How alliteration enhances conceptual-attentional interactions in reading.

In linguistics, the relationship between phonological word form and meaning is mostly considered arbitrary. Why, then, do literary authors traditionally craft sound relationships between words? We set out to characterise how dynamic interactions between word form and meaning may account for this literary practice. Here, we show that alliteration influences both meaning integration and attentional engagement during reading.

The effect of prism adaptation on state estimates of eye position in the orbit.

Prism adaptation (PA) after-effects are assessed using tests that measure changes in sensorimotor systems. After-effects on pointing without feedback to a visual target (open loop pointing - OLP) are traditionally described as being larger than those measured by straight ahead pointing (SAP) with eyes closed, and the difference between them is attributed to a shift in visual localisation. However, neither differences between OLP and SAP, nor shifts in perceptual judgement of visual straight ahead (VSA), are consistently reported.

Stereo viewing modulates three-dimensional shape processing during object recognition: A high-density ERP study.

The role of stereo disparity in the recognition of 3-dimensional (3D) object shape remains an unresolved issue for theoretical models of the human visual system. We examined this issue using high-density (128 channel) recordings of event-related potentials (ERPs). A recognition memory task was used in which observers were trained to recognize a subset of complex, multipart, 3D novel objects under conditions of either (bi-) monocular or stereo viewing.

Early differential sensitivity of evoked-potentials to local and global shape during the perception of three-dimensional objects.

Here we investigated the time course underlying differential processing of local and global shape information during the perception of complex three-dimensional (3D) objects. Observers made shape matching judgments about pairs of sequentially presented multi-part novel objects. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to measure perceptual sensitivity to 3D shape differences in terms of local part structure and global shape configuration - based on predictions derived from hierarchical structural description models of object recognition.

Stereo disparity facilitates view generalization during shape recognition for solid multipart objects.

Current theories of object recognition in human vision make different predictions about whether the recognition of complex, multipart objects should be influenced by shape information about surface depth orientation and curvature derived from stereo disparity. We examined this issue in five experiments using a recognition memory paradigm in which observers (N = 134) memorized and then discriminated sets of 3D novel objects at trained and untrained viewpoints under either mono or stereo viewing conditions. In order to explore the conditions under which stereo-defined shape information contributes to object recognition we systematically varied the difficulty of view generalization by increasing the angular disparity between trained and untrained views.

Implicit encoding of extrinsic object properties in stored representations mediating recognition: evidence from shadow-specific repetition priming.

This study investigated whether, and under what conditions, stored shape representations mediating recognition encode extrinsic object properties that vary according to viewing conditions. This was examined in relation to cast shadow. Observers (N = 90) first memorised a subset of 3D multi-part novel objects from a limited range of viewpoints rendered with either no shadow, object internal shadow, or both object internal and external (ground) plane shadow.

Shape information mediating basic- and subordinate-level object recognition revealed by analyses of eye movements.

This study examines the kinds of shape features that mediate basic- and subordinate-level object recognition. Observers were trained to categorize sets of novel objects at either a basic (between-families) or subordinate (within-family) level of classification. We analyzed the spatial distributions of fixations and compared them to model distributions of different curvature polarity (regions of convex or concave bounding contour), as well as internal part boundaries.

Non-selective lexical access in bilinguals is spontaneous and independent of input monitoring: evidence from eye tracking.

Language non-selective lexical access in bilinguals has been established mainly using tasks requiring explicit language processing. Here, we show that bilinguals activate native language translations even when words presented in their second language are incidentally processed in a nonverbal, visual search task. Chinese-English bilinguals searched for strings of circles or squares presented together with three English words (i.

Eye movements during object recognition in visual agnosia.

This paper reports the first ever detailed study about eye movement patterns during single object recognition in visual agnosia. Eye movements were recorded in a patient with an integrative agnosic deficit during two recognition tasks: common object naming and novel object recognition memory. The patient showed normal directional biases in saccades and fixation dwell times in both tasks and was as likely as controls to fixate within object bounding contour regardless of recognition accuracy.

Eye movement patterns during the recognition of three-dimensional objects: preferential fixation of concave surface curvature minima.

This study used eye movement patterns to examine how high-level shape information is used during 3D object recognition. Eye movements were recorded while observers either actively memorized or passively viewed sets of novel objects, and then during a subsequent recognition memory task. Fixation data were contrasted against different algorithmically generated models of shape analysis based on: (1) regions of internal concave or (2) convex surface curvature discontinuity or (3) external bounding contour.

Children with autism are neither systematic nor optimal foragers.

It is well established that children with autism often show outstanding visual search skills. To date, however, no study has tested whether these skills, usually assessed on a table-top or computer, translate to more true-to-life settings. One prominent account of autism, Baron-Cohen's "systemizing" theory, gives us good reason to suspect that they should.

ScanMatch: a novel method for comparing fixation sequences.

We present a novel approach to comparing saccadic eye movement sequences based on the Needleman-Wunsch algorithm used in bioinformatics to compare DNA sequences. In the proposed method, the saccade sequence is spatially and temporally binned and then recoded to create a sequence of letters that retains fixation location, time, and order information. The comparison of two letter sequences is made by maximizing the similarity score computed from a substitution matrix that provides the score for all letter pair substitutions and a penalty gap.