Looking while listening
-
Anne E. Fernald
Abstract
The “looking-while-listening” methodology uses real-time measures of the time course of young children’s gaze patterns in response to speech. This procedure is low in task demands and does not require automated eyetracking technology, similar to “preferential-looking” procedures. However, the looking-whilelistening methodology differs critically from preferential-looking procedures in the methods used for data reduction and analysis, yielding high-resolution measures of speech processing from moment to moment, rather than relying on summary measures of looking preference. Because children’s gaze patterns are time-locked to speech and coded frame-by-frame, each 5-min experiment response latencies can be coded with millisecond precision on multiple trials over multiple items, based on data from thousands of frames in each experiment. The meticulous procedures required in the collection, reduction, and multiple levels of analysis of such detailed data are demanding, but well worth the effort, revealing a dynamic and nuanced picture of young children’s developing skill in finding meaning in spoken language.
Abstract
The “looking-while-listening” methodology uses real-time measures of the time course of young children’s gaze patterns in response to speech. This procedure is low in task demands and does not require automated eyetracking technology, similar to “preferential-looking” procedures. However, the looking-whilelistening methodology differs critically from preferential-looking procedures in the methods used for data reduction and analysis, yielding high-resolution measures of speech processing from moment to moment, rather than relying on summary measures of looking preference. Because children’s gaze patterns are time-locked to speech and coded frame-by-frame, each 5-min experiment response latencies can be coded with millisecond precision on multiple trials over multiple items, based on data from thousands of frames in each experiment. The meticulous procedures required in the collection, reduction, and multiple levels of analysis of such detailed data are demanding, but well worth the effort, revealing a dynamic and nuanced picture of young children’s developing skill in finding meaning in spoken language.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- List of contributors xvii
- Behavioral methods for investigating morphological and syntactic processing in children 1
- Event-related brain potentials as a window to children's language processing 29
- Using eye movements as a developmental measure within psycholinguistics 73
- Looking while listening 97
- What lurks beneath: Syntactic priming during language comprehension in preschoolers (and adults) 137
- Language acquisition research. A peek at the past: A glimpse into the future 169
- Index 187
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- List of contributors xvii
- Behavioral methods for investigating morphological and syntactic processing in children 1
- Event-related brain potentials as a window to children's language processing 29
- Using eye movements as a developmental measure within psycholinguistics 73
- Looking while listening 97
- What lurks beneath: Syntactic priming during language comprehension in preschoolers (and adults) 137
- Language acquisition research. A peek at the past: A glimpse into the future 169
- Index 187
