@article{HartmannLaubrockFischer2018, author = {Hartmann, Matthias and Laubrock, Jochen and Fischer, Martin H.}, title = {The visual number world}, series = {The quarterly journal of experimental psychology}, volume = {71}, journal = {The quarterly journal of experimental psychology}, number = {1}, publisher = {Sage Publ.}, address = {London}, issn = {1747-0218}, doi = {10.1080/17470218.2016.1240812}, pages = {28 -- 36}, year = {2018}, abstract = {In the domain of language research, the simultaneous presentation of a visual scene and its auditory description (i.e., the visual world paradigm) has been used to reveal the timing of mental mechanisms. Here we apply this rationale to the domain of numerical cognition in order to explore the differences between fast and slow arithmetic performance, and to further study the role of spatial-numerical associations during mental arithmetic. We presented 30 healthy adults simultaneously with visual displays containing four numbers and with auditory addition and subtraction problems. Analysis of eye movements revealed that participants look spontaneously at the numbers they currently process (operands, solution). Faster performance was characterized by shorter latencies prior to fixating the relevant numbers and fewer revisits to the first operand while computing the solution. These signatures of superior task performance were more pronounced for addition and visual numbers arranged in ascending order, and for subtraction and numbers arranged in descending order (compared to the opposite pairings). Our results show that the visual number world-paradigm provides on-line access to the mind during mental arithmetic, is able to capture variability in arithmetic performance, and is sensitive to visual layout manipulations that are otherwise not reflected in response time measurements.}, language = {en} } @article{SperlichMeixnerLaubrock2016, author = {Sperlich, Anja and Meixner, Johannes and Laubrock, Jochen}, title = {Development of the perceptual span in reading}, series = {Journal of experimental child psychology}, volume = {146}, journal = {Journal of experimental child psychology}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {New York}, issn = {0022-0965}, doi = {10.1016/j.jecp.2016.02.007}, pages = {181 -- 201}, year = {2016}, abstract = {The perceptual span is a standard measure of parafoveal processing, which is considered highly important for efficient reading. Is the perceptual span a stable indicator of reading performance? What drives its development? Do initially slower and faster readers converge or diverge over development? Here we present the first longitudinal data on the development of the perceptual span in elementary school children. Using the moving window technique, eye movements of 127 German children in three age groups (Grades 1, 2, and 3 in Year 1) were recorded at two time points (T1 and T2) 1 year apart. Introducing a new measure of the perceptual span, nonlinear mixed-effects modeling was used to separate window size effects from asymptotic reading performance. Cross-sectional differences were well replicated longitudinally. Asymptotic reading rate increased monotonously with grade, but in a decelerating fashion. A significant change in the perceptual span was observed only between Grades 2 and 3. Together with results from a cross-lagged panel model, this suggests that the perceptual span increases as a consequence of relatively well established word reading. Stabilities of observed and predicted reading rates were high after Grade 1, whereas the perceptual span was only moderately stable for all grades. Comparing faster and slower readers as assessed at T1, in general, a pattern of stable between-group differences emerged rather than a compensatory pattern; second and third graders even showed a Matthew effect in reading rate and the perceptual span, respectively. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{CajarEngbertLaubrock2016, author = {Cajar, Anke and Engbert, Ralf and Laubrock, Jochen}, title = {Spatial frequency processing in the central and peripheral visual field during scene viewing}, series = {Vision research : an international journal for functional aspects of vision.}, volume = {127}, journal = {Vision research : an international journal for functional aspects of vision.}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0042-6989}, doi = {10.1016/j.visres.2016.05.008}, pages = {186 -- 197}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Visuospatial attention and gaze control depend on the interaction of foveal and peripheral processing. The foveal and peripheral regions of the visual field are differentially sensitive to parts of the spatial frequency spectrum. In two experiments, we investigated how the selective attenuation of spatial frequencies in the central or the peripheral visual field affects eye-movement behavior during real-world scene viewing. Gaze-contingent low-pass or high-pass filters with varying filter levels (i.e., cutoff frequencies; Experiment 1) or filter sizes (Experiment 2) were applied. Compared to unfiltered control conditions, mean fixation durations increased most with central high-pass and peripheral low-pass filtering. Increasing