Using eye tracking to investigate failure to notice word transpositions in reading

Huang, Kuan-Jung; Staub, Adrian

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104846

Cited by 24 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The present research shows that, although readers sometimes misprocess word order, this need not entail that words are encoded in parallel. However, further investigation is required, using methods such as eye movement measures (e.g., Huang & Staub, 2020, 2021b to uncover how word order is processed online in reading.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A transposed-word effect across space and time: Evidence from Chinese

Liu

Cutter

et al. 2022

Cognition

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A transposed-word effect across space and time: Evidence from Chinese

Liu

Cutter

et al. 2022

Cognition

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“…Such good-enough or incomplete representations of the input would promote sentence interpretability in the face of ungrammaticality caused, for example, by changes in word order. Thus, noisy incremental models of language comprehension can account for transposed-word effects, and therefore such effects are not necessarily a signature of parallel word processing (Huang & Staub [ 11 – 13 ]; Milledge et al [ 14 ]). Support for this general approach was provided by Dufour et al [ 15 ] who found robust transposed-word effects with an auditory grammatical decision version of the Mirault et al [ 1 ] study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transposed-word effects when reading serially

et al. 2022

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When asked to decide if an ungrammatical sequence of words is grammatically correct or not readers find it more difficult to do so (longer response times (RTs) and more errors) if the ungrammatical sequence is created by transposing two words from a correct sentence (e.g., the white was cat big) compared with a set of matched ungrammatical sequences for which transposing any two words could not produce a correct sentence (e.g., the white was cat slowly). Here, we provide a further exploration of transposed-word effects while imposing serial reading by using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) in Experiments 1 (respond at the end of the sequence) and 2 (respond as soon as possible—which could be during the sequence). Crucially, in Experiment 3 we compared performance under serial RSVP conditions with parallel presentation of the same stimuli for the same total duration and with the same group of participants. We found robust transposed-word effects in the RSVP conditions tested in all experiments, but only in error rates and not in RTs. This contrasts with the effects found in both errors and RTs in our prior work using parallel presentation, as well as the parallel presentation conditions tested in Experiment 3. We provide a tentative account of why, under conditions that impose a serial word-by-word reading strategy, transposed-word effects are only seen in error rates and not in RTs.

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“…Based on previous eye-tracking studies of ungrammaticality, we expect to find similar surprisal effects on the subject and verb (the critical regions), manifested as longer fixation durations and more regressions out in the ungrammatical condition, and both manifested in reading measurements reflecting early (first fixation duration, gaze duration, firstpass regression ratio, regression path duration) and later stages of processing (total duration). Because previous studies (e.g., Braze et al, 2002;Huang and Staub, 2021;Pearlmutter et al, 1999) document that readers recover relatively quickly, we did not expect to see effects of ungrammaticality in the post-critical or wrap-up region. The results may give insights into how L1 readers react to different types of nonstandard variation, by comparing the time course of V3 processing to results from previous eye-tracking studies of morphosyntactic anomalies and to eye-tracking studies of non-canonical, but grammatical, word order.…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 86%

“…The current study contributes valuable input to such models for two reasons. Firstly, the word order anomalies in the study are naturally occurring in both oral and written production, rather than consisting of randomly scrambled words, as in previous eye-tracking studies on word order (Huang & Staub, 2021). Secondly, previous eyetracking studies of ungrammaticality have primarily addressed morphosyntactic anomalies.…”

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confidence: 99%

In the native speaker’s eye: Online processing of anomalous learner syntax

Søby

Milburn

Kristensen

et al. 2023

Applied Psycholinguistics

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How do native speakers process texts with anomalous learner syntax? Second-language learners of Norwegian, and other verb-second (V2) languages, frequently place the verb in third position (e.g., *Adverbial-Subject-Verb), although it is mandatory for the verb in these languages to appear in second position (Adverbial-Verb-Subject). In an eye-tracking study, native Norwegian speakers read sentences with either grammatical V2 or ungrammatical verb-third (V3) word order. Unlike previous eye-tracking studies of ungrammaticality, which have primarily addressed morphosyntactic anomalies, we exclusively manipulate word order with no morphological or semantic changes. We found that native speakers reacted immediately to ungrammatical V3 word order, indicated by increased fixation durations and more regressions out on the subject, and subsequently on the verb. Participants also recovered quickly, already on the following word. The effects of grammaticality were unaffected by the length of the initial adverbial. The study contributes to future models of sentence processing which should be able to accommodate various types of “noisy” input, that is, non-standard variation. Together with new studies of processing of other L2 anomalies in Norwegian, the current findings can help language instructors and students prioritize which aspects of grammar to focus on.

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Using eye tracking to investigate failure to notice word transpositions in reading

Cited by 24 publications

References 37 publications

A transposed-word effect across space and time: Evidence from Chinese

A transposed-word effect across space and time: Evidence from Chinese

Transposed-word effects when reading serially

In the native speaker’s eye: Online processing of anomalous learner syntax

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