Frequency and predictability effects in eye fixations for skilled and less-skilled deaf readers

The illiteracy rate in the deaf population has been alarmingly high for several decades, despite the fact that deaf children go through the standard stages of schooling. Much research addressing this issue has focused on word-level processes, but in the recent years, little research has focused on sentence-levels processes. Previous research (Fischler, 1985) investigated word integration within context in college-level deaf and hearing readers in a lexical decision task following incomplete sentences with targets that were congruous or incongruous relative to the preceding context; it was found that deaf readers, as a group, were more dependent on contextual information than their hearing counterparts. The present experiment extended Fischler's results and investigated the relationship between frequency, predictability, and reading skill in skilled hearing, skilled deaf, and less-skilled deaf readers. Results suggest that only less-skilled deaf readers, and not all deaf readers, rely more on contextual cues to boost word processing. Additionally, early effects of frequency and predictability were found for all three groups of readers, without any evidence for an interaction between frequency and predictability.     

Investigating how children produce rotation and pointing movements when they learn to write letters

How do children learn to write letters? During writing acquisition, some letters may be more difficult to produce than others because certain movement sequences require more precise motor control (e.g., the rotation that produces curved lines like in letter O or the pointing movement to trace the horizontal bar of a T). Children of ages 6–10 (N = 108) wrote sequences of upper-case letters on a digitizer. They varied in the number of pointing and rotation movements. The data revealed that these movements required compensatory strategies in specific kinematic variables. For pointing movements there was a duration decrease that was compensated by an increase in in-air movement time. Rotation movements were produced with low maximal velocity but high minimal velocity. At all ages there was a global tendency to keep stability in the tempo of writing: pointing movements exhibited a duration trade-off whereas rotation movements required a trade-off on maximal and minimal velocity. The acquisition of letter writing took place between ages 6 and 7. At age 8 the children shifted focus to improving movement control. Writing automation was achieved around age 10 when the children controlled movement duration and fluency. This led to a significant increase in writing speed.     

Automatic gaze to the nose region cannot be inhibited during observation of facial expression in Eastern observers

Humans can extract a great deal of information about others very quickly. This is partly because the face automatically captures observers’ attention. Specifically, the eyes can attract overt attention. Although it has been reported that not only the eyes but also the nose can capture initial oculomotor movement in Eastern observers, its generalizability remains unknown. In this study, we applied the “don’t look” paradigm wherein participants are asked not to fixate on a specific facial region (i.e., eyes, nose, and mouth) during an emotion recognition task with upright (Experiment 1) and inverted (Experiment 2) faces. In both experiments, we found that participants were less able to inhibit the initial part of their fixations to the nose, which can be interpreted as the nose automatically capturing attention. Along with previous studies, our overt attention tends to be attracted by a part of the face, which is the nose region in Easterner observers.     

Looking at anything that is green when hearing “frog”: How object surface colour and stored object colour knowledge influence language-mediated overt attention

Three eye-tracking experiments investigated the influence of stored colour knowledge, perceived surface colour, and conceptual category of visual objects on language-mediated overt attention. Participants heard spoken target words whose concepts are associated with a diagnostic colour (e.g., “spinach”; spinach is typically green) while their eye movements were monitored to (a) objects associated with a diagnostic colour but presented in black and white (e.g., a black-and-white line drawing of a frog), (b) objects associated with a diagnostic colour but presented in an appropriate but atypical colour (e.g., a colour photograph of a yellow frog), and (c) objects not associated with a diagnostic colour but presented in the diagnostic colour of the target concept (e.g., a green blouse; blouses are not typically green). We observed that colour-mediated shifts in overt attention are primarily due to the perceived surface attributes of the visual objects rather than stored knowledge about the typical colour of the object. In addition our data reveal that conceptual category information is the primary determinant of overt attention if both conceptual category and surface colour competitors are copresent in the visual environment.     

