Eye movements in vocabulary research: Current findings and future directions

The field of vocabulary research is witnessing a growing interest in the use of eye-tracking to investigate topics that have traditionally been examined using offline measures, providing new insights into the processing and learning of vocabulary. During an eye-tracking experiment, participants’ eye movements are recorded while they attend to written or auditory input, resulting in a rich record of online processing behaviour. Because of its many benefits, eye-tracking is becoming a major research technique in vocabulary research. However, before this emerging trend of eye-tracking based vocabulary research continues to proliferate, it is important to step back and reflect on what current studies have shown about the processing and learning of vocabulary, and the ways in which we can use the technique in future research. To this aim, the present paper provides a comprehensive overview of current eye-tracking research findings, both in terms of the processing and learning of single words and formulaic sequences. Current research gaps and potential avenues for future research are also discussed

Non-cognate translation priming in masked priming lexical decision experiments: a meta-analysis

The masked translation priming paradigm has been widely used in the last 25 years to investigate word processing in bilinguals. Motivated by studies reporting mixed findings, in particular for second language (L2) to first language (L1) translation priming, we conducted, for the first time in the literature, a meta-analysis of 64 lexical decision experiments across 24 studies to assess the effect sizes of L1-L2 and L2-L1 non-cognate translation priming effects in bilinguals. Our meta-analysis also investigated the influence of potential moderators of translation priming effects. The results provided clear evidence of significant translation priming effects for both directions, with L1-L2 translation priming significantly larger than L2-L1 translation priming (i.e., effect size of 0.86 vs. 0.31). The analyses also revealed that L1-L2 translation effect sizes were moderated by the interval between prime and target (ISI), whereas L2-L1 translation effect sizes were modulated by the number of items per cell. Theoretical and methodological implications of this meta-analysis are discussed and recommendations for future studies are provided

Phrase Frequency Effects in Language Production

A classic debate in the psychology of language concerns the question of the grain-size of the linguistic information that is stored in memory. One view is that only morphologically simple forms are stored (e.g., ‘car’, ‘red’), and that more complex forms of language such as multi-word phrases (e.g., ‘red car’) are generated on-line from the simple forms. In two experiments we tested this view. In Experiment 1, participants produced noun+adjective and noun+noun phrases that were elicited by experimental displays consisting of colored line drawings and two superimposed line drawings. In Experiment 2, participants produced noun+adjective and determiner+noun+adjective utterances elicited by colored line drawings. In both experiments, naming latencies decreased with increasing frequency of the multi-word phrase, and were unaffected by the frequency of the object name in the utterance. These results suggest that the language system is sensitive to the distribution of linguistic information at grain-sizes beyond individual words

Researching the teaching and learning of multi-word expressions

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Activating gender stereotype: A life-span perspective

Most of the research on implicit gender stereotyping to date has been conducted with one age group – young adults. The mechanisms that underlie on-line processing of stereotypical information in other age groups have received little or no attention. This is the first study to investigate on-line processing of gender stereotypes from a life-span perspective. In fact, we investigated the activation of gender stereotypes in four groups of participants, third and fifth graders, young and cognitively-preserved older adults. Participants heard a role noun associated with masculine stereotypical or feminine stereotypical gender followed by a male or female kinship term. Their task was to decide if these two words could describe the same person. Across all age groups, participants were significantly faster to respond, and were more likely to press YES, when the target was preceded by a stereotypically congruent than incongruent prime. These findings suggest that information about the stereotypical gender associated with a role noun is incorporated into the mental representation of this word and activated as soon as the word is heard

L’attivazione del genere stereotipico delle parole: una prospettiva life-span

Introduzione. Ricerche comportamentali e ERP su giovani adulti hanno mostrato che il genere stereotipico delle parole è incorporato nella loro rappresentazione semantica (Banaij & Hardin, 1996; Cacciari & Padovani, 2007). Tuttavia, i meccanismi coinvolti nell’elaborazione del genere stereotipico in bambini o anziani sono ancora poco conosciuti. Per contribuire a colmare la lacuna di ricerche life-span, abbiamo indagato l’attivazione del genere stereotipico in 32 bambini di 3a e 34 di 5a elementare, 26 giovani adulti, e 28 anziani cognitivamente preservati col paradigma di Oakhill et al. (2005). Metodo. Sulla base del norming effettuato su 133 diversi bambini di 3a e 5a, sono stati scelti 9 nomi di ruolo associati a maschi e 9 a femmine. I 18 nomi di ruolo (e 24 filler con genere semantico) sono stati usati per tutti i soggetti. Nei 4 esperimenti i partecipanti sentono in cuffia una parola che denota un ruolo occupazionale (prime) a cui è associato un genere stereotipico maschile (camionista) o femminile (insegnante). 200 ms dopo, i soggetti sentono uno fra 6 termini di parentela (target: sorella, fratello, madre, padre, moglie, marito; 180 stimoli, in blocchi) e debbono decidere se le due parole (prime-target) descrivono la stessa persona. Le coppie prime-target sono congruenti o incongruenti con lo stereotipo di genere (o col genere semantico per i filler). Risultati. Le ANOVE sui tempi di decisione di ciascun gruppo mostrano che in tutte le classi di età la risposta è più veloce quando il target è preceduto da un prime stereotipicamente congruente sia per gli stereotipi maschili che femminili (ps < .01). Conclusioni. Questo è il primo studio che indaga in un’ottica life-span l’elaborazione di stereotipi di genere. I risultati mostrano che questi sono già presenti a 7 anni e mantengono una notevole stabilità essendo in ugual misura attivati (al di là della diversa velocità di elaborazione) in bambini di 3a elementare e persone anziane

Electrophysiological evidence for the activation of gender stereotypes during language processing

Electrophysiological evidence for the activation of gender stereotypes during language processin

Cross-language influences in L2 pre-lexical and lexical processing and acquisition

We review how second language (L2) printed and spoken word recognition is affected by first language (L1) characteristics. First, sublexical word properties in bilingual word recognition are considered, in particular diacritical marks and Capital Letters in a script, script-specific letters, language-sensitive bigrams, and grapheme to phoneme correspondences (GPCs). Next, we focus on cross-language effects for words varying in orthographic neighborhoods and morphological family size, cognates, and interlingual homographs. For both sublexical and lexical aspects, we examine if language membership information might be used to facilitate processing. Finally, we describe how cross-language similarities and differences play out during second language acquisition. A summary of sublexical and lexical cross-linguistic effects in L2 processing and acquisition concludes the chapter