Rehearsal in serial memory for visual-spatial information: Evidence from eye movements

It is well established that rote rehearsal plays a key role in serial memory for lists of verbal items. Although a great deal of research has informed us about the nature of verbal rehearsal, much less attention has been devoted to rehearsal in serial memory for visual-spatial information. By using the dot task—a visual-spatial analogue of the classical verbal serial recall task—with delayed recall, performance and eyetracking data were recorded in order to establish whether visual-spatial rehearsal could be evidenced by eye movement. The use of eye movement as a form of rehearsal is detectable (Experiment 1), and it seems to contribute to serial memory performance over and above rehearsal based on shifts of spatial attention (Experiments 1 and 2).     

Recognition and attention guidance during contextual cueing in real-world scenes: Evidence from eye movements

When confronted with a previously encountered scene, what information is used to guide search to a known target? We contrasted the role of a scene's basic-level category membership with its specific arrangement of visual properties. Observers were repeatedly shown photographs of scenes that contained consistently but arbitrarily located targets, allowing target positions to be associated with scene content. Learned scenes were then unexpectedly mirror reversed, spatially translating visual features as well as the target across the display while preserving the scene's identity and concept. Mirror reversals produced a cost as the eyes initially moved toward the position in the display in which the target had previously appeared. The cost was not complete, however; when initial search failed, the eyes were quickly directed to the target's new position. These results suggest that in real-world scenes, shifts of attention are initially based on scene identity, and subsequent shifts are guided by more detailed information regarding scene and object layout.     

Insight into analogies: Evidence from eye movements

Eye movements were recorded while participants solved picture analogies in which they had to identify the object in one picture that “went with” an object in another, simultaneously presented picture. The pattern of saccades between objects, but not the time spent looking at objects, was a very sensitive measure of the time course of both relational and object-matching processes. The results show that processing of relations between objects precedes processing of matches between objects for young adults solving simple analogies.     

Semantic memory for contextual regularities within and across scene categories: Evidence from eye movements

When encountering familiar scenes, observers can use item-specific memory to facilitate the guidance of attention to objects appearing in known locations or configurations. Here, we investigated how memory for relational contingencies that emerge across different scenes can be exploited to guide attention. Participants searched for letter targets embedded in pictures of bedrooms. In a between-subjects manipulation, targets were either always on a bed pillow or randomly positioned. When targets were systematically located within scenes, search for targets became more efficient. Importantly, this learning transferred to bedrooms without pillows, ruling out learning that is based on perceptual contingencies. Learning also transferred to living room scenes, but it did not transfer to kitchen scenes, even though both scene types contained pillows. These results suggest that statistical regularities abstracted across a range of stimuli are governed by semantic expectations regarding the presence of target-predicting local landmarks. Moreover, explicit awareness of these contingencies led to a central tendency bias in recall memory for precise target positions that is similar to the spatial category effects observed in landmark memory. These results broaden the scope of conditions under which contextual cuing operates and demonstrate how semantic memory plays a causal and independent role in the learning of associations between objects in real-world scenes.     

Processing of temporal information: Evidence from eye movements

In two experiments, we recorded eye movements to study how readers monitor temporal order information contained in narrative texts. Participants read short texts containing critical temporal information in the sixth sentence, which could be either consistent or inconsistent with temporal order information given in the second sentence. In Experiment 1, inconsistent sentences yielded more regressions to the second sentence and longer refixations of it. In Experiment 2, this pattern of eye movements was shown only by readers who noticed the inconsistency and were able to report it. Theoretical and methodological implications of the results for research on text comprehension are discussed.     

