@article{BalbivonHagenCuadroetal.2018, author = {Balbi, Mar{\´i}a Alejandra and von Hagen, Alexa and Cuadro, Ariel and Ruiz, Carola}, title = {A systematic review on early literacy interventions}, series = {Revista Latinoamericana de Psicolog{\´i}a}, volume = {50}, journal = {Revista Latinoamericana de Psicolog{\´i}a}, number = {1}, publisher = {Foundation advancement psychology}, address = {Bogota}, issn = {0120-0534}, doi = {10.14349/rlp.2018.v50.n1.4}, pages = {31 -- 48}, year = {2018}, abstract = {An area of increasing interest amongst teachers and researchers is the availability of tools for the design and implementation of literacy interventions with Spanish speaking children. The present systematic literature review contributes to this need by summarizing available findings on evidence-based literacy interventions (EBI) for children from first to third year of primary school. Our results are based on 20 EBI that aimed at improving at least one of the critical components mentioned by the NRP (2000): phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. As 90\% of the studies were completed with English-speaking children, we critically discussed the applicability of this evidence to the specific context of Spanish-speaking countries. Although many of the general characteristics of the EBI completed with English speaking children could also guide interventions in Spanish, it remains crucial to take into account structural differences between the orthographies of both languages. Moreover, we identified transversal strategies and implementation techniques that due to their universal character could also be useful for early literacy interventions in Spanish. (c) 2018 Fundacion Universitaria Konrad Lorenz. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0/).}, language = {en} } @article{CunningsPattersonFelser2015, author = {Cunnings, Ian and Patterson, Clare and Felser, Claudia}, title = {Structural constraints on pronoun binding and coreference: evidence from eye movements during reading}, series = {Frontiers in psychology}, volume = {6}, journal = {Frontiers in psychology}, publisher = {Frontiers Research Foundation}, address = {Lausanne}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00840}, pages = {18}, year = {2015}, abstract = {A number of recent studies have investigated how syntactic and non-syntactic constraints combine to cue memory retrieval during anaphora resolution. In this paper we investigate how syntactic constraints and gender congruence interact to guide memory retrieval during the resolution of subject pronouns. Subject pronouns are always technically ambiguous, and the application of syntactic constraints on their interpretation depends on properties of the antecedent that is to be retrieved. While pronouns can freely corefer with non-quantified referential antecedents, linking a pronoun to a quantified antecedent is only possible in certain syntactic configurations via variable binding. We report the results from a judgment task and three online reading comprehension experiments investigating pronoun resolution with quantified and non-quantified antecedents. Results from both the judgment task and participants' eye movements during reading indicate that comprehenders freely allow pronouns to corefer with non-quantified antecedents, but that retrieval of quantified antecedents is restricted to specific syntactic environments. We interpret our findings as indicating that syntactic constraints constitute highly weighted cues to memory retrieval during anaphora resolution.}, language = {en} } @book{Dambacher2010, author = {Dambacher, Michael}, title = {Bottom-up and top-down processes in reading : influences of frequency and predictability on event-related potentials and eye movements}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-059-5}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-42024}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {239}, year = {2010}, abstract = {In reading, word frequency is commonly regarded as the major bottom-up determinant for the speed of lexical access. Moreover, language processing depends on top-down information, such as the predictability of a word from a previous context. Yet, however, the exact role of top-down predictions in visual word recognition is poorly understood: They may rapidly affect lexical processes, or alternatively, influence only late post-lexical stages. To add evidence about the nature of top-down processes and their relation to bottom-up information in the timeline of word recognition, we examined influences of frequency and predictability on event-related potentials (ERPs) in several sentence reading studies. The results were related to eye movements from natural reading as well as to models of word recognition. As a first and major finding, interactions of frequency and predictability on ERP amplitudes consistently revealed top-down influences on lexical levels of word processing (Chapters 2 and 4). Second, frequency and predictability mediated relations between N400 amplitudes and fixation durations, pointing to their sensitivity to a common stage of word recognition; further, larger N400 amplitudes entailed longer fixation durations on the next word, a result providing evidence for ongoing processing beyond a fixation (Chapter 3). Third, influences of presentation rate on ERP frequency and predictability effects demonstrated that the time available for word processing critically co-determines the course of bottom-up and top-down influences (Chapter 4). Fourth, at a near-normal reading speed, an early predictability effect suggested the rapid comparison of top-down hypotheses with the actual visual input (Chapter 5). The present results are compatible with interactive models of word recognition assuming that early lexical processes depend on the concerted impact of bottom-up and top-down information. We offered a framework that reconciles the findings on a timeline of word recognition taking into account influences of frequency, predictability, and presentation rate (Chapter 4).