Verbal and nonverbal predictors of language-mediated anticipatory eye movements. 2015

Joost Rommers, and Antje S Meyer, and Falk Huettig
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, jrommers@illinois.edu.

During language comprehension, listeners often anticipate upcoming information. This can draw listeners' overt attention to visually presented objects before the objects are referred to. We investigated to what extent the anticipatory mechanisms involved in such language-mediated attention rely on specific verbal factors and on processes shared with other domains of cognition. Participants listened to sentences ending in a highly predictable word (e.g., "In 1969 Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon") while viewing displays containing three unrelated distractor objects and a critical object, which was either the target object (e.g., a moon), an object with a similar shape (e.g., a tomato), or an unrelated control object (e.g., rice). Language-mediated anticipatory eye movements were observed to targets and to shape competitors. Importantly, looks to the shape competitor were systematically related to individual differences in anticipatory attention, as indexed by a spatial cueing task: Participants whose responses were most strongly facilitated by predictive arrow cues also showed the strongest effects of predictive language input on their eye movements. By contrast, looks to the target were related to individual differences in vocabulary size and verbal fluency. The results suggest that verbal and nonverbal factors contribute to different types of language-mediated eye movements. The findings are consistent with multiple-mechanism accounts of predictive language processing.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007802 Language A verbal or nonverbal means of communicating ideas or feelings. Dialect,Dialects,Languages
D008297 Male Males
D003071 Cognition Intellectual or mental process whereby an organism obtains knowledge. Cognitive Function,Cognitions,Cognitive Functions,Function, Cognitive,Functions, Cognitive
D003463 Cues Signals for an action; that specific portion of a perceptual field or pattern of stimuli to which a subject has learned to respond. Cue
D005133 Eye Movements Voluntary or reflex-controlled movements of the eye. Eye Movement,Movement, Eye,Movements, Eye
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000293 Adolescent A person 13 to 18 years of age. Adolescence,Youth,Adolescents,Adolescents, Female,Adolescents, Male,Teenagers,Teens,Adolescent, Female,Adolescent, Male,Female Adolescent,Female Adolescents,Male Adolescent,Male Adolescents,Teen,Teenager,Youths
D000328 Adult A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available. Adults
D001288 Attention Focusing on certain aspects of current experience to the exclusion of others. It is the act of heeding or taking notice or concentrating. Focus of Attention,Selective Attention,Social Attention,Attention Focus,Attention, Selective,Attention, Social,Selective Attentions
D001307 Auditory Perception The process whereby auditory stimuli are selected, organized, and interpreted by the organism. Auditory Processing,Perception, Auditory,Processing, Auditory

Related Publications

Joost Rommers, and Antje S Meyer, and Falk Huettig
March 2020, Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006),
Joost Rommers, and Antje S Meyer, and Falk Huettig
September 2017, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition,
Joost Rommers, and Antje S Meyer, and Falk Huettig
June 1977, Perceptual and motor skills,
Joost Rommers, and Antje S Meyer, and Falk Huettig
June 2018, Behavior research methods,
Joost Rommers, and Antje S Meyer, and Falk Huettig
June 2018, Journal of psycholinguistic research,
Joost Rommers, and Antje S Meyer, and Falk Huettig
January 2014, Acta psychologica,
Joost Rommers, and Antje S Meyer, and Falk Huettig
September 2019, International journal of language & communication disorders,
Joost Rommers, and Antje S Meyer, and Falk Huettig
January 2016, Frontiers in psychology,
Joost Rommers, and Antje S Meyer, and Falk Huettig
June 2021, Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR,
Joost Rommers, and Antje S Meyer, and Falk Huettig
October 2018, Journal of vision,
Copied contents to your clipboard!