is known about how fast subtitles might impact the reading of individual words. This article presents new findings on the effect of subtitle speed on viewers’ reading behavior using word-based eye-tracking measures with specific attention to word skipping and rereading. In multimodal reading situations such as reading subtitles in video, rereading allows people to correct for oculomotor error or comprehension failure during linguistic processing or integrate words with elements of the image to build a situation model of the video. However, the opportunity to reread words, to read the majority of the words in the subtitle and to read subtitles to completion, is likely to be compromised when subtitles are too fast. Participants watched videos with subtitles at 12, 20, and 28 characters per second (cps) while their eye movements were recorded. It was found that comprehension declined as speed increased. Eye movement records also showed that faster subtitles resulted in more incomplete reading of subtitles. Furthermore, increased speed also caused fewer words to be reread following both horizontal eye movements (likely resulting in reduced lexical processing) and vertical eye movements (which would likely reduce higher-level comprehension and integration).
... But several decades before Yarbus, Guy Thomas Buswell (1935) studied the perception of images showing different types of artwork and found that the content of pictures would produce regular patterns of eye movements among participants, who favoured certain areas over others, thus offering early evidence on the cognitive and perceptual operations taking place during a viewing task (Henderson, Weeks Jr., and Hollingworth 1999, 210). In a more recent article, Hoffman and Subramaniam refer to Keith Rayner and Alexander Pollatsek's (1989) findings that the choice of a viewer's next fixation is apparently guided rather than random (Hoffman and Subramaniam 1995, 787). Finally, Henderson discusses "gaze control," i.e. the real-time, active directing of the gaze to fixate on informative areas when viewing a scene, "in the service of ongoing perceptual, cognitive and behavioural activity" (2003,498). ...
The use of eye-tracking in data collection, when accompanied by the proper research questions and methodology, is a powerful tool that may provide invaluable insights into the way viewers perceive and experience movies. Film theory can use eye-tracking to test and verify research hypotheses not only with unprecedented accuracy, but also with the ability to address a significant variety of theoretical questions. Eye-tracking can help build contemporary film theory by supporting its various fields of research, and also even assist the production of films themselves by helping filmmakers make more informed creative decisions. The present article is an overview of eye-tracking and its gradual implementation in cinema research; in the context of discussing some recent examples of academic work based on eye-tracking, it considers the technology of eye-trackers and the way in which human vision handles visual information on screen. By testing the attentional behaviour of viewers, eye-tracking can produce more solid answers to questions regarding the way films are experienced; therefore, it may very well prove to be the spearhead of a more robust body of film theory in the near future.
... Importantly, the eye movement behaviours facilitated by these four domains of literature are somewhat distinct. That is, during reading tasks, the participants typically perform highly specialised eye movement patterns, including saccades, fixations, and regressions, mediated by the text they are reading [87]. These highly specialised eye movement patterns are largely distinct from the free exploratory saccades and fixations typically performed during free visual search tasks. ...
Extensive research has demonstrated that eye-tracking tasks can effectively indicate cognitive impairment. For example, lab-based eye-tracking tasks, such as the antisaccade task, have robustly distinguished between people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and healthy older adults. Due to the neurodegeneration associated with AD, people with AD often display extended saccade latencies and increased error rates on eye-tracking tasks. Although the effectiveness of using eye tracking to identify cognitive impairment appears promising, research considering the utility of eye tracking during naturalistic tasks, such as reading, in identifying cognitive impairment is limited. The current review identified 39 articles assessing eye-tracking distinctions between people with AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and healthy controls when completing naturalistic task (reading, real-life simulations, static image search) or a goal-directed task involving naturalistic stimuli. The results revealed that naturalistic tasks show promising biomarkers and distinctions between healthy older adults and AD participants, and therefore show potential to be used for diagnostic and monitoring purposes. However, only twelve articles included MCI participants and assessed the sensitivity of measures to detect cognitive impairment in preclinical stages. In addition, the review revealed inconsistencies within the literature, particularly when assessing reading tasks. We urge researchers to expand on the current literature in this area and strive to assess the robustness and sensitivity of eye-tracking measures in both AD and MCI populations on naturalistic tasks.
... In studies on reading eye movement, the percentage of regressive eye movements is often used to indicate how challenging the text is for the reader or how actively the reader is integrating information to reach comprehension. On average, the regression rate in reading has been reported to be 10%-15% (Conklin et al., 2018) and 10%-20% (Rayner & Pollatsek, 1989). In another study, the reported regression rate was 21% in adult readers and 34% in first-grade children (McConkie et al., 1991). ...
