@article{PanYanLaubrock2020, author = {Pan, Jinger and Yan, Ming and Laubrock, Jochen}, title = {Semantic preview benefit and cost}, series = {Cognition : international journal of cognitive science}, volume = {205}, journal = {Cognition : international journal of cognitive science}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0010-0277}, doi = {10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104452}, pages = {10}, year = {2020}, abstract = {How is semantic information in the mental lexicon accessed and selected during reading? Readers process information of both the foveal and parafoveal words. Recent eye-tracking studies hint at bi-phasic lexical activation dynamics, demonstrating that semantically related parafoveal previews can either facilitate, or interfere with lexical processing of target words in comparison to unrelated previews, with the size and direction of the effect depending on exposure time to parafoveal previews. However, evidence to date is only correlational, because exposure time was determined by participants' pre-target fixation durations. Here we experimentally controlled parafoveal preview exposure duration using a combination of the gaze-contingent fast-priming and boundary paradigms. We manipulated preview duration and examined the time course of parafoveal semantic activation during the oral reading of Chinese sentences in three experiments. Semantic previews led to faster lexical access of target words than unrelated previews only when the previews were presented briefly (80 ms in Experiments 1 and 3). Longer exposure time (100 ms or 150 ms) eliminated semantic preview effects, and full preview without duration limit resulted in preview cost, i.e., a reversal of preview benefit. Our results indicate that high-level semantic information can be obtained from parafoveal words and the size and direction of the parafoveal semantic effect depends on the level of lexical activation.}, language = {en} } @article{YanPanKliegl2019, author = {Yan, Ming and Pan, Jinger and Kliegl, Reinhold}, title = {Eye Movement Control in Chinese Reading: A Cross-Sectional Study}, series = {Developmental psychology}, volume = {55}, journal = {Developmental psychology}, number = {11}, publisher = {American Psychological Association}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0012-1649}, doi = {10.1037/dev0000819}, pages = {2275 -- 2285}, year = {2019}, abstract = {The present study explored the age-related changes of eye movement control in reading-that is, where to send the eyes and when to move them. Different orthographies present readers with somewhat different problems to solve, and this might, in turn, be reflected in different patterns of development of reading skill. Participants of different developmental levels (Grade 3, N = 30; Grade 5, N = 27 and adults, N = 27) were instructed to read sentences for comprehension while their eye movements were recorded. Contrary to previous findings that have been well documented indicating early maturation of saccade generation in English, current results showed that saccade generation among Chinese readers was still under development at Grade 5, although immediate lexical processing was relatively well-established. The distinct age-related changes in eye movements are attributable to certain linguistic properties of Chinese including the lack of interword spaces and word boundary uncertainty. The present study offers an example of how human eye movement adapts to the orthographic environment.}, language = {en} } @article{YanPanChangetal.2019, author = {Yan, Ming and Pan, Jinger and Chang, Wenshuo and Kliegl, Reinhold}, title = {Read sideways or not: vertical saccade advantage in sentence reading}, series = {Reading and writing : an interdisciplinary journal}, volume = {32}, journal = {Reading and writing : an interdisciplinary journal}, number = {8}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Dordrecht}, issn = {0922-4777}, doi = {10.1007/s11145-018-9930-x}, pages = {1911 -- 1926}, year = {2019}, abstract = {During the reading of alphabetic scripts and scene perception, eye movements are programmed more efficiently in horizontal direction than in vertical direction. We propose that such a directional advantage may be due the overwhelming reading experience in the horizontal direction. Writing orientation is highly flexible for Traditional Chinese sentences. We compare horizontal and vertical eye movements during reading of such sentences and provide first evidence of a text-orientation effect on eye-movement control during reading. In addition to equivalent reading speed in both directions, more fine-grained analyses demonstrate a tradeoff between longer fixation durations and better fixation locations in vertical than in horizontal reading. Our results suggest that with extensive reading experience, Traditional Chinese readers can generate saccades more efficiently in vertical than in horizontal direction.