What Eye Movements Reveal About Later Comprehension of Long Connected Texts

Cortical cognitive processing during reading captured using functional-near infrared spectroscopy

Neuroimaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have provided unparalleled insights into the fundamental neural mechanisms underlying human cognitive processing, such as high-level linguistic processes during reading. Here, we build upon this prior work to capture sentence reading comprehension outside the MRI scanner using functional near infra-red spectroscopy (fNIRS) in a large sample of participants (n = 82). We observed increased task-related hemodynamic responses in prefrontal and temporal cortical regions during sentence-level reading relative to the control condition (a list of non-words), replicating prior fMRI work on cortical recruitment associated with high-level linguistic processing during reading comprehension. These results lay the groundwork towards developing adaptive systems to support novice readers and language learners by targeting the underlying cognitive processes. This work also contributes to bridging the gap between laboratory findings and more real-world applications in the realm of cognitive neuroscience.

Modeling items for text comprehension assessment using confirmatory factor analysis

Reading is a complex cognitive task with the ultimate goal of comprehending the written input. For longer, connected text, readers generate a mental representation that serves as its basis. Due to limited cognitive resources, common models of discourse representation assume distinct processing levels, each relying on different processing mechanisms. However, only little research addresses distinct representational levels when text comprehension is assessed, analyzed or modelled. Moreover, current studies that tried to relate process measures of reading (e.g., reading times, eye movements) to comprehension did not consider comprehension as a multi-faceted, but rather a uni-dimensional construct, usually assessed with one-shot items. Thus, the first aim of this paper is to use confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test whether comprehension can be modelled as a uni-or multi-dimensional concept. The second aim is to investigate how well widely used one-shot items can be used to capture comprehension. 400 participants read one of three short stories of comparable length, linguistic characteristics, and complexity. Based on the evaluation of three independent raters per story, 16 wh-questions and 60 yes/no-statements were compiled in order to retrieve information at micro and inference level, and 16 main contents were extracted to capture information at the macro level in participants’ summaries. Still, only a fraction of these items showed satisfactory psychometric properties and factor loadings – a blatant result considering the common practice for item selection. For CFA, two models were set up that address text comprehension as either a one-dimensional construct (a uni-factor model with a single comprehension factor), or a three-dimensional construct reflecting the three distinct representational levels (three correlated first-order factors). Across stories and item types, model fit was consistently better for the three-factor model providing evidence for a multi-dimensional construct of text comprehension. Our results provide concrete guidance for the preparation of comprehension measurements in studies investigating the reading process.

Using measures of reading time regularity (RTR) to quantify eye movement dynamics, and how they are shaped by linguistic information

In this article, we present the concept of reading time regularity (RTR) as a measure to capture reading process dynamics. The first study is concerned with examining one of the assumptions of RTR, namely, that process measures of reading, such as eye movement fluctuations and fixation durations, exhibit higher regularity when contingent on sequentially structured information, such as texts. To test this, eye movements of 26 German native speakers were recorded during reading-unrelated and reading-related tasks. To analyze the data, we used recurrence quantification analysis and sample entropy analysis to quantify the degree of temporal structure in time series of gaze steps and fixation durations. The results showed that eye movements become more regular in reading compared to nonreading conditions. These effects were most prominent when calculated on the basis of gaze step data. In a second study, eye movements of 27 native speakers of German were recorded for five conditions with increasing linguistic information. The results replicate the findings of the first study, verifying that these effects are not due to mere differences in task instructions between conditions. Implications for the concept of RTR and for future studies using these metrics in reading research are discussed.