The eyes cannot lie. Eye movements are biological data that reveal information about the reader’s attention and cognitive processes. This article summarizes the century-old eye movement research to elucidate reading comprehension performances and more importantly, their implications for reading instruction. This review paper addresses three research questions: (1) What do we know about eye movements? (2) What do we know about reading based on eye movements? (3) What reading instruction suggestions can be made based on eye movement research? Eye movement research show that reading is a selective, dynamic, sampling, integrating, and more than a perceiving process. Implications for reading instruction include: teach beyond phonics, teach beyond text, every element counts, make text natural, and evaluate the result and the process. This study contributes to the timely conversations about the science of reading and reading instruction and presents directions by which more effective reading instruction and policies can be established to address the needs of children and teachers.
... Prevalence of dyslexia range from 5% to 10%, depending on the primary language spoken in a population and the criteria used to identify the disorder [2]. In a simple view to reading (Guff & Tonmer: 1986), reading ability is defined as a skill of decoding and reading comprehension [3]. Word recognition in reading is related to the process of converting printed words into speech and expressive language, and involves visual recognition of words which is called decoding, word decoding is necessary for reading comprehension [4]. ...
Introduction: Reading is undoubtedly one of the most valuable skills of human beings. This complex behavior is composed of several distinct skills. Different theories about reading methods have been proposed and many researchers believe that reading methods varies in languages because of the different transparency in their orthography, so the purpose of this study is to investigate the Persian word reading pattern in children with dyslexia and normal children and compare their abilities. Materials and Methods: For conducting this cross-sectional study, after issuing required permits, the elementary school children with dyslexia were identified by referring to learning disorders schools in Tehran City, Iran. After evaluating and diagnosing by the psychologist and speech therapist, 16 students with dyslexia were found. Then 32 normal age-matched students of Tehran’s public schools were randomly selected from the available population as the control group. The reading and phonological awareness tests were then performed in different sessions. The results of the tests were recorded and the data were analyzed by the Mann-Whitney and Spearman tests in SPSS version 20. Results: There was a significant difference between children with dyslexia and their age- matched normal group in reading skills and phonological awareness (P<0.05). In both groups, the mean percentage in reading irregular words was higher than the mean percentage of non- word reading. There is a significant correlation between reading speed and reading irregular words in both groups, and also between reading accuracy and reading non-words (P<0.05). There was a significant correlation between the reading speed and reading non-words in the group with dyslexia (P<0.05). But in normal children, there is no significant correlation between these tasks. This difference shows the problem of children with dyslexia pertains to reading non-words. Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study, in children with dyslexia, there is a problem with reading non-words, and the dual-route of word reading has changed to only the whole word reading route. So it is important to consider phonological awareness skills training in children with dyslexia.
... Any fixations that were deemed invalid due to blinking or head movements were removed. Any fixations shorter than 80 ms were excluded, as extremely short fixations are often due to false saccade planning (Rayner & Pollatsek, 1989). We analysed and compared fixations to the target and competitor images. ...
Although the linguistic properties of polar questions have been extensively studied, comparatively little is known about how polar questions are processed in real time. In this paper, we report on three eye-tracking experiments on the processing of positive and negative polar questions in English and French. Our results show that in the early stages, participants pay attention to both positive and negative states of affairs for both positive and negative questions. In the late stages, positive and certain negative polar questions were associated with a bias for the positive state, and this bias appears to be pragmatic in nature. We suggest that different biases in mental representations reflect the hearer’s reasoning about the speaker’s purposes of enquiry.
... However, not all eye movements take the eyes forward in the text. About 15% of eye movements move backwards to reprocess information ( [25]). ...
... . Dès lors que ces compétences sont acquises, le lecteur parvient à traiter le langage écrit de manière efficace et fluente : un lecteur dit « expert » reconnaît un mot en quelques centaines de millisecondes et peut lire jusqu'à 200 mots par minute (Rayner, Pollatsek, Ashby, & Clifton, 2012). ...