filter size prolonged fixation durations with peripheral filtering, but not with central filtering. Increasing filter level prolonged fixation durations with low-pass filtering, but not with high-pass filtering. These effects indicate that fixation durations are not always longer under conditions of increased processing difficulty. Saccade amplitudes largely adapted to processing difficulty: amplitudes increased with central filtering and decreased with peripheral filtering; the effects strengthened with increasing filter size and filter level. In addition, we observed a trade-off between saccade timing and saccadic selection, since saccade amplitudes were modulated when fixation durations were unaffected by the experimental manipulations. We conclude that interactions of perception and gaze control are highly sensitive to experimental manipulations of input images as long as the residual information can still be accessed for gaze control. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{SperlichSchadLaubrock2015, author = {Sperlich, Anja and Schad, Daniel and Laubrock, Jochen}, title = {When preview information starts to matter}, series = {Journal of cognitive psychology}, volume = {27}, journal = {Journal of cognitive psychology}, number = {5}, publisher = {Routledge, Taylor \& Francis Group}, address = {Abingdon}, issn = {2044-5911}, doi = {10.1080/20445911.2014.993990}, pages = {511 -- 530}, year = {2015}, abstract = {How is reading development reflected in eye-movement measures? How does the perceptual span change during the initial years of reading instruction? Does parafoveal processing require competence in basic word-decoding processes? We report data from the first cross-sectional measurement of the perceptual span of German beginning readers (n = 139), collected in the context of the large longitudinal PIER (Potsdamer Intrapersonale Entwicklungsrisiken/Potsdam study of intra-personal developmental risk factors) study of intrapersonal developmental risk factors. Using the moving-window paradigm, eye movements of three groups of students (Grades 1-3) were measured with gaze-contingent presentation of a variable amount of text around fixation. Reading rate increased from Grades 1-3, with smaller increases for higher grades. Perceptual-span results showed the expected main effects of grade and window size: fixation durations and refixation probability decreased with grade and window size, whereas reading rate and saccade length increased. Critically, for reading rate, first-fixation duration, saccade length and refixation probability, there were significant interactions of grade and window size that were mainly based on the contrast between Grades 3 and 2 rather than Grades 2 and 1. Taken together, development of the perceptual span only really takes off between Grades 2 and 3, suggesting that efficient parafoveal processing presupposes that basic processes of reading have been mastered.}, language = {en} } @article{FernandezLaubrockMandolesietal.2014, author = {Fernandez, Gerardo and Laubrock, Jochen and Mandolesi, Pablo and Colombo, Oscar and Agamennoni, Osvaldo}, title = {Difficulties in predicting upcoming words}, series = {Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology}, volume = {36}, journal = {Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology}, number = {3}, publisher = {Taylor \& Francis Group}, address = {Philadelphia}, issn = {1380-3395}, doi = {10.1080/13803395.2014.892060}, pages = {302 -- 316}, year = {2014}, language = {en} } @article{PanYanLaubrocketal.2014, author = {Pan, Jinger and Yan, Ming and Laubrock, Jochen and Shu, Hua and Kliegl, Reinhold}, title = {Saccade-target selection of dyslexic children when reading Chinese}, series = {Vision research : an international journal for functional aspects of vision.}, volume = {97}, journal = {Vision research : an international journal for functional aspects of vision.}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0042-6989}, doi = {10.1016/j.visres.2014.01.014}, pages = {24 -- 30}, year = {2014}, abstract = {This study investigates the eye movements of dyslexic children and their age-matched controls when reading Chinese. Dyslexic children exhibited more and longer fixations than age-matched control children, and an increase of word length resulted in a greater increase in the number of fixations and gaze durations for the dyslexic than for the control readers. The report focuses on the finding that there was a significant difference between the two groups in the fixation landing position as a function of word length in single-fixation cases, while there was no such difference in the initial fixation of multi-fixation cases. We also found that both groups had longer incoming saccade amplitudes while the launch sites were closer to the word in single fixation cases than in multi-fixation cases. Our results suggest that dyslexic children's inefficient lexical processing, in combination with the absence of orthographic word boundaries in Chinese, leads them to select saccade targets at the beginning of words conservatively. These findings provide further evidence for parafoveal word segmentation during reading of Chinese sentences.}, language = {en} }