A Two-Factor Model of Defensive Pessimism and Its Relations With Achievement Motives

The author first examined the underlying factor structure of the defensive pessimism construct and its relations with achievement motives. The author used a sample of 542 Singaporean undergraduate students and found that defensive pessimism is a 2-factor construct that comprises (a) negative expectation, in which individuals worry about possible pitfalls, and (b) reflectivity, in which individuals put forth efforts to prevent possible pitfalls. Then, the author used a sample of 160 Singaporean undergraduate students for Study 2, which supported the proposed model in which mastery predicted the reflectivity factor of defensive pessimism, competition predicted the negative-expectation factor of defensive pessimism indirectly through the mediation of fear of shame, and negative-expectation factor predicted the reflectivity factor of defensive pessimism because, for the defensive pessimists, the act of worrying helps them to respond to their anxiety by initiating the planning process to direct efforts to prevent potential disasters.     

不规则几何图形识别取样特征的眼动研究

探讨不规则几何图形识别中取样的眼动特征。被试为12名大学生,刺激材料为20个不规则几何图形,采用EyelinkII型眼动仪。结果发现,随作业难度加大,被试在认知加工中的有效取样时间比显著下降。在不良视觉条件下,图形信息的取样点数量显著减少,眼动扫视路径显著增长。在识别旋转图形时,有效取样时间下降,取样点数量增加,眼动扫视路径增长。图形信息的显示条件与显示方式的交互作用对图形识别的反应时、取样点的数量和眼动扫视路径长度的影响显著。     

4~7岁儿童汉字正字法意识的发展

本研究采用两项实验考察学龄前儿童正字法意识的发展情况。实验1选取146名4~7岁儿童被试,要求其在计算机上完成词汇判断任务,刺激材料分为部件错误非字,部件位置错误非字,假字和真字。结果显示：大班在两项非字条件上的正确率均显著高于假字,而小班各条件差异均不显著;中班在部件位置错误非字上的正确率显著高于假字。表明学龄前儿童的正字法意识已经开始逐渐发展,且部件位置意识比部件意识容易获得。实验2采用Tobii T120型眼动仪,记录24名大班儿童在词汇判断（同实验1）过程中对刺激项目关注的眼动行为,从实时加工的过程探讨学龄前儿童正字法意识的发展。结果显示：儿童对部件错误非字/部件位置错误非字的目标部件的晚期关注程度显著高于假字,有力地证明：学龄前大班儿童已经具有部件和部件位置的意识。     

汉字笔画像素数省略对中文句子阅读影响的眼动研究

在前人笔画省略实验的基础上,采用“像素省略”这一更精确的变量操纵来探讨笔画省略对汉字识别的影响。实验采用2（像素省略方式：省前、略后）×3（像素省略水平：15%、30%、50%）被试内设计,分析整句阅读的眼动轨迹。结果显示,像素省略水平越高对阅读的干扰越大,省前条件下对阅读的干扰显著大于略后条件。结果进一步证实了汉字书写顺序对汉字识别的影响,先书写的笔画比后书写的笔画对汉字的识别起到更大的作用,即笔画顺序效应。     

A novel two-body sensor system to study spontaneous movements in infants during caregiver physical contact

Spontaneous movements, which refer to repetitive limb movements in the absence of any external stimulus, have been found to be reflective of neurodevelopmental status during infancy. These movements are modulated by both individual and environmental factors, including physical contact (holding) with the caregiver. However, it is a challenge to measure spontaneous movements during physical contact because infant-generated movements become coupled with caregiver-generated movements in such contexts. Here, we propose the use of a novel two-body sensor system to distinguish infant-generated movements in the presence of physical contact with the caregiver. Data from seven typically developing infants and their caregivers were recorded during different simulated home activities, which involved different combinations of physical interaction, caregiver’s movement and infant positions. The two-body sensor system consisted of two wearable accelerometers – one placed on the infant’s arm and one on the caregiver’s arm, and we developed a Kalman-filter based algorithm to isolate the infant-generated movements. In addition, video was recorded for qualitative analysis. Results indicated that spontaneous movement activity was higher when there was no physical contact with caregiver. When there was physical contact, spontaneous movements were increased when the caregiver was still and when the infant was held horizontally. These results show that the novel two-body sensor system and the associated algorithms were able to isolate infant-generated movements during physical contact with the caregiver. This approach holds promise for the automated long-term tracking of spontaneous movements in infants, which may provide critical insight into developmental disorders.