Les modèles computationnels de la lecture adoptent pour la plupart une architecture double-voie qui suppose que les connaissances impliquées dans les traitements sériels diffèrent fondamentalement des connaissances mises en jeu lorsque le traitement est parallèle. Ainsi, la lecture des mots nouveaux ou pseudo-mots implique un système de correspondances graphème-phonème via la voie sous-lexicale qui opère de façon sérielle alors que la lecture des mots connus repose sur l’activation de connaissances lexicales via la voie lexicale qui est parallèle. Ces modèles postulent également que le système de conversion graphème-phonème est explicite, stocké indépendamment et indispensable à la lecture des pseudo-mots. Ils supposent, de plus, que ce système de conversion est précédé d’un système de segmentation du mot en sous-unités à convertir indépendamment.Cependant, d’autres modèles de lecture postulent que les traitements parallèles et sériels font intervenir le même type de connaissances. Ces deux classes de modèles s’accordent pour expliquer les traitements parallèles en lecture mais s’opposent quant à la description des traitements sériels. Ils diffèrent donc sur leur explication des effets de longueur, c’est-à-dire l’observation de durées de traitement plus longs pour les stimuli longs. En effet, les modèles double-voie ne peuvent interpréter ces effets de longueur que par le biais du décodage sériel de la voie sous-lexicale. De plus, même si tous les modèles s’accordent à propos du rôle de l’attention visuelle dans le traitement sériel, les mécanismes correspondants sont assez peu décrits, notamment mathématiquement, dans la littérature.Cette thèse a pour but d’évaluer l'hypothèse selon laquelle un traitement ne mettant en jeu que les connaissances lexicales apprises sur les mots est en mesure de rendre compte des relations sous-lexicales entre unités orthographiques et unités phonologiques, de simuler les effets de longueur dans différents types de tâches et d’opérer une segmentation sous-lexicale des mots nouveaux.Pour cela, nous proposons un nouveau modèle computationnel probabiliste de la lecture nommé « BRAID-Phon ». Ce modèle est une extension du modèle computationnel de reconnaissance de mots du modèle « BRAID » par ajout d’un sous-modèle de connaissances phonologiques. Nous utilisons le modèle BRAID-Phon pour étudier la plausibilité d’un système basé sur une architecture « simple-voie », c'est-à-dire incluant uniquement des connaissances lexicales orthographiques et phonologiques pour effectuer une simulation de la lecture. Nous montrons la capacité de BRAID-Phon à rendre compte des effets de longueur sur les mots dans trois types de tâches (lecture, décision lexicale et démasquage progressif et étudions le rôle des mécanismes implémentés d’attention visuelle sur ces effets. Enfin, nous illustrons la nécessité d’un processus de segmentation, contrôlé par l’attention, pour effectuer la lecture de pseudo-mots.
Lien pour le manuscrit : https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-03364950
... The authors stated that the absence of such preferential processing might be caused due to cue duration as this advantage was shown in previous studies using a cue duration >60 ms (the cue duration adopted by Gómez et al., 2008). The findings were taken as evidence of the importance of first letters for word recognition as Rayner and Pollatsek held several decades ago (Rayner and Pollatsek, 1989;Rayner et al., 2006; see also Tydgat and Grainger, 2009, for empirical support to the hypothesis of visual field specificity of receptive fields responsible for the first-position advantage). Nonetheless, the overlap model fitted the data pretty well (the fitting parameters for all the experiments conducted by the authors can be found in Gómez et al., 2008, p. 9, 46). ...
The way of coding letter position has been extensively assessed during the recognition of native words, leading to the development of a new generation of models that assume more flexible letter position coding schemes compared to classical computational models such as the interactive activation (IA) model. However, determining whether similar letter position encoding mechanisms occur during the bilingual word recognition has been largely less explored despite its implications for the leading model of bilingual word recognition (multilink) as it assumes the input-coding scheme of the IA model. In this study, we aimed to examine this issue through the manipulation of the position of the deviant letter of cognate words (external and internal letters). Two experiments were conducted with Catalan-Spanish bilinguals (a masked priming lexical decision task and a two-alternative forced-choice task) and their respective monolingual controls. The results revealed a differential processing for the first letter in comparison to the other letters as well as modulations as a function of language cue, suggesting amendments to the input-coding scheme of the multilink model.
... Regarding their relation to language development, research shows that the use of local cohesive devices traces an inverse u-shaped curve as children grow older and become more proficient L1 writers. From second to eighth grade, children increase their use of connectives (King & Rentel, 1979;McCutchen & Perfetti, 1982;Akiguet & Piolat, 1996) in order to produce texts which are easier to comprehend and process (Just & Carpenter, 1980;Rayner & Pollatsek, 1994;in Crossley, Roscoe, McNamara & Graesser, 2011). According to Crossley et al. (2011: 303), they create less sophisticated texts with "more explicit cohesive devices to guide the reader". ...
