Investigating individual differences in children's real-time sentence comprehension using language-mediated eye movements.

Individual differences in children's online language processing were explored by monitoring their eye movements to objects in a visual scene as they listened to spoken sentences. Eleven skilled and 11 less-skilled comprehenders were presented with sentences containing verbs that were either neu...

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Main Authors: Nation, K, Marshall, C, Altmann, G
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2003
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author Nation, K
Marshall, C
Altmann, G
author_facet Nation, K
Marshall, C
Altmann, G
author_sort Nation, K
collection OXFORD
description Individual differences in children's online language processing were explored by monitoring their eye movements to objects in a visual scene as they listened to spoken sentences. Eleven skilled and 11 less-skilled comprehenders were presented with sentences containing verbs that were either neutral with respect to the visual context (e.g., Jane watched her mother choose the cake, where all of the objects in the scene were choosable) or supportive (e.g., Jane watched her mother eat the cake, where the cake was the only edible object). On hearing the supportive verb, the children made fast anticipatory eye movements to the target object (e.g., the cake), suggesting that children extract information from the language they hear and use this to direct ongoing processing. Less-skilled comprehenders did not differ from controls in the speed of their anticipatory eye movements, suggesting normal sensitivity to linguistic constraints. However, less-skilled comprehenders made a greater number of fixations to target objects, and these fixations were of a duration shorter than those observed in the skilled comprehenders, especially in the supportive condition. This pattern of results is discussed in terms of possible processing limitations, including difficulties with memory, attention, or suppressing irrelevant information.
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spelling oxford-uuid:1fee1854-49ac-44a9-bd3c-427d0a9920dc2022-03-26T11:24:49ZInvestigating individual differences in children's real-time sentence comprehension using language-mediated eye movements.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:1fee1854-49ac-44a9-bd3c-427d0a9920dcEnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2003Nation, KMarshall, CAltmann, GIndividual differences in children's online language processing were explored by monitoring their eye movements to objects in a visual scene as they listened to spoken sentences. Eleven skilled and 11 less-skilled comprehenders were presented with sentences containing verbs that were either neutral with respect to the visual context (e.g., Jane watched her mother choose the cake, where all of the objects in the scene were choosable) or supportive (e.g., Jane watched her mother eat the cake, where the cake was the only edible object). On hearing the supportive verb, the children made fast anticipatory eye movements to the target object (e.g., the cake), suggesting that children extract information from the language they hear and use this to direct ongoing processing. Less-skilled comprehenders did not differ from controls in the speed of their anticipatory eye movements, suggesting normal sensitivity to linguistic constraints. However, less-skilled comprehenders made a greater number of fixations to target objects, and these fixations were of a duration shorter than those observed in the skilled comprehenders, especially in the supportive condition. This pattern of results is discussed in terms of possible processing limitations, including difficulties with memory, attention, or suppressing irrelevant information.
spellingShingle Nation, K
Marshall, C
Altmann, G
Investigating individual differences in children's real-time sentence comprehension using language-mediated eye movements.
title Investigating individual differences in children's real-time sentence comprehension using language-mediated eye movements.
title_full Investigating individual differences in children's real-time sentence comprehension using language-mediated eye movements.
title_fullStr Investigating individual differences in children's real-time sentence comprehension using language-mediated eye movements.
title_full_unstemmed Investigating individual differences in children's real-time sentence comprehension using language-mediated eye movements.
title_short Investigating individual differences in children's real-time sentence comprehension using language-mediated eye movements.
title_sort investigating individual differences in children s real time sentence comprehension using language mediated eye movements
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AT marshallc investigatingindividualdifferencesinchildrensrealtimesentencecomprehensionusinglanguagemediatedeyemovements
AT altmanng investigatingindividualdifferencesinchildrensrealtimesentencecomprehensionusinglanguagemediatedeyemovements