Measuring processing load during sentence comprehension: Visuomotor tracking

A novel eye-tracking method to assess attention allocation in individuals with and without aphasia using a dual-task paradigm

“…Results of previous studies indicate that increased attention demands of dual-task conditions tend to impact language comprehension (Blackwell & Bates, 1995; Granier, Robin, Shapiro, Peach, and Zimba, 2000; King & Hux, 1996; LaPointe & Erickson, 1991; McNeil, Matthews, Hula, Doyle, & Fossett, 2006; McNeil et al, 2005; Murray, Holland, & Beeson, 1997; Tseng, McNeil, & Milenkovic, 1993) and production (Hula, McNeil, & Sung, 2007; Murray, 2000) in people with and without aphasia.…”

“…Reduced accuracy and slower reaction times during the dual-task condition are interpreted to reflect resource allocation problems or limited capacity resources due to increased task demands. People without aphasia tend to exhibit a decrease in performance on dual tasks when compared to single tasks in terms of accuracy and response time (Blackwell & Bates, 1995; Granier et al, 2000; Hula, McNeil, & Sung, 2007; McNeil et al, 2004, 2005; Tseng et al, 1993). In studies including individuals with and without aphasia, those with aphasia tended to demonstrate greater decrements in performance compared to control participants on dual tasks (King & Hux, 1996; LaPointe & Erickson, 1991; Murray, 2000, 2012; Murray, Holland, & Beeson, 1997, 1998).…”

“…Examples are an auditory sustained attention task and card sorting (LaPointe & Erickson, 1991); semantic category judgment and tone discrimination (Murray et al, 1997); word-picture matching and speaker identification (King & Hux, 1996); grammatical judgment and visual digit recall (Blackwell & Bates, 1995); lexical processing and tone perception (Hula et al, 2007); and sentence comprehension and motor tracking (Granier et al, 2000). Also the effects of two simultaneously presented linguistic tasks have been studied to explore resource allocation, including semantic category judgment and lexical decision (Murray et al, 1997), and lexical processing and semantic category judgment (Hula et al, 2007).…”

“…Examples of response execution in dual-task conditions to date include: (a) selecting and pressing a computer keyboard key (Murray et al, 1997, 1998, Tseng et al, 1993), (b) speaking (King & Hux, 1996), (c) gesturing or raising ones’ hand when hearing a target word (LaPointe & Erickson, 1991), and (d) continuous manipulation of a joystick or computer mouse during motor tracking (Granier et al, 2000; McNeil et al, 2005, 2006). Requisite eye-hand coordination, visual-spatial orientation, motor planning, and fine motor skills, are commonly affected by brain injury.…”

Auditory comprehension and visual-manual tracking dual-task performance in aphasia: Preliminary findings

“…Consistent with this general view, language performance differences between normal and aphasic participants are typically magnified under dual-task conditions (e.g., LaPointe & Erickson, 1991;Murray, 2000;Tseng, McNeil, & Milenkovic, 1993). Resource allocation theory has also motivated the study of dual-task language performance in normal individuals, and results suggest that auditory comprehension task demands can affect concurrent visual-manual tracking performance (Granier, Robin, Shapiro, Peach, & Zimba, 2000;McNeil et al, 2004), but that tracking task difficulty has no effect on auditory comprehension performance (McNeil et al, 2004;in press). The present study sought to determine concurrent costs between auditory comprehension and visual-manual tracking in persons with aphasia.…”