This paper aims to describe the longitudinal evolution in the use of English L2 connectives made by students enrolled in a bilingual CLIL programme in the Andalusian secondary education system (Southern Spain) over three years of formal instruction. The automated tool Coh-Metrix has been used to approach a learner corpus produced by students as part of the school subject of bilingual history, which is taught in English as an L2. The overall evolution of connectives has been analysed, as well as the evolution of each of the connectives’ categories measured by Coh-Metrix (causal, logical, adversative/contrastive, temporal, extended temporal and additive connectives). Results have then been interpreted in order to pinpoint the developmental stage of students’ L2 written proficiency and analyse their degree of historical literacy. Over the three years of our study, the students have been found to increase their overall use of connectives in 15‰, indicating that they are becoming more proficient L2 writers. Furthermore, there is a particular increase in their use of causal and adversative/contrastive connectives, and a decrease in extended temporal connectives, which points to the development of their historical literacy and their transition from narrative to expository texts.
... Reading is a complex process of meaning making and re-creation of a written text in a reader's mind (Walter, 1982). It consists of a number of component skills subdivided by Rayner and Pollatsek (1989) and Grabe (1991). This complexity is mainly cognitive and what happens in the reader's mind during and after reading is said to affect his/her writing ability. ...
This study examines the relationship between written achievement and the incorporation of reading as a subject (Reading Techniques) in the curriculum of second year English language future teachers in the ENS (Ecole Normale Supérieure) of Constantine. The guaranteed place of reading in the ENS has brought some benefits to the students in improving their reading skills as well as their writing abilities because reading is said to inform writing as both skills are interrelated. The major aim of this study is to investigate this relationship and the extent to which reading affects writing in the teaching of English as a foreign language. The students' scores in Reading Techniques and Written Expression are analyzed and compared to determine the nature of relationship. Résumé Cette étude examine la relation entre la production écrite et l'incorporation d'un module consacré pour la lecture (Techniques de la lecture) dans le programme d'études des futurs enseignants d'anglais en deuxième année à l'ENS (Ecole Normale Supérieure) de Constantine. Le fait que la lecture a une place garantie dans le programme de l'ENS a apporté quelques avantages aux étudiants en améliorant leurs compétences en lecture ainsi que leurs capacités d'écriture parce que la lecture est censée influencer l'écriture car les deux compétences sont interdépendantes. L'objectif principal de cette étude est d'étudier cette relation et a quel point la lecture affecte l'écriture dans l'enseignement de l'anglais en tant que langue étrangère. Les notes des étudiants dans les techniques de la lecture et l'expression écrite sont analysées et comparées a fin d'apercevoir la nature de la relation. Journal of ABAAD Issue Number 6-June 20018
... Reading comprehension is "the ability to receive and interpret information encoded in language form via the medium of print" (Urquhart and Weir, 1998, p. 22). Reading comprehension involves a complex interaction between bottom-up word-level processing and top-down meaning processing (Rumelhart, 1977;Rayner and Pollatsek, 1989). Levels of comprehension appear in many instructional textbooks recommended for classroom teaching and reading tests in the form of questions to assess learners' comprehension in first language (L1) and L2 reading research (Eason et al., 2012;Basaraba et al., 2013). ...
Motivational strategies have been recognized as a crucial but insufficiently explored component in second language (L2) learning. This study intends to explore the relationships between motivational strategies, language learning strategies, and literal and inferential comprehension in L2 Chinese reading. Data were collected from 547 international students of universities in mainland China through a strategy use questionnaire and a Chinese reading test. The analysis of the structural equation model indicated that motivational strategies indirectly affected literal comprehension through the mediation of learning strategies. Moreover, motivational strategies were found to directly affect inferential comprehension. The results emphasize the need for a more sophisticated analysis of the motivational strategies and language learning strategies in L2 Chinese reading.
... How auditory input while reading facilitates reading has as yet remained unexamined. Rayner et al. (2012) suggest that prosody (speech intonation contours) in an auditory model enables readers to hold words in working memory until the words are meaningfully parsed or chunked together (see Taguchi, Gorsuch et al., 2016 for an extensive review about the roles of an auditory model in reading). More research is needed as to whether and how an auditory model facilitates reading. ...
