Do we imagine clouds in the sky and snails on the ground - can semantic meaning influence fixation time?
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1
Flinders University, School of Psychology, Australia
Background: Spatial location interacts with semantic meaning and influences language processing. Although inhibition has been observed, prior research also suggests facilitation when a word’s spatial association is congruent with its response location. As fixations are directed to relevant locations after directional information (i.e., “left” elicits leftward shift), they can be used to study attentional shifts in relation to semantic information. However, a bias for upward saccades to be quicker also occurs. We investigated whether the semantic meaning of a central word can override this upward saccade bias in a upper/lower target detection task.
Methods: 21 participants viewed a series of 20 words, presented centrally, at 3 durations (750ms, 1000ms, 1250ms). Words were followed by square targets and participants fixated targets as quickly as possible. Once the target disappeared, participants decided whether the word was a manufactured or natural object (to ensure semantic processing). Half of the words were associated with upper space and half with lower space. Similarly, half were manufactured and half natural.
Results: Response times represented time taken to fixate the square target. The main effect of congruency was not significant F(1,20)=2.139, p=.159, indicating participants were not faster to fixate targets that were congruent with the spatial association of the word. Interestingly, a main effect of visual field demonstrated fixations to upper space targets were faster (M=413ms) than fixations to lower space(M=517ms), regardless of the semantic meaning of the presented word F(1,20)=15.171, p=.001.
Discussion: The current results failed to show a link between semantic meaning and the speed of subsequent target detection, potentially because judgments made regarding the words were orthogonal (manufactured vs. natural). Stimulus-response mapping was not congruent with spatial associations either, as responses were left/right as opposed to up/down. Therefore extensive semantic processing in relation to spatial association might not have been elicited. This suggests that the existence of a spatial association does not lead words to automatically influence spatial behaviour. Upper space targets were detected significantly more quickly, consistent with prior research. The tendency for upward saccades to be faster appears to be strong, potentially precluding the influence of semantic meaning when orthogonal judgments are used.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by a research grant to NAT from the School of Psychology at Flinders University.
Keywords:
Embodied Cognition,
Eye-tracking,
spatial attention,
vertical space differences,
Language comprehension
Conference:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, Clayton, Melbourne, Australia, 28 Nov - 1 Dec, 2013.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Attention
Citation:
Thomas
NA,
Loetscher
T and
Nicholls
ME
(2013). Do we imagine clouds in the sky and snails on the ground - can semantic meaning influence fixation time?.
Conference Abstract:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.212.00141
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Received:
18 Sep 2013;
Published Online:
25 Nov 2013.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Nicole A Thomas, Flinders University, School of Psychology, Adelaide, South Australia, 5001, Australia, nicole.thomas@monash.edu