认知控制在工作记忆表征引导注意中的作用:来自眼动的证据

研究同时采用首次注视点百分率与行为反应时指标,探讨了认知控制在无关工作记忆表征引导视觉注意选择过程中的作用。实验1发现:当视觉搜索容易时,首次注视点百分率和反应时指标都出现了注意引导效应;而当视觉搜索困难时,在反映早期注意定向的首次注视点百分率指标上,搜索快的被试组的注意引导效应显著大于搜索慢的被试组,而在行为反应时指标上,搜索快的被试组表现出注意引导效应,但搜索慢的被试组则表现出相反的注意拒绝效应。实验2发现当采用更为突显的靶子刺激时,首次注视点百分率指标上表现出的注意引导效应并未受到视觉搜索靶子显著性的影响,甚至还表现出一定的优先性。这些结果表明认知控制在工作记忆表征引导视觉注意的过程中所起的作用是动态变化的,视觉搜索早期注意定向阶段的注意引导效应比较稳健,认知控制只能减弱其效应的量值,而在随后的视觉搜索过程中,当视觉搜索比较缓慢时,认知控制可能会将注意引导效应反转为相反的注意拒绝效应。     

中文阅读中无关言语效应的认知机制探究：眼动证据

采用眼动追踪技术探讨中文阅读中无关言语效应的影响机制, 操纵了背景音的类型(有意义背景音、无意义背景音、无声), 通过3个实验考察其对简单句、复杂句、篇章阅读的影响。结果发现, 被试在无意义背景音条件下加工三类阅读材料时的眼动指标与无声条件相比差异均不显著; 但是, 在有意义背景音条件下, 被试在进行复杂句和篇章阅读时的眼动指标与无声条件相比差异显著, 而在简单句阅读中差异不显著。结果表明, 语义属性才是影响无关言语效应产生的关键因素, 其所起作用受到阅读任务难度的调节, 而对阅读过程的影响主要体现在晚期的词汇加工和语义整合阶段, 本研究结果支持了语义干扰假说。     

Revisiting effects of contextual strength on the subordinate bias effect: Evidence from eye movements

In this study, we examined two issues regarding the role of context in ambiguity resolution: whether access to the contextually appropriate meaning is exhaustive or selective, and whether the contextually inappropriate meaning is inhibited. Participants read texts in which a biased ambiguous word was encountered twice while their eye movements were measured. The context preceding the first encounter varied in the extent to which the subordinate meaning was supported; the context preceding the second encounter always supported the dominant meaning. The findings suggest that lexical access is exhaustive but can be influenced by context, and that the subsequent accessibility of the contextually inappropriate meaning is unaffected by previous selection processes. The results were interpreted in terms of the assumptions of the reordered-access model and activation mechanisms that operate during reading.     

Processing doubly quantified sentences: Evidence from eye movements

We investigated the processing of doubly quantified sentences, such asKelly showed a photo to every critic, that are ambiguous as to whether the indefinite (a photo) specifies single or multiple referents. Ambiguity resolution requires the computation of relative quantifier scope: Whether a or every takes wide scope, thereby determining how many entities or events are to be represented. In an eye-tracking experiment, we manipulated quantifier order and whether continuations were singular or plural, for constructions with the direct or the indirect object occurring first. We obtained effects consistent with the on-line processing of relative scope at the doubly quantified phrase and considered two possible explanations for a preference for singular continuations to the quantified sentence. We conclude that relative quantifier scope is computed on line during reading but may not be a prerequisite for the resolution of definite anaphors, unless required by secondary tasks.     

Contextual guidance of eye movements and attention in real-world scenes: the role of global features in object search

Many experiments have shown that the human visual system makes extensive use of contextual information for facilitating object search in natural scenes. However, the question of how to formally model contextual influences is still open. On the basis of a Bayesian framework, the authors present an original approach of attentional guidance by global scene context. The model comprises 2 parallel pathways; one pathway computes local features (saliency) and the other computes global (scene-centered) features. The contextual guidance model of attention combines bottom-up saliency, scene context, and top-down mechanisms at an early stage of visual processing and predicts the image regions likely to be fixated by human observers performing natural search tasks in real-world scenes.     