Audio-assisted Repeated Reading (RR) is a method which scaffolds L2 readers to build fluency. This study focused on 27 U.S. college-level learners of Japanese comprising three ability groups from mid-beginner to low-intermediate. It aimed to explore whether a modest semester-long RR program facilitates learners’ fluency growth, and see how the learners perceive the method itself using a questionnaire. We found beneficial effects of audio-supported RR in terms of reading rate growth while learners maintained good comprehension. The study showed a significant practice effect, in which learners increased their reading rates while re-reading the same passage. Further, learners in one of the three groups read significantly faster with a new, unpracticed passages representing transfer of the practice effect. Additionally, questionnaire responses demonstrated that learners perceived beneficial effects from RR. Finally, we make a proposal on measuring learners’ reading comprehension in fluency intervention programs such as RR. We proposed that measurement of learners’ reading comprehension have two different purposes, pedagogical purposes and research purposes. Thus the reading comprehension measures would have different designs and cut scores.
... When we qualitatively look at students' reading of a specialized text (e. g. from physics field), it would be appropriate to include reading of common fiction into the research design as well and compare fixations duration among the two different types of text (Kekule & Krejčí, 2019). For example, Rayner and Pollatsek (1989) found that average fixations durations range from 200 ms for light fiction up to 260 ms for physics and biology texts (Holmqvist et al., 2011, p. 382). These values will vary for non-English languages. ...
Metoda oční kamery se v rámci různých studií ukázala jako vhodnou pro studování kognitivních procesů žáků. V článku se zaměříme na výhody použití metody sledováním žáků středních škol při řešení testu s otázkami s výběrem odpovědi. Konkrétně se zaměříme na kvalitativní analýzu dat týkajících se pohybů očí dvou žákyň řešících úlohy z fyziky. Obě žákyně řešily všechny testové úlohy nesprávně, obě navíc vybraly jako odpověď stejné alternativy. V případě klasického zadání testu (vyplňování papírových dotazníků), bychom dostali od obou žákyň naprosto stejný výstup. Data z oční kamery nám však ukázala jak podobné přístupy řešení, tak i důležité odlišnosti, na základě kterých by pak vyučující pracovali s každou dívkou odlišně. Obě dívky četly zadání pozorně a věnovaly důraz klíčovým pojmům. Je tedy zřejmé, že špatná volba odpovědi nejde na vrub nedostatečného čtení zadání. Obě dívky zřejmě mají typickou miskoncepci týkající se 1. Newtonova zákona. Liší se zejména v jejich jistotě výběru odpovědi. Eva byla v odpovídání rychlejší a zabývala se zejména možností, kterou nakonec vybrala jako odpověď. Naproti tomu Jana se velmi často vracela k zadání, často nejprve přemýšlela o odpovědi, kterou nakonec nevybrala jako správnou. U Evy jsme pozorovali netypické vertikální sakády nad vybranými klíčovými pojmy. Jana při pohledu na spíše ilustrativní obrázek projevila typickou miskoncepci “graf jako obrázek”. Detailní analýzou jsme ukázali, že souhrnná data na tzv. oblast zájmu mohou být zavádějící, pokud je tato oblast příliš velká (např. jedna alternativa v testové otázce). Dále jsme představili možné indikátory pro kvalitativní analýzu a možnosti vizualizace zpětných sakád.
A sharing session on Eye Tracking Studies
This chapter reports on a study which investigates whether test-takers use different item-completion processes for question types which assess different reading purposes. The research employs eye-tracking technology and stimulated recall interviews. Fourteen L2 English speakers at approximately Level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR, Council of Europe 2001) completed an authentic Internet-based Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL iBT®) Reading paper composed of basic comprehension and inferencing item types. Each participant then took part in a stimulated recall interview in which they were asked to elaborate on their item-completion processes. Eye tracking and interview data revealed broadly similar item-completion processes, with participants using expeditious word spot strategies followed by careful local reading. However, inferencing question types elicited backtracking (backward sweeps) among participants more than basic comprehension items, indicating that the greater cognitive load of this item type stimulated localised re-reading. The implications of the findings and recommendations for future eye-tracking studies are discussed with specific relevance to cognitive approaches to validation of reading tests.
Syntactic adaptation effects have been demonstrated for an expanding list of structure types, but the mechanism underlying this effect is still being explored. In the current work on filler-gap dependency processing, we examined whether exposing participants to a less common gap location—prepositional object (PO) gaps—altered their gap predictions, and whether these effects would transfer across tasks when this input was presented in a quasi-naturalistic way (i.e., by reading stories). In Experiment 1, we demonstrated that comprehenders dampened their direct object (DO) gap predictions following exposure to PO gaps. However, Experiments 2A and 2B suggest that these adaptation effects did not transfer when the quasi-naturalistic exposure phase was presented as a separate task (Experiment 2A) and when they also needed to generalize from a syntactic to a semantic measure of direct object gap predictions (i.e., filled gap vs. plausibility mismatch sentences; Experiment 2B). Overall, these experiments add filler-gap dependency processing, as well as the gap predictions associated with it, to the growing list of structures demonstrating adaptation effects, while also suggesting that this effect may be specific to a singular experimental task environment.
