@article{vonderMalsburgVasishth2011, author = {von der Malsburg, Titus Raban and Vasishth, Shravan}, title = {What is the scanpath signature of syntactic reanalysis?}, series = {Journal of memory and language}, volume = {65}, journal = {Journal of memory and language}, number = {2}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {San Diego}, issn = {0749-596X}, doi = {10.1016/j.jml.2011.02.004}, pages = {109 -- 127}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Which repair strategy does the language system deploy when it gets garden-pathed, and what can regressive eye movements in reading tell us about reanalysis strategies? Several influential eye-tracking studies on syntactic reanalysis (Frazier \& Rayner, 1982; Meseguer, Carreiras, \& Clifton, 2002; Mitchell, Shen, Green, \& Hodgson, 2008) have addressed this question by examining scanpaths, i.e., sequential patterns of eye fixations. However, in the absence of a suitable method for analyzing scanpaths, these studies relied on simplified dependent measures that are arguably ambiguous and hard to interpret. We address the theoretical question of repair strategy by developing a new method that quantifies scanpath similarity. Our method reveals several distinct fixation strategies associated with reanalysis that went undetected in a previously published data set (Meseguer et al., 2002). One prevalent pattern suggests re-parsing of the sentence, a strategy that has been discussed in the literature (Frazier \& Rayner, 1982); however, readers differed tremendously in how they orchestrated the various fixation strategies. Our results suggest that the human parsing system non-deterministically adopts different strategies when confronted with the disambiguating material in garden-path sentences.}, language = {en} } @article{BostonHaleVasishthetal.2011, author = {Boston, Marisa Ferrara and Hale, John T. and Vasishth, Shravan and Kliegl, Reinhold}, title = {Parallel processing and sentence comprehension difficulty}, series = {Language and cognitive processes}, volume = {26}, journal = {Language and cognitive processes}, number = {3}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hove}, issn = {0169-0965}, doi = {10.1080/01690965.2010.492228}, pages = {301 -- 349}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Eye fixation durations during normal reading correlate with processing difficulty, but the specific cognitive mechanisms reflected in these measures are not well understood. This study finds support in German readers' eye fixations for two distinct difficulty metrics: surprisal, which reflects the change in probabilities across syntactic analyses as new words are integrated; and retrieval, which quantifies comprehension difficulty in terms of working memory constraints. We examine the predictions of both metrics using a family of dependency parsers indexed by an upper limit on the number of candidate syntactic analyses they retain at successive words. Surprisal models all fixation measures and regression probability. By contrast, retrieval does not model any measure in serial processing. As more candidate analyses are considered in parallel at each word, retrieval can account for the same measures as surprisal. This pattern suggests an important role for ranked parallelism in theories of sentence comprehension.}, language = {en} } @article{KruegelVituEngbert2012, author = {Kr{\"u}gel, Andre and Vitu, Francoise and Engbert, Ralf}, title = {Fixation positions after skipping saccades - a single space makes a large difference}, series = {Attention, perception, \& psychophysics : AP\&P ; a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc.}, volume = {74}, journal = {Attention, perception, \& psychophysics : AP\&P ; a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc.}, number = {8}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {1943-3921}, doi = {10.3758/s13414-012-0365-1}, pages = {1556 -- 1561}, year = {2012}, abstract = {During reading, saccadic eye movements are generated to shift words into the center of the visual field for lexical processing. Recently, Krugel and Engbert (Vision Research 50:1532-1539, 2010) demonstrated that within-word fixation positions are largely shifted to the left after skipped words. However, explanations of the origin of this effect cannot be drawn from normal reading data alone. Here we show that the large effect of skipped words on the distribution of within-word fixation positions is primarily based on rather subtle differences in the low-level visual information acquired before saccades. Using arrangements of "x" letter strings, we reproduced the effect of skipped character strings in a highly controlled single-saccade task. Our results demonstrate that the effect of skipped words in reading is the signature of a general visuomotor phenomenon. Moreover, our findings extend beyond the scope of the widely accepted range-error model, which posits that within-word fixation positions in reading depend solely on the distances of target words. We expect that our results will provide critical boundary conditions for the development of visuomotor models of saccade planning during reading.