}, language = {en} } @article{ZhouWangShuetal.2018, author = {Zhou, Wei and Wang, Aiping and Shu, Hua and Kliegl, Reinhold and Yan, Ming}, title = {Word segmentation by alternating colors facilitates eye guidance in Chinese reading}, series = {Memory \& cognition}, volume = {46}, journal = {Memory \& cognition}, number = {5}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {0090-502X}, doi = {10.3758/s13421-018-0797-5}, pages = {729 -- 740}, year = {2018}, abstract = {During sentence reading, low spatial frequency information afforded by spaces between words is the primary factor for eye guidance in spaced writing systems, whereas saccade generation for unspaced writing systems is less clear and under debate. In the present study, we investigated whether word-boundary information, provided by alternating colors (consistent or inconsistent with word-boundary information) influences saccade-target selection in Chinese. In Experiment 1, as compared to a baseline (i.e., uniform color) condition, word segmentation with alternating color shifted fixation location towards the center of words. In contrast, incorrect word segmentation shifted fixation location towards the beginning of words. In Experiment 2, we used a gaze-contingent paradigm to restrict the color manipulation only to the upcoming parafoveal words and replicated the results, including fixation location effects, as observed in Experiment 1. These results indicate that Chinese readers are capable of making use of parafoveal word-boundary knowledge for saccade generation, even if such information is unfamiliar to them. The present study provides novel support for the hypothesis that word segmentation is involved in the decision about where to fixate next during Chinese reading.}, language = {en} } @article{WuKaiserVasishth2017, author = {Wu, Fuyun and Kaiser, Elsi and Vasishth, Shravan}, title = {Effects of early cues on the processing of chinese relative clauses}, series = {Cognitive science : a multidisciplinary journal of anthropology, artificial intelligence, education, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology ; journal of the Cognitive Science Society}, volume = {42}, journal = {Cognitive science : a multidisciplinary journal of anthropology, artificial intelligence, education, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology ; journal of the Cognitive Science Society}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {0364-0213}, doi = {10.1111/cogs.12551}, pages = {1101 -- 1133}, year = {2017}, abstract = {We used Chinese prenominal relative clauses (RCs) to test the predictions of two competing accounts of sentence comprehension difficulty: the experience-based account of Levy () and the Dependency Locality Theory (DLT; Gibson, ). Given that in Chinese RCs, a classifier and/or a passive marker BEI can be added to the sentence-initial position, we manipulated the presence/absence of classifiers and the presence/absence of BEI, such that BEI sentences were passivized subject-extracted RCs, and no-BEI sentences were standard object-extracted RCs. We conducted two self-paced reading experiments, using the same critical stimuli but somewhat different filler items. Reading time patterns from both experiments showed facilitative effects of BEI within and beyond RC regions, and delayed facilitative effects of classifiers, suggesting that cues that occur before a clear signal of an upcoming RC can help Chinese comprehenders to anticipate RC structures. The data patterns are not predicted by the DLT, but they are consistent with the predictions of experience-based theories.}, language = {en} } @article{WangYeonZhouetal.2016, author = {Wang, Aiping and Yeon, Junmo and Zhou, Wei and Shu, Hua and Yan, Ming}, title = {Cross-language parafoveal semantic processing: Evidence from Korean-Chinese bilinguals}, series = {Applied physics letters}, volume = {23}, journal = {Applied physics letters}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {1069-9384}, doi = {10.3758/s13423-015-0876-6}, pages = {285 -- 290}, year = {2016}, abstract = {In the present study, we aimed at testing cross-language cognate and semantic preview effects. We tested how native Korean readers who learned Chinese as a second language make use of the parafoveal information during the reading of Chinese sentences. There were 3 types of Korean preview words: cognate translations of the Chinese target words, semantically related noncognate words, and unrelated words. Together with a highly significant cognate preview effect, more critically, we also observed reliable facilitation in processing of the target word from the semantically related previews in all fixation measures. Results from the present study provide first evidence for semantic processing from parafoveally presented Korean words and for cross-language parafoveal semantic processing.}, language = {en} } @article{YanKliegl2016, author = {Yan, Ming and Kliegl, Reinhold}, title = {CarPrice versus CarpRice: Word Boundary Ambiguity Influences Saccade Target Selection During the Reading of Chinese Sentences}, series = {Journal of experimental psychology : Learning, memory, and cognition}, volume = {42}, journal = {Journal of experimental psychology : Learning, memory, and cognition}, publisher = {American Psychological Association}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0278-7393}, doi = {10.1037/xlm0000276}, pages = {1832 -- 1838}, year = {2016}, abstract = {As a contribution to a theoretical debate about the degree of high-level influences on saccade targeting during sentence reading, we investigated eye movements during the reading of structurally ambiguous Chinese character strings and examined whether parafoveal word segmentation could influence saccade-target selection. As expected, ambiguous strings took longer to process. More critically there were theoretically relevant interactions between ambiguity and launch site when first-fixation location and saccade amplitude served as dependent variables: Ambiguous strings in the parafovea triggered longer saccades and more rightward fixations for close launch sites than unambiguous ones; the reverse result was obtained for far launch sites. These crossover interactions indicate that parafoveal word segmentation influences saccade generation in Chinese and provide support of the hypothesis that high-level information can be involved in the decision about where to fixate next.