Effects of World Knowledge and Word Association During Chinese Sentence Processing among Children Aged 10~12: An Eye-Movement Study

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20230506

Abstract

Abstract: The successful comprehension of sentences is a seemingly simple but complex process in which various types of information are needed. To quickly and proficiently get the information of each sentence, it is necessary to extract the information of each word in the sentence and use the different types of concepts stored in our memory. For skilled readers, both information can be extracted from the reader's memory and immediately impact the current sentence processing. However, how and when these different types of semantic information affect children's reading comprehension is still an open question. Therefore, the present study examined the effects of world knowledge, word association, and its time course in Chinese sentence reading comprehension among children aged 10~12, using eye-tracking measures.
In the experiment, both adults (the control group) and children were asked to read the sentence with a target word congruent or incongruent with ones' world knowledge (e.g., Mother stuck the stamp on the envelope/skirt.). Additionally, congruent and incongruent sentences were further divided into two levels, according to whether there was a semantic association between the target word (e.g., envelope/skirt) and the word (e.g., stamp) in preceding context. Both target words and the words associated with it were in the same sentence. Thus, there were four conditions by crossing congruency and word association, including associated-congruent, associated-incongruent, unassociated-congruent, and unassociated-incongruent conditions.
In the experiment, participants were asked to read the sentences for comprehension, and there were some comprehension questions following some of materials, which could monitor whether children were reading for comprehension or browsing mindlessly. The second critical word in each experimental sentence was defined as the interest area. Linear Mixed Model (LMM) of R language was used to analyze each eye movement indicator. Results firstly revealed that all reading times (including first fixation duration, gaze, second reading time, and total reading time) increased significantly when the sentence meaning violated ones' world knowledge both in the adults and children. Moreover, children would spend more time processing the target words as compared with adults. However, there was no main effect of word association, but the word association significantly interacted with participants' age in the gaze duration. Further analysis revealed that word association showed the main effect on gaze duration among the adult participants, but it interacted with world knowledge among children. When the sentence was incongruent, the gaze duration of associated target words was longer, whereas there were no word association effects when the sentence was congruent.
First, findings suggest that children are less efficient in reading for comprehension and therefore need more times to finish current processing. Besides, world knowledge could affect sentence processing among children and adults with the same patterns and time courses. However, as refer to the word association effects, there are differences between children and adults. In adults, word association could play an earlier role in sentence processing. In children, word association could play a role only when the sentence semantics couldn't be integrated. In sum, both sentence-level congruency and lexical-level word association could influence children's on-line reading comprehension, but with different time courses.

Key words: children, sentence processing, congruency, word association

摘要： 采用眼动技术,本研究旨在探究世界知识和词汇关联在儿童句子加工中的作用及其作用时程。研究采用2×2×2混合实验设计,自变量分别为年龄（儿童vs.成人）、一致性（一致vs.违背）和关联性（关联vs.不关联）。其中一致性指句子的内容是否符合儿童关于世界的认知,关联性指词汇之间在概念表征上的语义关联。结果发现一致性和年龄不存在交互作用,儿童和成人都可以即时地提取读者关于世界的知识,并持续地影响当前的阅读理解,表现在不一致条件下关键词的首次注视时间、凝视时间、再次阅读时间以及总阅读时间均更长。词汇关联和年龄存在交互作用,但仅表现在凝视时间上,在成人中词汇关联主效应显著;在儿童中只有在不一致条件下词汇关联效应才显著。此结果说明世界知识所引发的一致性和词汇关联在句子加工中的作用时程不同,在儿童和成人中的表现也不同。

关键词: 儿童, 句子加工, 一致性, 词汇关联

Wu Yan, Chen Qiyang, Hu Shiqian. Effects of World Knowledge and Word Association During Chinese Sentence Processing among Children Aged 10~12: An Eye-Movement Study[J]. Journal of Psychological Science, 2023, 46(5): 1074-1080.

吴岩, 陈启杨, 胡诗茜. 世界知识和词汇关联在10~12岁儿童句子加工中的作用：眼动研究 ^*[J]. 心理科学, 2023, 46(5): 1074-1080.