}, language = {en} } @article{SchadNuthmannEngbert2012, author = {Schad, Daniel and Nuthmann, Antje and Engbert, Ralf}, title = {Your mind wanders weakly, your mind wanders deeply - objective measures reveal mindless reading at different levels}, series = {Cognition : international journal of cognitive science}, volume = {125}, journal = {Cognition : international journal of cognitive science}, number = {2}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0010-0277}, doi = {10.1016/j.cognition.2012.07.004}, pages = {179 -- 194}, year = {2012}, abstract = {When the mind wanders, attention turns away from the external environment and cognitive processing is decoupled from perceptual information. Mind wandering is usually treated as a dichotomy (dichotomy-hypothesis), and is often measured using self-reports. Here, we propose the levels of inattention hypothesis, which postulates attentional decoupling to graded degrees at different hierarchical levels of cognitive processing. To measure graded levels of attentional decoupling during reading we introduce the sustained attention to stimulus task (SAST), which is based on psychophysics of error detection. Under experimental conditions likely to induce mind wandering, we found that subjects were less likely to notice errors that required high-level processing for their detection as opposed to errors that only required low-level processing. Eye tracking revealed that before errors were overlooked influences of high- and low-level linguistic variables on eye fixations were reduced in a graded fashion, indicating episodes of mindless reading at weak and deep levels. Individual fixation durations predicted overlooking of lexical errors 5 s before they occurred. Our findings support the levels of inattention hypothesis and suggest that different levels of mindless reading can be measured behaviorally in the SAST. Using eye tracking to detect mind wandering online represents a promising approach for the development of new techniques to study mind wandering and to ameliorate its negative consequences.}, language = {en} } @article{SchadEngbert2012, author = {Schad, Daniel and Engbert, Ralf}, title = {The zoom lens of attention simulating shuffled versus normal text reading using the SWIFT model}, series = {Visual cognition}, volume = {20}, journal = {Visual cognition}, number = {4-5}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hove}, issn = {1350-6285}, doi = {10.1080/13506285.2012.670143}, pages = {391 -- 421}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Assumptions on the allocation of attention during reading are crucial for theoretical models of eye guidance. The zoom lens model of attention postulates that attentional deployment can vary from a sharp focus to a broad window. The model is closely related to the foveal load hypothesis, i.e., the assumption that the perceptual span is modulated by the difficulty of the fixated word. However, these important theoretical concepts for cognitive research have not been tested quantitatively in eye movement models. Here we show that the zoom lens model, implemented in the SWIFT model of saccade generation, captures many important patterns of eye movements. We compared the model's performance to experimental data from normal and shuffled text reading. Our results demonstrate that the zoom lens of attention might be an important concept for eye movement control in reading.}, language = {en} } @unpublished{MurrayFischerTatler2013, author = {Murray, Wayne S. and Fischer, Martin H. and Tatler, Benjamin W.}, title = {Serial and parallel processes in eye movement control - current controversies and future directions}, series = {The quarterly journal of experimental psychology}, volume = {66}, journal = {The quarterly journal of experimental psychology}, number = {3}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hove}, issn = {1747-0218}, doi = {10.1080/17470218.2012.759979}, pages = {417 -- 428}, year = {2013}, abstract = {In this editorial for the Special Issue on Serial and Parallel Processing in Reading we explore the background to the current debate concerning whether the word recognition processes in reading are strictly serialsequential or take place in an overlapping parallel fashion. We consider the history of the controversy and some of the underlying assumptions, together with an analysis of the types of evidence and arguments that have been adduced to both sides of the debate, concluding that both accounts necessarily presuppose some weakening of, or elasticity in, the eyemind assumption. We then consider future directions, both for reading research and for scene viewing, and wrap up the editorial with a brief overview of the following articles and their conclusions.}, language = {en} } @article{GhahghaeiLinnellFischeretal.2013, author = {Ghahghaei, Saeideh and Linnell, Karina J. and Fischer, Martin H. and Dubey, Amit and Davis, Robert}, title = {Effects of load on the time course of attentional engagement, disengagement, and orienting in reading}, series = {The quarterly journal of experimental psychology}, volume = {66}, journal = {The quarterly journal of experimental psychology}, number = {3}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hove}, issn = {1747-0218}, doi = {10.1080/17470218.2011.635795}, pages = {453 -- 470}, year = {2013}, abstract = {We examined how the frequency of the fixated word influences the spatiotemporal distribution of covert attention during reading. Participants discriminated gaze-contingent probes that occurred with different spatial and temporal offsets from randomly chosen fixation points during reading. We found that attention was initially focused at fixation and that subsequent defocusing was slower when the fixated word was lower in frequency. Later in a fixation, attention oriented more towards the next saccadic target for high- than for low-frequency words. These results constitute the first report of the time course of the effect of load on attentional engagement and orienting in reading. They are discussed in the context of serial and parallel models of reading.