This chapter considers the cognitive processing that occurs during the reading of narratives. It builds on Fludernik’s concept of ‘experientiality’ to describe the abstraction processes of both ordinary experiences and narrative reading in terms of the role the felt quality of experiences plays in information processing, rather than vice versa. This leads to a taxonomy of emergent structures in reading and ordinary experiences, including emergent qualities such as relational salience and dynamic valuation. The chapter concludes by describing the bottom-up aspects of reading narrative from these experiential building blocks.
Analysing writing development as a function of foreign language competence is important in secondary school children because the developmental patterns are strongest at a young age when successful interventions are needed. Although a number of researchers have explored the degree to which specific textual characteristics in EFL students’ essays are associated with high and low ratings by teachers, the extent to which such characteristics are associated with rater-mediated assessment under standard exam conditions remains relatively unexplored. Motivated by the above void in pertinent literature, the overall aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between specific discourse features present in the writing scripts of EFL learners sitting for the British Council’s APTIS for TEENS exam and the assigned scores during operational scoring by specially trained raters. A total of 800 international EFL students aged 13 to 15 years old took part in the study, and 800 scored written essays on the same task prompt of the pertinent test produced under standard exam conditions were analysed. The results showed statistically significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) between the linguistic features identified in the essays produced by young EFL learners at different levels of language competence. The main text features that were repeatedly found to make a significant contribution to distinguishing scores assigned to texts both within and across levels were word frequency, word abstractness, lexical diversity, lexical and semantic overlap, all of which could be used to obtain a numerical cut-off point between proficiency levels. These findings support the notion that progress in L2 writing is primarily associated with producing more elaborate texts with more sophisticated words, more complex sentence structure and fewer cohesive features as a function of increased language competence. The findings of the study could provide practical guidance to EFL teachers, material developers and test designers as to the kind of linguistic strategies young EFL learners develop as a function of their level of language competence and suggestions to consider when designing EFL classroom curricula, writing skills textbooks and exam papers on written production.
Aim
This study aimed to explore eye movements and stress during eye‐tracking gaming performance in children with dyskinetic cerebral palsy (CP) compared with typically developing children, and associations between eye‐tracking performance, eye movements, stress, and participants' characteristics.
Method
This cohort study included 12 children with dyskinetic CP aged 5 to 12 years (mean age 8 years 7 months, standard deviation [SD] 2 years 3 months) and 23 typically developing children aged 5 to 13 years (mean age 9 years 0 months, SD 2 years 7 months). Participants played 10 eye‐tracking games. Tobii X3‐120 and Tobii Pro Lab were used to record and analyse eye movements. Stress was assessed through heart rate variability (HRV), recorded during rest, and eye‐tracking performance using the Bittium Faros360° ECG Holter device. Eye‐tracking performance was measured using gaming completion time. Fixation and saccade variables were used to quantify eye movements, and time‐ and frequency‐domain variables to quantify HRV. Non‐parametric statistics were used.
Results
Gaming completion time was significantly different (p < 0.001) between groups, and it was negatively correlated with experience (rs = −0.63, p = 0.029). No significant differences were found between groups in fixation and saccade variables. HRV significantly changed from rest to eye‐tracking performance only in typically developing children and not in children with dyskinetic CP.
Interpretation
Children with dyskinetic CP took longer to perform the 10 games, especially the inexperienced users, indicating the importance of the early provision of eye‐tracking training opportunities. It seems that eye‐tracking tasks are not a source of increased stress and effort in children with dyskinetic CP.
What this paper adds
Participants with dyskinetic cerebral palsy (CP) took twice as long to perform 10 eye‐tracking games than typically developing peers.
Participants with dyskinetic CP with previous eye‐tracking experience performed the games faster.
Fixation and saccade variables were not significantly different between children with and without dyskinetic CP.
Heart rate variability showed no differences between rest and performance in participants with dyskinetic CP.
Gross Motor Function Classification System, Manual Ability Classification System, and Viking Speech Scale levels were not correlated to the eye movements or stress variables.