Monitoring eye movements to investigate the picture superiority effect in spatial memory

Spatial memory is usually better for iconic than for verbal material. Our aim was to assess whether such effect is related to the way iconic and verbal targets are viewed when people have to memorize their locations. Eye movements were recorded while participants memorized the locations of images or words. Images received fewer, but longer, gazes than words. Longer gazes on images might reflect greater attention devoted to images due to their higher sensorial distinctiveness and/or generation with images of an additional phonological code beyond the visual code immediately available. We found that words were scanned mainly from left to right while a more heterogeneous scanning strategy characterized encoding of images. This suggests that iconic configurations tend to be maintained as global integrated representations in which all the item/location pairs are simultaneously present whilst verbal configurations are maintained through more sequential processes.     

Investigating behavior inhibition in obsessive-compulsive disorder: Evidence from eye movements

We investigated the role of inhibition failure in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) through an eye tracking experiment. Twenty-five subjects with OCD were recruited, as well as 25 with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and 25 healthy controls. A 3 (group: OCD group, GAD group and control group) × 2 (target eccentricity: far and near) × 2 (saccade task: prosaccade and antisaccade) mixed design was used, with all participants completing two sets of tasks involving both prosaccade (eye movement towards a target) and antisaccade (eye movement away from a target). The main outcome was the eye movement index, including the saccade latency (the time interval from the onset of the target screen to the first saccade) and the error rate of saccade direction. The antisaccade latency and antisaccade error rates for OCDs were much higher than those for GADs and healthy controls. OCDs had longer latency and error rates for antisaccades than for prosaccades, and for far-eccentricity rather than near-eccentricity stimuli. These results suggest that OCDs experience difficulty with behavior inhibition, and that they have higher visual sensitivity to peripheral stimuli. In particular, they show greatest difficulty in inhibiting behavior directed towards peripheral stimuli.     

Structural priming among prepositional phrases: Evidence from eye movements

This experiment was designed to determine whether prepositional phrases are treated as a single undifferentiated type, or whether the parser may recognize different subtypes. In the experiment, participants read temporarily ambiguous prime and target sentences that had either agent or instrument prepositional phrases in the syntactically disambiguating position. Agent and instrument primes both led to significant priming effects for agent targets. Agent primes led to a nonsignificant priming effect for instrument targets, and this priming effect was smaller than the effect that instrument primes had on instrument targets. This pattern can be explained if verb argument structure information is used in structural decisions, and if agent but not instrument roles are obligatory for the class of verbs tested here. The data suggest that readers are likely to activate an implicit agent when they read prime sentences that explicitly mention an instrument, but are not likely to activate an instrument when they read prime sentences that explicitly mention an agent. If the structural representations that incorporate activated arguments persist, or are reactivated more quickly following an appropriate prime sentence, this could lead to facilitated processing of sentences that have the same structural configuration.     

Focus identification during sentence comprehension: Evidence from eye movements

Three eye movement experiments investigated focus identification during sentence comprehension. Participants read dative or double-object sentences (i.e., either the direct or indirect object occurred first), and a replacive continuation supplied a contrast that was congruous with either the direct or the indirect object. Experiments 1 and 2 manipulated focus by locating only adjacent to either the direct or indirect object of dative (Experiment 1) or double-object (Experiment 2) sentences. Reading-time effects indicated that the surface position of the focus particle influenced processing. In addition, Experiment 1 reading times were longer when the replacive was incongruous with the constituent that only adjoined, and particle position modulated a similar effect in Experiment 2. Experiment 3 showed that this effect was absent when only was omitted. We conclude that the surface position of a focus particle modulates focus identification during on-line sentence comprehension.     

Incidental memory for parts of scenes from eye movements

Incidental memory for parts of scenes was examined in two search experiments and one memory control experiment. Eye movements were recorded during the search experiments and used to select gaze-contingent sections from search scenes for a surprise memory recognition task. Results from the recognition task showed incidental memory was better for sections viewed longer and with multiple fixations. Sections not fixated during search were still recognized above chance as well. Differences in sections did not affect memory performance in a control experiment when viewing time was held constant. These results show that memory for parts of scenes can occur incidentally during search and encoding of tested sections is better with longer viewing time and with multiple fixations.     

