Keith Rayner - US grants

A series of studies are proposed that deal with the types of codes used in both reading and scene perception. The studies deal with how visual, abstract, phonological and semantic codes are used in foveal vision and in integrating information across eye movements. In most of the experiments, subjects' eye movements will be monitored in normal reading(or reading related tasks) or during object and scene perception. The primary technique used in the experiments involves making display changes in the text or scene contingent upon the position of the eyes. Eye movement data (fixation time,saccade length, and number of fixations) will be examined along with other measures such as reading rate, scene viewing time, object naming time, or word naming time to determine (1) how the different codes are used in identifying foveal words or objects and (2) how they are used to integrate information across eye movements. The primary purpose of the research is to develop more sophisticated models of the reading process and of scene perception. The experiments will also help to determine how the perceptual processes involved in reading and scene perception are similar or different. Finally, the results of the experiments have implications for beginning readers and dyslexic readers.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The program in applied and basic cognition is distinguished by: (1) a commitment to research on basic processes associated with and that extend to applied issues; (2) a broad, integrative approach to research on cognition beginning at development from infancy; (3) extensive inter-area and interdisciplinary research collaboration by faculty and trainees; and (4) an emphasis on appropriate and rigorous methodology. Research loci of the training grant include discourse comprehension, language processing, attention and perception, memory, quantitative reasoning and problem solving, and early sensorimotor development and its relationship to cognition. Included within these foci are the implications for such applied issues as reading and reading assessment, television viewing, mathematics and science learning, and the consequences of evolving technologies on human performance. The 4 predoctoral trainees will be selected each year from among the graduate students of Division II of the Department of Psychology. These students will typically be in years 2-4 of their training. All students receive a broad exposure to cognition and the methodologies of Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Science. However, they concentrate in either the Cognitive or Developmental Psychology areas. The traineeships are designed to support students in pursuing interests in basic and applied research free of the burden of duties typically associated with other teaching or research assistantships. The 4 postdoctoral trainees are selected from among a national pool of applicants on the basis of interests, prior training, accomplishments, and recommendations. Postdoctoral trainees are selected who can best benefit from the interdisciplinary collaborative research experiences offered by the program.

DESCRIPTION: This application for a Research Scientist Award has four broad objectives. The first is to continue to investigate perceptual processes in reading. This research will focus on the types of codes that are used in integrating information across eye movements and the accrual of information during an eye fixation. A second objective is to use modeling techniques to simulate eye movements and reading behavior. The goal here is to develop formal models that can predict where readers will fixate and for how long they will fixate during reading. The third objective is to extend the applicant's prior research on reading to the perception of visual scenes. Experiments are designed to examine the characteristics of the perceptual span during scene perception and the types of information integrated across fixations using photographic images rather than the line drawings used in previous research. The fourth goal is to use eye movement techniques to investigate on-line language processing. The studies in this section focus on how readers deal with ambiguity and the extent to which discourse factors influence on-line decisions about ambiguous parts of a text. The experiments will use techniques that have been developed in the applicant's laboratory over the past 20 years. In these techniques, changes in text are made contingent on the location of the reader's eye. The changes may take place during a saccade or during an eye fixation. Various characteristics of eye movements are measured using an eyetracker. The empirical data collected and the results of the modeling work should help to develop a better model of the processes involved in skilled reading. A better understanding of skilled reading, in turn, should be useful in developing instructional methods for children learning to read and better remedial methods for those who do not read well.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A series of studies will be conducted to examine the nature of codes utilized in reading. The studies deal with how orthographic, phonological, lexical, and semantic codes are used in foveal and parafoveal vision during reading. In the experiments, readers' eye movements will be monitored and the primary technique involves making display changes in the text contingent upon the position of the readers' eyes. Eye movement data (fixation time, saccade length, fixation probability, and number of fixations) will be examined to determine more precisely (1) how different codes are used in accessing the meaning of fixated words, (2) how attention is deployed during reading, and (3) how the various codes (visual, orthographic, lexical, phonological, and semantic) are used in integrating information across fixations. Many of the experiments deal with college aged skilled readers, but we will also investigate these issues in elderly and beginning readers, as well as readers of Chinese. In addition to the empirical work, we will further develop the E-Z Reader model to account for a broader range of data, and also extend it to account for eye movement behavior in beginning and elderly readers, as well as Chinese readers. The experiments and the modeling work should make it possible to better understand skilled reading and why some people do not read well. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]

Visualization and spatial reasoning are integral components of intelligent systems. They form the basis for understanding a wide variety of topics across science, mathematics and engineering, including molecular structures, topologies, motion and forces, and manufacturing processes. Historically, many students, especially female students, have had difficulty acquiring visualization and spatial reasoning skills, creating potential barriers to advancement in science, mathematics and engineering. Within engineering, faculty have found it both challenging and time consuming to teach topics that require strong visualization and spatial reasoning skills, topics such as product design, manufacturing, and engineering modeling and analysis. Similarly, engineering students have found these topics unmotivating and difficult to comprehend. With the advent of sophisticated computer graphics and animation, one might expect that the need for human visualization skills has been eliminated. But this is not the case. Computers cannot replace the need for these skills in science and engineering just as calculators have not replaced the need for quantitative skills. Thus this project has three goals: l) to advance our understanding of human visualization and spatial reasoning; 2) to use this knowledge to develop computer-based visualization instruction; and 3) to incorporate this instruction into intelligent multimedia tutors in ways that maximize their effectiveness for a broad mix of students while minimizing the development time and cost for the faculty involved. The achievement of such goals has required that we put together a team of researchers with backgrounds in psychology, education, engineering and computer science.

Although visualization and spatial reasoning are fundamental cognitive skills, the cognitive processes that govern them are poorly understood. Thus, as our first goal, we will undertake during year l a series of experiments in our Eye Movement Laboratories designed to test alternative theories of how individuals represent mentally and reason spatially about 3-D objects and their transformations. We will use the detailed eye movement data as a window on the underlying cognitive processes. We have made similar use of such data in reading, visual search and scene perception (Rayner, l992, l998; Rayner & Pollatsek, l992). We expect these data to reveal large, stable differences among individuals, not only between low and high spatial ability participants, but also within groups of participants of similar spatial abilities.

Visualization and spatial reasoning skills are critical to the understanding of many concepts within science and engineering. Yet, we have little understanding of how we can best teach these skills. Thus, as our second goal, we will develop during year 2 computer-based visualization skills instruction modules based on what we have learned during the first year about the problems that individuals have and the strategies that work successfully, modules that will take advantage of current advances in instructional theories and technologies. Having developed the modules, we will then conduct a series of experiments in the second year designed to test theoretically motivated methods for delivering visualization instruction that improve the content of the instruction delivered to high and low spatial ability learners, optimize the mix of part- and whole-task training, and maximize the number of individuals that develop expertise.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The research described in this proposal is concerned with on-line word recognition processes during silent reading. In the proposal, a number of studies are described in which eye movement and electrophysiological data are collected as subjects read isolated words and words in sentence contexts. The goal of the proposal is to use the most temporally sensitive technologies available to examine the nature and timecourse of phonological representations in reading. The proposed experiments examine phonological representation at the segmental and supra-segmental levels, investigating the processes by which vowel, consonant, and syllable information is involved in word recognition. This research should be useful in understanding representational processes in general, reading development, skilled reading, and the relationship between foveal and parafoveal word recognition processes. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]