The Importance of Reading Naturally: Evidence From Combined Recordings of Eye Movements and Electric Brain Potentials

How important is the ability to freely control eye movements for reading comprehension? And how does the parser make use of this freedom? We investigated these questions using coregistration of eye movements and event‐related brain potentials (ERPs) while participants read either freely or in a comp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cognitive science 2017-05, Vol.41 (S6), p.1232-1263
Main Authors: Metzner, Paul, Malsburg, Titus, Vasishth, Shravan, Rösler, Frank
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Brain
Brain - physiology
Comprehension - physiology
Diagnostic Tests
Electroencephalography
ERP
Event-related potentials
Evoked Potentials - physiology
Expectation
Eye
Eye Movements
Eye Movements - physiology
Female
Humans
Judgment - physiology
Male
Reaction Time - physiology
Reading
Reading Comprehension
Reading Processes
Regressions
Semantics
Sentence comprehension
Syntax
Young Adult
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Summary:How important is the ability to freely control eye movements for reading comprehension? And how does the parser make use of this freedom? We investigated these questions using coregistration of eye movements and event‐related brain potentials (ERPs) while participants read either freely or in a computer‐controlled word‐by‐word format (also known as RSVP). Word‐by‐word presentation and natural reading both elicited qualitatively similar ERP effects in response to syntactic and semantic violations (N400 and P600 effects). Comprehension was better in free reading but only in trials in which the eyes regressed to previous material upon encountering the anomaly. A more fine‐grained ERP analysis revealed that these regressions were strongly associated with the well‐known P600 effect. In trials without regressions, we instead found sustained centro‐parietal negativities starting at around 320 ms post‐onset; however, these negativities were only found when the violation occurred in sentence‐final position. Taken together, these results suggest that the sentence processing system engages in strategic choices: In response to words that don't match built‐up expectations, it can either explore alternative interpretations (reflected by regressions, P600 effects, and good comprehension) or pursue a “good‐enough” processing strategy that tolerates a deficient interpretation (reflected by progressive saccades, sustained negativities, and relatively poor comprehension).
ISSN:0364-0213
1551-6709
DOI:10.1111/cogs.12384