Categorical templates are more useful when features are consistent: Evidence from eye movements during search for societally important vehicles

Unlike in laboratory visual search tasks—wherein participants are typically presented with a pictorial representation of the item they are asked to seek out—in real-world searches, the observer rarely has veridical knowledge of the visual features that define their target. During categorical search, observers look for any instance of a categorically defined target (e.g., helping a family member look for their mobile phone). In these circumstances, people may not have information about noncritical features (e.g., the phone’s color), and must instead create a broad mental representation using the features that define (or are typical of) the category of objects they are seeking out (e.g., modern phones are typically rectangular and thin). In the current investigation (Experiment 1), using a categorical visual search task, we add to the body of evidence suggesting that categorical templates are effective enough to conduct efficient visual searches. When color information was available (Experiment 1a), attentional guidance, attention restriction, and object identification were enhanced when participants looked for categories with consistent features (e.g., ambulances) relative to categories with more variable features (e.g., sedans). When color information was removed (Experiment 1b), attention benefits disappeared, but object recognition was still better for feature-consistent target categories. In Experiment 2, we empirically validated the relative homogeneity of our societally important vehicle stimuli. Taken together, our results are in line with a category-consistent view of categorical target templates (Yu, Maxfield, & Zelinsky in, Psychological Science, 2016. doi: 10.1177/0956797616640237), and suggest that when features of a category are consistent and predictable, searchers can create mental representations that allow for the efficient guidance and restriction of attention as well as swift object identification.     

哭泣表情面孔的注意偏向:眼动的证据

研究采用双选择Oddball范式和线索-靶子范式,并结合眼动技术,以微笑、哭泣和中性表情面孔为刺激材料,综合考察哭泣表情面孔在识别和解离过程中的注意偏向。研究发现:在识别阶段,哭泣表情面孔的识别正确率和反应速度都显著优于微笑表情面孔,进一步的兴趣区注视偏向分析发现,哭泣和微笑表情面孔的注视模式既具有一致的规律,又存在细微的差异;在解离阶段,返回抑制受线索表情类型的影响,在有效线索条件下,哭泣表情线索呈现后个体对目标刺激的平均注视时间和眼跳潜伏期都显著短于其它表情线索。表明哭泣表情面孔在识别和解离过程中具有不同的注意偏向表现,在识别阶段表现为反应输出优势和注视模式上的一致性与差异性;在解离阶段表现为有效线索条件下,对目标刺激定位和视觉加工的促进作用。     

Word length effects on novel words: Evidence from eye movements

The present study investigated the effects of word length on eye movement behavior during initial processing of novel words while reading. Adult skilled readers’ eye movements were monitored as they read novel or known target words in sentence frames with neutral context preceding the target word. Comparable word length effects on all single-fixation measures for novel and known words suggested that both types of words were subject to similar initial encoding strategies. The impact of the absence of an existing lexical entry emerged in multiple first-pass fixation measures in the form of interactions between word length (long and short) and word type (novel and known). Specifically, readers spent significantly more first-pass time refixating long novel targets than short novel targets; however, the first-pass time spent refixating known controls did not differ as a function of length. Implications of these findings for models of eye movement control while reading, as well as for vocabulary acquisition in reading, are discussed.     

Sentence context modifies compound word recognition: Evidence from eye movements

Two eye movement experiments are reported that examine the influence of sentence context on morphological processing. English compound words which vary in beginning lexeme frequency (Experiment 1) and ending lexeme frequency (Experiment 2) were embedded into sentence contexts that were either predictive of the compound word or were neutral with respect to the compound. A predictable sentence context reduced the effect of beginning lexeme frequency on first fixation and single fixation durations. However, sentence context did not modify effects of beginning and ending lexeme frequency in later fixation measures. These results further support the theoretical position that morphology plays a role at multiple levels within readers' mental lexicons. In addition, these results suggest that access to early morpho-orthographic processes can be influenced by sentence context, a finding that suggests an interactive relationship between sentence context and word recognition.