}, language = {en} } @article{vonderMalsburgVasishth2013, author = {von der Malsburg, Titus Raban and Vasishth, Shravan}, title = {Scanpaths reveal syntactic underspecification and reanalysis strategies}, series = {Language and cognitive processes}, volume = {28}, journal = {Language and cognitive processes}, number = {10}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hove}, issn = {0169-0965}, doi = {10.1080/01690965.2012.728232}, pages = {1545 -- 1578}, year = {2013}, abstract = {What theories best characterise the parsing processes triggered upon encountering ambiguity, and what effects do these processes have on eye movement patterns in reading? The present eye-tracking study, which investigated processing of attachment ambiguities of an adjunct in Spanish, suggests that readers sometimes underspecify attachment to save memory resources, consistent with the good-enough account of parsing. Our results confirm a surprising prediction of the good-enough account: high-capacity readers commit to an attachment decision more often than low-capacity participants, leading to more errors and a greater need to reanalyse in garden-path sentences. These results emerged only when we separated functionally different types of regressive eye movements using a scanpath analysis; conventional eye-tracking measures alone would have led to different conclusions. The scanpath analysis also showed that rereading was the dominant strategy for recovering from garden-pathing. Our results may also have broader implications for models of reading processes: reanalysis effects in eye movements occurred late, which suggests that the coupling of oculo-motor control and the parser may not be as tight as assumed in current computational models of eye movement control in reading.}, language = {en} } @article{KlieglHohensteinYanetal.2013, author = {Kliegl, Reinhold and Hohenstein, Sven and Yan, Ming and McDonald, Scott A.}, title = {How preview space/time translates into preview cost/benefit for fixation durations during reading}, series = {The quarterly journal of experimental psychology}, volume = {66}, journal = {The quarterly journal of experimental psychology}, number = {3}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hove}, issn = {1747-0218}, doi = {10.1080/17470218.2012.658073}, pages = {581 -- 600}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Eye-movement control during reading depends on foveal and parafoveal information. If the parafoveal preview of the next word is suppressed, reading is less efficient. A linear mixed model (LMM) reanalysis of McDonald (2006) confirmed his observation that preview benefit may be limited to parafoveal words that have been selected as the saccade target. Going beyond the original analyses, in the same LMM, we examined how the preview effect (i.e., the difference in single-fixation duration, SFD, between random-letter and identical preview) depends on the gaze duration on the pretarget word and on the amplitude of the saccade moving the eye onto the target word. There were two key results: (a) The shorter the saccade amplitude (i.e., the larger preview space), the shorter a subsequent SFD with an identical preview; this association was not observed with a random-letter preview. (b) However, the longer the gaze duration on the pretarget word, the longer the subsequent SFD on the target, with the difference between random-letter string and identical previews increasing with preview time. A third patternincreasing cost of a random-letter string in the parafovea associated with shorter saccade amplitudeswas observed for target gaze durations. Thus, LMMs revealed that preview effects, which are typically summarized under preview benefit, are a complex mixture of preview cost and preview benefit and vary with preview space and preview time. The consequence for reading is that parafoveal preview may not only facilitate, but also interfere with lexical access.}, language = {en} } @article{EngelmannVasishthEngbertetal.2013, author = {Engelmann, Felix and Vasishth, Shravan and Engbert, Ralf and Kliegl, Reinhold}, title = {A framework for modeling the interaction of syntactic processing and eye movement control}, series = {Topics in cognitive science}, volume = {5}, journal = {Topics in cognitive science}, number = {3}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {1756-8757}, doi = {10.1111/tops.12026}, pages = {452 -- 474}, year = {2013}, abstract = {We explore the interaction between oculomotor control and language comprehension on the sentence level using two well-tested computational accounts of parsing difficulty. Previous work (Boston, Hale, Vasishth, \& Kliegl, 2011) has shown that surprisal (Hale, 2001; Levy, 2008) and cue-based memory retrieval (Lewis \& Vasishth, 2005) are significant and complementary predictors of reading time in an eyetracking corpus. It remains an open question how the sentence processor interacts with oculomotor control. Using a simple linking hypothesis proposed in Reichle, Warren, and McConnell (2009), we integrated both measures with the eye movement model EMMA (Salvucci, 2001) inside the cognitive architecture ACT-R (Anderson et al., 2004). We built a reading model that could initiate short Time Out regressions (Mitchell, Shen, Green, \& Hodgson, 2008) that compensate for slow postlexical processing. This simple interaction enabled the model to predict the re-reading of words based on parsing difficulty. The model was evaluated in different configurations on the prediction of frequency effects on the Potsdam Sentence Corpus. The extension of EMMA with postlexical processing improved its predictions and reproduced re-reading rates and durations with a reasonable fit to the data. This demonstration, based on simple and independently motivated assumptions, serves as a foundational step toward a precise investigation of the interaction between high-level language processing and eye movement control.}, language = {en} }