Research on the effects of schematic knowledge on comprehension dates back to the ’70s -- the seminal works in the first language by Bransford & Johnson (1972), Anderson et al. (1977), and Steffenson et al. (1979). Ever since, a great number of studies have investigated the same phenomenon in the context of L2 reading and listening comprehension (Carrell, 1983, 1987; Anderson & Lynch, 1988; Long, 1990; Schmidt-Rinehart, 1994; to name but a few). It is imperative to acknowledge the contribution of these studies to our enhanced understanding of the processes involved in comprehension, yet two issues seem to have received almost no attention: first, the extent of the predictive power of schema, and second, the question of defining schema in terms of its constituents.
The majority of research findings in this area have focused on investigating the effect of existence vs. non-existence of stereotypic schema, making use of conventional and predictable linguistic input. These results, however, may not be generalizable to real language use that often exceeds the limits of pre-established frames. With this in mind, the primary purpose of the current study was to explore the effects of employing nonconventional and atypical input on listening comprehension of EFL learners at different levels of language proficiency.
With regard to the second issue, it should be pointed out that despite the existence of a large body of related literature, schematic knowledge, itself, is still treated as a broad and blurred concept. That is, schema often has been operationally defined in general and fuzzy terms such as cultural knowledge, religious knowledge, technical knowledge, etc. with little attention to its underlying factors. In the present study, nonetheless, it was attempted , as the secondary purpose, to bring schematic knowledge under scrutiny, analyze it into its possible components and determine the informative weight of each and every component in listening comprehension. To this end, Brown & Yule’s (1983) model was utilized, in which speaker, listener, place, time, genre, topic and co-text are supposed to be the features of schematic knowledge.
To provide empirical evidence for the study, the following steps were taken. Two 31-item multiple-choice tests were developed. In both tests, the input was preceded by some pieces of schematic information. In the first test (called compatible), conventional and in the second test (called incompatible), nonconventional situations were incorporated. The items of the two tests were randomly distributed to form one 62-item test which was then pretested with 70 EFL adult learners. It proved to enjoy acceptable psychometric characteristics ( reliability index = .79, averaged item facility = .39, and averaged item discrimination = .41). It was then concurrently validated against the TOEFL with the participation of 100 EFL learners (reliability and validity indices .83 and .77, respectively). The listening section of the TOEFL also served as the no schema part of the project.
Concerning the first purpose of the study, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) for repeated measurement was applied to the data and all Fs turned out to be significant (98.03 for high and low levels of language proficiency, 446.17 for compatible, incompatible, and no schema tests, and 45.04 for levels by tests, at the p<.01 level). Due to the significance of Fs, Scheffe test was conducted to locate the source(s) of the observed differences. Concerning the second purpose, to check the construct validity of components of schematic knowledge, three varimax rotated factor analyses, and to determine their informative weight, three multiple regression analyses were applied to compatible, incompatible and combinations of the two tests (the 62-item test).
The results of the Scheffe test indicated that the low proficient group performed quite differently on the compatible and incompatible tests, whereas the difference between these two tests was not statistically significant for the high proficient group. This points to the fact that the higher the level of language proficiency, the less difficulty the learner will have in handling novel and non-conventional situations. Moreover, activation of schema did not prove to be the single most important factor in improving the subjects’ listening comprehension. Overall, the findings indicated a crucial role for linguistic knowledge and cast doubts on recent theories that underestimate the importance of bottom-up factors in comprehension.
The results of factors analyses of the components of schema as proposed by Brown & Yule (1983) were not conclusive enough to either support or reject the psychological reality of those components. While the results of regression analyses indicated that the number of components presented to activate schematic knowledge does not have much to do with their informative weight in listening comprehension.
One challenge for foreign language learners is getting sufficient L2 input and experience using the L2. Reading continues to be a reliable means for accomplishing this. Fluency in lower-level reading processes is a cornerstone to successful reading comprehension. Without comprehension, reading cannot be input. We believe second and foreign language programs need to pay more attention to reading fluency. By “reading fluency,” we mean fast and accurate character and word recognition, and also basic post-lexical processes such as parsing sentences. There are theoretically and empirically robust methods for helping learners with reading fluency. Fluency building programs are also rich grounds for research and we offer questions and areas for research in this chapter.