References

[1] 吴岩, 高约飞, 赵思敏, 王穗苹. (2019). 常识性知识和语篇语境对代词指认的影响. 心理学报, 51(3), 293-303.
[2] Bates D., Mächler M., Bolker B., & Walker S. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1-48.
[3] Blythe H. I.,& Joseph, H. S. S. L. (2011). Children' s eye movements during reading. In S. P. Liversedge, I. Gilchrist, & S. Everling (Eds.), Oxford handbook of eye movements (pp. 643-662). Oxford University Press.
[4] Boudewyn M. A., Long D. L., & Swaab T. Y. (2013). Effects of working memory span on processing of lexical associations and congruence in spoken discourse. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 60.
[5] Dempsey, L. (2020). Building pre-readers' background knowledge: The impact of a play-based event exposure on children's comprehension of stories read aloud. Early Child Development and Care, 190(9), 1371-1381.
[6] Eilers S., Tiffin-Richards S. P., & Schroeder S. (2018). Individual differences in children’s pronoun processing during reading: Detection of incongruence is associated with higher reading fluency and more regressions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 173, 250-267.
[7] Ferguson H. J., Brunsdon V. E. A., & Bradford, E. E. F. (2021). The developmental trajectories of executive function from adolescence to old age. Scientific Reports, 11, 1382.
[8] Inhoff, A. W., & Liu, W. (1998). The perceptual span and oculomotor activity during the reading of Chinese sentences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 24(1), 20-34.
[9] Johnson W., Logie R. H., & Brockmole J. R. (2010). Working memory tasks differ in factor structure across age cohorts: Implications for dedifferentiation. Intelligence, 38(5), 513-528.
[10] Joseph H.,& Liversedge, S. P. (2013). Children's and adults' on-line processing of syntactically ambiguous sentences during reading. PLoS ONE, 2013, 8(1), e54141.
[11] Joseph H. S. S. L., Liversedge S. P., Blythe H. I., White S. J., Gathercole S. E., & Rayner K. (2008). Children's and adults' processing of anomaly and implausibility during reading: Evidence from eye movements. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61(5), 708-723.
[12] Joseph H., Wonnacott E., & Nation K. (2021). Online inference making and comprehension monitoring in children during reading: Evidence from eye movements. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74(7), 1202-1224.
[13] Kaefer, T. (2020). When did you learn it? How background knowledge impacts attention and comprehension in read-aloud activities. Reading Research Quarterly, 55(S1), S173-S183.
[14] Kendeou P., van Den Broek P., Helder A., & Karlsson J. (2014). A cognitive view of reading comprehension: Implications for reading difficulties. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 29(1), 10-16.
[15] Kintsch, W., & Rawson, K. A. (2005). Comprehension. In M.J. Snowling & C. Hulme (Eds.), The science of reading: A handbook (pp. 209-226). Blackwell.
[16] Kliegl R., Grabner E., Rolfs M., & Engbert R. (2004). Length, frequency, and predictability effects of words on eye movements in reading. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 16(1-2), 262-284.
[17] Kotaman, H., & Balcı, A. (2017). Impact of storybook type on kindergarteners' storybook comprehension. Early Child Development and Care, 187(11), 1771-1781.
[18] Liu, P. D., & McBride-Chang, C. (2014). Morphological structure processing during word recognition and its relationship to character reading among Third-Grade Chinese children. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 43(6), 715-735.
[19] Nouwens S., Groen M. A., Kleemans T., & Verhoeven L. (2018). The role of semantic retrieval in children's reading comprehension development in the upper primary grades. Journal of Research in Reading, 41(3), 597-614.
[20] Paczynski, M., & Kuperberg, G. R. (2012). Multiple influences of semantic memory on sentence processing: Distinct effects of semantic relatedness on violations of real-world event/state knowledge and animacy selection restrictions. Journal of Memory and Language, 67(4), 426-448.
[21] Perfetti, C., & Stafura, J. (2014). Word knowledge in a theory of reading comprehension. Scientific Studies of Reading, 18(1), 22-37.
[22] Peverly S. T., Brobst K. E., & Morris K. S. (2002). The contribution of reading comprehension ability and meta-cognitive control to the development of studying in adolescence. Journal of Research in Reading, 25(2), 203-216.
[23] Qian Y., & Bi Y. H., (2014). The visual magnocellular deficit in Chinese-speaking children with developmental dyslexia. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 692.
[24] Qiu L., Swaab T. Y., Chen H. C., & Wang S. (2012). The role of gender information in pronoun resolution: Evidence from Chinese. PLoS ONE, 7(5), e36156.
[25] R Core Team (2016). R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna.
[26] Shu H., Chen X., Anderson R. C., Wu N. N., & Xuan Y. (2003). Properties of school Chinese: Implications for learning to read. Child Development, 74(1), 27-47.
[27] Ullman H., Almeida R., & Klingberg T. (2014). Structural maturation and brain activity predict future working memory capacity during childhood development. The Journal of Neuroscience, 34(5), 1592-1598.
[28] van Moort M. L., Koornneef A., & van den Broek, P. W. (2021). Differentiating text-based and knowledge-based validation processes during reading: Evidence from eye movements. Discourse Processes, 58(1), 22-41.
[29] van Petten, C. (1993). A comparison of lexical and sentence-level context effects in event-related potentials. Language and Cognitive Processes, 8(4), 485-531.
[30] van Petten C., Weckerly J., McIsaac H. K., & Kutas M. (1997). Working memory capacity dissociates lexical and sentential context effects. Psychological Science, 8(3), 238-242.
[31] Zargar E., Adams A., & Connor C. M. (2020). The relations between children's comprehension monitoring and their reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge: An eye-movement study. Reading and Writing, 33(3), 511-545.