TY - GEN A1 - Sinn, Petra A1 - Engbert, Ralf T1 - Saccadic facilitation by modulation of microsaccades in natural backgrounds T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Saccades move objects of interest into the center of the visual field for high-acuity visual analysis. White, Stritzke, and Gegenfurtner (Current Biology, 18, 124–128, 2008) have shown that saccadic latencies in the context of a structured background are much shorter than those with an unstructured background at equal levels of visibility. This effect has been explained by possible preactivation of the saccadic circuitry whenever a structured background acts as a mask for potential saccade targets. Here, we show that background textures modulate rates of microsaccades during visual fixation. First, after a display change, structured backgrounds induce a stronger decrease of microsaccade rates than do uniform backgrounds. Second, we demonstrate that the occurrence of a microsaccade in a critical time window can delay a subsequent saccadic response. Taken together, our findings suggest that microsaccades contribute to the saccadic facilitation effect, due to a modulation of microsaccade rates by properties of the background. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 595 KW - eye movements KW - microsaccade KW - saccade latency KW - background texture KW - saccadic facilitation effect Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-431817 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 595 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Hohenstein, Sven A1 - Matuschek, Hannes A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold T1 - Linked linear mixed models BT - a joint analysis of fixation locations and fixation durations in natural reading T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - The complexity of eye-movement control during reading allows measurement of many dependent variables, the most prominent ones being fixation durations and their locations in words. In current practice, either variable may serve as dependent variable or covariate for the other in linear mixed models (LMMs) featuring also psycholinguistic covariates of word recognition and sentence comprehension. Rather than analyzing fixation location and duration with separate LMMs, we propose linking the two according to their sequential dependency. Specifically, we include predicted fixation location (estimated in the first LMM from psycholinguistic covariates) and its associated residual fixation location as covariates in the second, fixation-duration LMM. This linked LMM affords a distinction between direct and indirect effects (mediated through fixation location) of psycholinguistic covariates on fixation durations. Results confirm the robustness of distributed processing in the perceptual span. They also offer a resolution of the paradox of the inverted optimal viewing position (IOVP) effect (i.e., longer fixation durations in the center than at the beginning and end of words) although the opposite (i.e., an OVP effect) is predicted from default assumptions of psycholinguistic processing efficiency: The IOVP effect in fixation durations is due to the residual fixation-location covariate, presumably driven primarily by saccadic error, and the OVP effect (at least the left part of it) is uncovered with the predicted fixation-location covariate, capturing the indirect effects of psycholinguistic covariates. We expect that linked LMMs will be useful for the analysis of other dynamically related multiple outcomes, a conundrum of most psychonomic research. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 552 KW - linear mixed model KW - model linkage KW - eye movements KW - reading Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-428281 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 552 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Werner, Karsten A1 - Raab, Markus A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Moving arms BT - the effects of sensorimotor information on the problem-solving process T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Embodied cognition postulates a bi-directional link between the human body and its cognitive functions. Whether this holds for higher cognitive functions such as problem solving is unknown. We predicted that arm movement manipulations performed by the participants could affect the problem-solving solutions. We tested this prediction in quantitative reasoning tasks that allowed two solutions to each problem (addition or subtraction). In two studies with healthy adults (N=53 and N=50), we found an effect of problem-congruent movements on problem solutions. Consistent with embodied cognition, sensorimotor information gained via right or left arm movements affects the solution in different types of problem-solving tasks. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 488 KW - embodied cognition KW - eye movements KW - problem solving Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-420579 UR - urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-420579 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 488 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Hartmann, Matthias A1 - Mast, Fred W. A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Spatial biases during mental arithmetic BT - evidence from eye movements on a blank screen T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - While the influence of spatial-numerical associations in number categorization tasks has been well established, their role in mental arithmetic is less clear. It has been hypothesized that mental addition leads to rightward and upward shifts of spatial attention (along the "mental number line"), whereas subtraction leads to leftward and downward shifts. We addressed this hypothesis by analyzing spontaneous eye movements during mental arithmetic. Participants solved verbally presented arithmetic problems (e.g., 2 + 7, 8-3) aloud while looking at a blank screen. We found that eye movements reflected spatial biases in the ongoing mental operation: Gaze position shifted more upward when participants solved addition compared to subtraction problems, and the horizontal gaze position was partly determined by the magnitude of the operands. Interestingly, the difference between addition and subtraction trials was driven by the operator (plus vs. minus) but was not influenced by the computational process. Thus, our results do not support the idea of a mental movement toward the solution during arithmetic but indicate a semantic association between operation and space. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 426 KW - mental arithmetic KW - eye movements KW - mental number line KW - operational momentum KW - embodied cognition KW - grounded cognition Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-406504 IS - 426 ER -