This chapter examines the dynamic latency between human translators’ reading input and speaking output during reading aloud and sight translation. It aims to determine whether the temporal eye-voice span (EVS) at sentence level could work as a dynamic indicator of cognitive effort during speech processing. Thirty participants performed both the reading aloud and sight translation tasks with either English or Chinese texts. Their eye movements and speech outputs were recorded by an eye-tracker and an audio recorder, respectively. EVS at sentence-initial and sentence-terminal positions in the reading aloud and sight translation tasks were analyzed. The results show that the lengths of both sentence-initial and sentence-terminal EVS in sight translation tasks are significantly longer than those in reading aloud tasks. This is in line with the total gaze fixation duration and fixation count results, which are closely related to cognitive effort. Further correlation tests show that both initial and terminal EVS yield a positive although weak correlation with the fixation indexes in the sight translation tasks, while discrepant results emerge in the reading aloud tasks. Hence, we suggest that temporal EVS can be used to discriminate different types of reading-speaking tasks and has the potential to serve as a dynamic indicator of cognitive effort during sight translation.
With the increasing number of opportunities to search for the desired content from a large amount of information, it is required to improve the efficiency of information search. Therefore, we propose a support method for information search using eye movement. In information search, the gaze moves quickly during the search, and the gaze stops when it is judged whether the content is the desired content or something close to it. From this, it was thought that by coloring the stopped part in real time, it would be possible to read back quickly, and it would be easier for the gaze to go to similar contents. A pilot experiment was conducted on four subjects and it was found that the total distance of eye movements and elapsed time to complete information search were shorter and more efficient.
The term audible voice refers to the sound of the text experienced by the reader during silent reading. It was coined by Elbow in his Landmark Essays to help the field of composition wrestle more productively with the concept of voice in writing. In this dissertation, voice is not a metaphor. Drawing on contemporary work in psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology, and consciousness studies, it examines the phenomenon of audible voice as a form of inner speech[1].
The premise of this study is that the experience of audible voice by the reader is a unique intersection of the individual's inner landscape and the features of the text at a particular moment in time. Therefore, the phenomenology of audible voice is best explored in context, the context of a single individual responding to a specific text.
This dissertation presents the results of a mixed-methods study designed to explore the following questions in context: (1) What do readers hear or experience when they read silently? (2) What do writers hear or experience when they write? For scholars studying inner speech and the experience of voice, the value of this study lies in its detailed description of the phenomenology of inner speech during reading and writing in context. For composition-rhetoric scholars, this study is intended as a stepping-stone along a path towards an understanding of style and voice in writing that is centered in the inner experience of individual readers and writers. This lens is critical given the diversity of inner landscapes described in this work, a glimpse into the potential for an invisible diversity that may be present in our classrooms.
[1] Also known as "inner voice" and "inner speaking."
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98956/1/crsander.pdf
We examine the variability of Japanese-English and Japanese-Spanish translations at the level of bunsetsu (文節), the smallest coherent linguistic units that sound natural as part of Japanese sentences. These are equivalents of chunks or phrases in English, linguistic units generally larger than a word but smaller than a sentence. We measure variability by adapting the widely studied word translation entropy metric HTra to the context of bunsetsu. Word translation entropy has been shown to correlate with various behavioral measures of cognitive effort during translation between several language pairs. Word translation entropy values also correlate for translations of the same English source texts into several languages. Here, we extend the range of prior findings to translations from Japanese, a very different source language to English. We exhibit significant correlations of word translation entropy values in Japanese-English and Japanese-Spanish translations of bunsetsu from the same source texts. In line with prior observations on comparability of cognitive effort exerted in translations from English to closely related European languages, we also find comparable average word translation entropy values at the bunsetsu level for translations from Japanese to English and to Spanish. Nevertheless, we exhibit examples where there are large differences between entropy values for translations of specific types of bunsetsu into English and Spanish, relating these differences to general characteristics of the languages, such as the degree of dependence on context to infer meaning. We propose that in appropriate circumstances, different levels of cognitive effort during the translation process can be identified through differences in the variability of the translation product.
In this article, I offer my perspective on several elements of Engelmann’s Direct Instruction. I hypothesize Engelmann’s thinking about the schooling environment that arguably provoked his theoretical, philosophical, and conceptual insights into the design of Direct Instruction. I also examine the research on Direct Instruction as a national educational model, but only as an extension of Engelmann’s commitment to falsifying his own thinking. In addition, I survey the research on the design of instruction to highlight how greatly different disciplines can find common ground around “faultless communications.” Along the way, I offer examples and descriptive analyses of selected design of instruction elements of Direct Instruction. Finally, I conclude with a brief ode to Engelmann.
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