}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Engelmann2016, author = {Engelmann, Felix}, title = {Toward an integrated model of sentence processing in reading}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-100864}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xiii, 143}, year = {2016}, abstract = {In experiments investigating sentence processing, eye movement measures such as fixation durations and regression proportions while reading are commonly used to draw conclusions about processing difficulties. However, these measures are the result of an interaction of multiple cognitive levels and processing strategies and thus are only indirect indicators of processing difficulty. In order to properly interpret an eye movement response, one has to understand the underlying principles of adaptive processing such as trade-off mechanisms between reading speed and depth of comprehension that interact with task demands and individual differences. Therefore, it is necessary to establish explicit models of the respective mechanisms as well as their causal relationship with observable behavior. There are models of lexical processing and eye movement control on the one side and models on sentence parsing and memory processes on the other. However, no model so far combines both sides with explicitly defined linking assumptions. In this thesis, a model is developed that integrates oculomotor control with a parsing mechanism and a theory of cue-based memory retrieval. On the basis of previous empirical findings and independently motivated principles, adaptive, resource-preserving mechanisms of underspecification are proposed both on the level of memory access and on the level of syntactic parsing. The thesis first investigates the model of cue-based retrieval in sentence comprehension of Lewis \& Vasishth (2005) with a comprehensive literature review and computational modeling of retrieval interference in dependency processing. The results reveal a great variability in the data that is not explained by the theory. Therefore, two principles, 'distractor prominence' and 'cue confusion', are proposed as an extension to the theory, thus providing a more adequate description of systematic variance in empirical results as a consequence of experimental design, linguistic environment, and individual differences. In the remainder of the thesis, four interfaces between parsing and eye movement control are defined: Time Out, Reanalysis, Underspecification, and Subvocalization. By comparing computationally derived predictions with experimental results from the literature, it is investigated to what extent these four interfaces constitute an appropriate elementary set of assumptions for explaining specific eye movement patterns during sentence processing. Through simulations, it is shown how this system of in itself simple assumptions results in predictions of complex, adaptive behavior. In conclusion, it is argued that, on all levels, the sentence comprehension mechanism seeks a balance between necessary processing effort and reading speed on the basis of experience, task demands, and resource limitations. Theories of linguistic processing therefore need to be explicitly defined and implemented, in particular with respect to linking assumptions between observable behavior and underlying cognitive processes. The comprehensive model developed here integrates multiple levels of sentence processing that hitherto have only been studied in isolation. The model is made publicly available as an expandable framework for future studies of the interactions between parsing, memory access, and eye movement control.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Engels2004, author = {Engels, Eva}, title = {Adverb placement : an optimality theoretic approach}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-2453}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2004}, abstract = {Adverb positioning is guided by syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic considerations and is subject to cross-linguistic as well as language-specific variation. The goal of the thesis is to identify the factors that determine adverb placement in general (Part I) as well as in constructions in which the adverb's sister constituent is deprived of its phonetic material by movement or ellipsis (gap constructions, Part II) and to provide an Optimality Theoretic approach to the contrasts in the effects of these factors on the distribution of adverbs in English, French, and German. In Optimality Theory (Prince \& Smolensky 1993), grammaticality is defined as optimal satisfaction of a hierarchy of violable constraints: for a given input, a set of output candidates are produced out of which that candidate is selected as grammatical output which optimally satisfies the constraint hierarchy. Since grammaticality crucially relies on the hierarchic relations of the constraints, cross-linguistic variation can be traced back to differences in the language-specific constraint rankings. Part I shows how diverse phenomena of adverb placement can be captured by corresponding constraints and their relative rankings: - contrasts in the linearization of adverbs and verbs/auxiliaries in English and French - verb placement in German and the filling of the prefield position - placement of focus-sensitive adverbs - fronting of topical arguments and adverbs Part II extends the analysis to a particular phenomenon of adverb positioning: the avoidance of adverb attachment to a phonetically empty constituent (gap). English and French are similar in that the acceptability of pre-gap adverb placement depends on the type of adverb, its scope, and the syntactic construction (English: wh-movement vs. topicalization / VP Fronting / VP Ellipsis, inverted vs. non-inverted clauses; French: CLLD vs. Cleft, simple vs. periphrastic tense). Yet, the two languages differ in which strategies a specific type of adverb may pursue to escape placement in front of a certain type of gap. In contrast to English and French, placement of an adverb in front of a gap never gives rise to ungrammaticality in German. Rather, word ordering has to obey the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic principles discussed in Part I; whether or not it results in adverb attachment to a phonetically empty constituent seems to be irrelevant: though constraints are active in every language, the emergence of a visible effect of their requirements in a given language depends on their relative ranking. The complex interaction of the diverse factors as well as their divergent effects on adverb placement in the various languages are accounted for by the universal constraints and their language-specific hierarchic relations in the OT framework.