}, language = {en} } @article{LuoYanYanetal.2016, author = {Luo, Yingyi and Yan, Ming and Yan, Shaorong and Zhou, Xiaolin and Inhoff, Albrecht W.}, title = {Syllabic tone articulation influences the identification and use of words during Chinese sentence reading: Evidence from ERP and eye movement recordings}, series = {The science of the total environment : an international journal for scientific research into the environment and its relationship with man}, volume = {16}, journal = {The science of the total environment : an international journal for scientific research into the environment and its relationship with man}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {1530-7026}, doi = {10.3758/s13415-015-0368-1}, pages = {72 -- 92}, year = {2016}, abstract = {In two experiments, we examined the contribution of articulation-specific features to visual word recognition during the reading of Chinese. In spoken Standard Chinese, a syllable with a full tone can be tone-neutralized through sound weakening and pitch contour change, and there are two types of two-character compound words with respect to their articulation variation. One type requires articulation of a full tone for each constituent character, and the other requires a full- and a neutral-tone articulation for the first and second characters, respectively. Words of these two types with identical first characters were selected and embedded in sentences. Native speakers of Standard Chinese were recruited to read the sentences. In Experiment 1, the individual words of a sentence were presented serially at a fixed pace while event-related potentials were recorded. This resulted in less-negative N100 and anterior N250 amplitudes and in more-negative N400 amplitudes when targets contained a neutral tone. Complete sentences were visible in Experiment 2, and eye movements were recorded while participants read. Analyses of oculomotor activity revealed shorter viewing durations and fewer refixations on-and fewer regressive saccades to-target words when their second syllable was articulated with a neutral rather than a full tone. Together, the results indicate that readers represent articulation-specific word properties, that these representations are routinely activated early during the silent reading of Chinese sentences, and that the representations are also used during later stages of word processing.}, language = {en} } @article{YanSommer2015, author = {Yan, Ming and Sommer, Werner}, title = {Parafoveal-on-Foveal Effects of Emotional Word Semantics in Reading Chinese Sentences: Evidence From Eye Movements}, series = {Journal of experimental psychology : Learning, memory, and cognition}, volume = {41}, journal = {Journal of experimental psychology : Learning, memory, and cognition}, number = {4}, publisher = {American Psychological Association}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0278-7393}, doi = {10.1037/xlm0000095}, pages = {1237 -- 1243}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Despite the well-known influence of emotional meaning on cognition, relatively less is known about its effects on reading behavior. We investigated whether fixation behavior during the reading of Chinese sentences is influenced by emotional word meaning in the parafovea. Two-character target words embedded into the same sentence frames provided emotionally positive, negative, or neutral contents. Fixation durations on neutral pretarget words were prolonged for positive parafoveal words and for highly frequent negative parafoveal words. In addition, fixation durations on foveal emotional words were shorter than those on neutral words. We also found that the role of emotional words varied as a function of their valence during foveal and parafoveal processing. These findings suggest a processing advantage for emotional words relative to emotionally neutral stimuli in foveal and parafoveal vision. We discuss implications for the notion of attention attraction due to emotional content.}, language = {en} } @article{Yan2015, author = {Yan, Ming}, title = {Visually complex foveal words increase the amount of parafoveal information acquired}, series = {Vision research : an international journal for functional aspects of vision.}, volume = {111}, journal = {Vision research : an international journal for functional aspects of vision.}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0042-6989}, doi = {10.1016/j.visres.2015.03.025}, pages = {91 -- 96}, year = {2015}, abstract = {This study investigates the effect of foveal load (i.e., processing difficulty of currently fixated words) on parafoveal information processing. Contrary to the commonly accepted view that high foveal load leads to reduced parafoveal processing efficiency, results of the present study showed that increasing foveal visual (but not linguistic) processing load actually increased the amount of parafoveal information acquired, presumably due to the fact that longer fixation duration on the pretarget word provided more time for parafoveal processing of the target word. It is therefore proposed in the present study that foveal linguistic processing load is not the only factor that determines parafoveal processing; preview time (afforded by foveal word visual processing load) may jointly influence parafoveal processing. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} }