}, subject = {Adverb}, language = {en} } @article{FelserPattersonCunnings2015, author = {Felser, Claudia and Patterson, Clare and Cunnings, Ian}, title = {Structural constraints on pronoun binding and coreference: Evidence from eye movements during reading}, series = {Frontiers in psychology}, volume = {6}, journal = {Frontiers in psychology}, number = {840}, publisher = {Frontiers Research Foundation}, address = {Lausanne}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00840}, year = {2015}, abstract = {A number of recent studies have investigated how syntactic and non-syntactic constraints combine to cue memory retrieval during anaphora resolution. In this paper we investigate how syntactic constraints and gender congruence interact to guide memory retrieval during the resolution of subject pronouns. Subject pronouns are always technically ambiguous, and the application of syntactic constraints on their interpretation depends on properties of the antecedent that is to be retrieved. While pronouns can freely corefer with non-quantified referential antecedents, linking a pronoun to a quantified antecedent is only possible in certain syntactic configurations via variable binding. We report the results from a judgment task and three online reading comprehension experiments investigating pronoun resolution with quantified and non-quantified antecedents. Results from both the judgment task and participants' eye movements during reading indicate that comprehenders freely allow pronouns to corefer with non-quantified antecedents, but that retrieval of quantified antecedents is restricted to specific syntactic environments. We interpret our findings as indicating that syntactic constraints constitute highly weighted cues to memory retrieval during anaphora resolution.}, language = {en} } @misc{FelserPattersonCunnings2015, author = {Felser, Claudia and Patterson, Clare and Cunnings, Ian}, title = {Structural constraints on pronoun binding and coreference: Evidence from eye movements during reading}, series = {Frontiers in psychology}, journal = {Frontiers in psychology}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-78650}, year = {2015}, abstract = {A number of recent studies have investigated how syntactic and non-syntactic constraints combine to cue memory retrieval during anaphora resolution. In this paper we investigate how syntactic constraints and gender congruence interact to guide memory retrieval during the resolution of subject pronouns. Subject pronouns are always technically ambiguous, and the application of syntactic constraints on their interpretation depends on properties of the antecedent that is to be retrieved. While pronouns can freely corefer with non-quantified referential antecedents, linking a pronoun to a quantified antecedent is only possible in certain syntactic configurations via variable binding. We report the results from a judgment task and three online reading comprehension experiments investigating pronoun resolution with quantified and non-quantified antecedents. Results from both the judgment task and participants' eye movements during reading indicate that comprehenders freely allow pronouns to corefer with non-quantified antecedents, but that retrieval of quantified antecedents is restricted to specific syntactic environments. We interpret our findings as indicating that syntactic constraints constitute highly weighted cues to memory retrieval during anaphora resolution.}, language = {en} } @article{FernandezShalomKliegletal.2014, author = {Fernandez, Gerardo and Shalom, Diego E. and Kliegl, Reinhold and Sigman, Mariano}, title = {Eye movements during reading proverbs and regular sentences: the incoming word predictability effect}, series = {Language, cognition and neuroscience}, volume = {29}, journal = {Language, cognition and neuroscience}, number = {3}, publisher = {Routledge, Taylor \& Francis Group}, address = {Abingdon}, issn = {2327-3798}, doi = {10.1080/01690965.2012.760745}, pages = {260 -- 273}, year = {2014}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Gendt2011, author = {Gendt, Anja}, title = {Eye movements under the control of working memory : the challenge of a reading-span task}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-69224}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2011}, abstract = {During reading oculomotor processes guide the eyes over the text. The visual information recorded is accessed, evaluated and processed. Only by retrieving the meaning of a word from the long-term memory, as well as through the connection and storage of the information about each individual word, is it possible to access the semantic meaning of a sentence. Therefore memory, and here in particular working memory, plays a pivotal role in the basic processes of reading. The following dissertation investigates to what extent different demands on memory and memory capacity have an effect on eye movement behavior while reading. The frequently used paradigm of the reading span task, in which test subjects read and evaluate individual sentences, was used for the experimental review of the research questions. The results speak for the fact that working memory processes have a direct effect on various eye movement measurements. Thus a high working memory load, for example, reduced the perceptual span while reading. The lower the individual working memory capacity of the reader was, the stronger was the influence of the working memory load on the processing of the sentence.}, language = {en} } @article{HeisterWuerznerBubenzeretal.2011, author = {Heister, Julian and W{\"u}rzner, Kay-Michael and Bubenzer, Johannes and Pohl, Edmund and Hanneforth, Thomas and Geyken, Alexander and Kliegl, Reinhold}, title = {dlexDB - A lexical database for the psychological and linguistic research}, series = {Psychologische Rundschau : offizielles Organ der Deutschen Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Psychologie}, volume = {62}, journal = {Psychologische Rundschau : offizielles Organ der Deutschen Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Psychologie}, number = {1}, publisher = {Hogrefe}, address = {G{\"o}ttingen}, issn = {0033-3042}, doi = {10.1026/0033-3042/a000029}, pages = {10 -- 20}, year = {2011}, abstract = {The lexical database dlexDB supplies in form of an online database frequency-based norms of numerous process-related word properties for psychological and linguistic research. These values include well known variables such as printed frequency of word form and lemma as documented also in CELEX (Baayen, Piepenbrock und Gulikers, 1995). In addition, we compute new values like frequencies based on syllables, and morphemes as well as frequencies of character chains, and multiple word combinations. The statistics are based on the Kernkorpus des Digitalen Wrterbuchs der deutschen Sprache (DWDS) with over 100 million running words. We illustrate the validity of these norms with new results about fixation durations in sentence reading.}, language = {de} }