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Removing interword spacing has been shown to disrupt lower-level oculomotor processes and word identification during text reading. However, the impact of these disruptions on higher-level processes remains unclear. To examine the influence of spacing on inferential processing, we monitored eye movements while participants read spaced and unspaced passages that were strongly or weakly constrained toward an inference. Removing spaces disrupted reading fluency, as evidenced by longer reading times, longer fixation durations, reduced skipping, and shorter saccades. We also observed the effects of inferential constraint for spaced passages as characterized by longer reading times, more regressions, and longer regression-path durations for weakly than strongly constrained passages. However, these constraint effects were absent for unspaced passages, suggesting that removing spaces disrupts inferential processing. Our results are consistent with models of reading and discourse processing that assume that higher-level reading processes depend on the quality of lexical representations developed at earlier, word-level reading stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading fluency deficits in schizophrenia (Sz) have been attributed to dysfunction in both lower-level, oculomotor processing and higher-level, lexical processing, according to the two-hit deficit model. Given that prior work examining reading deficits in individuals with Sz has primarily focused on single-line and single-word reading tasks, eye movements that are unique to passage reading, such as return-sweep saccades, have not yet been examined in Sz. Return-sweep saccades are large eye movements that are made when readers move from the end of one line to the beginning of the next line during natural passage reading. Examining return-sweeps provides an opportunity to examine lower-level, oculomotor deficits during reading under circumstances when upcoming higher-level, lexical information is not available for visual processing because visual acuity constraints do not permit detailed lexical processing of line-initial words when return-sweeps are programmed. To examine the source of reading deficits in Sz, we analysed an existing data set in which participants read multi-line passages with manipulations to line spacing. Readers with Sz made significantly more return-sweep targeting errors followed by corrective saccades compared with healthy controls. Both groups showed similar effects of line spacing on return-sweep targeting accuracy, suggesting similar sensitivities to visual crowding during reading. Furthermore, the patterns of fixation durations in readers with Sz corroborate prior work indicating reduced parafoveal processing of upcoming words. Together, these findings suggest that lower-level visual and oculomotor dysfunction contribute to reading deficits in Sz, providing support for the two-hit deficit model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semantic parafoveal-on-foveal (PoF) effects, in which the meaning of a parafoveal word influences the processing of the foveal word, indicate that readers engage in extensive parafoveal processing of upcoming words. To test if emojis elicit semantic PoF effects, we examined eye movements while participants read sentences containing a target word (e.g., coffee in "I enjoyed my tall coffee") that was followed either by a semantically congruent emoji (e.g., ; Alt text: "coffee emoji"), an incongruent emoji (e.g., ; Alt text: "beer mug emoji"), or no emoji. First-pass fixation durations were shorter on the foveal target word when the parafoveal emoji was semantically congruent rather than incongruent. Furthermore, the presence of an emoji (compared to no emoji) led to faster first-pass fixation durations for the preceding target word, which indicates that emojis can modulate the processing of preceding words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reingold, Reichle, Glaholt, and Sheridan (2012) reported a gaze-contingent eye-movement experiment in which survival-curve analyses were used to examine the effects of word frequency, the availability of parafoveal preview, and initial fixation location on the time course of lexical processing. The key results of these analyses suggest that lexical processing begins very rapidly (after approximately 120 ms) and is supported by substantial parafoveal processing (more than 100 ms). Because it is not immediately obvious that these results are congruent with the theoretical assumption that words are processed and identified in a strictly serial manner, we attempted to simulate the experiment using the E-Z Reader model of eye-movement control (Reichle, 2011). These simulations were largely consistent with the empirical results, suggesting that parafoveal processing does play an important functional role by allowing lexical processing to occur rapidly enough to mediate direct control over when the eyes move during reading.

The present experiments examined perceptual specificity effects using a rereading paradigm. Eye movements were monitored while participants read the same target word twice, in two different low-constraint sentence frames. The congruency of perceptual processing was manipulated by either presenting the target word in the same distortion typography (i.e., font) during the first and second presentations (i.e., the congruent condition), or changing the distortion typography of the word across the two presentations (i.e., the incongruent condition). Fixation times for the second presentation of the target word were shorter for the congruent condition compared to the incongruent condition, and did not differ across the incongruent condition and an additional baseline condition that employed a normal (i.e., non-distorted) typography during the first presentation and a distortion typography during the second presentation. In Experiment 1, we employed both unusual and subtle distortion typographies, and we demonstrated that the typography congruency effect (i.e., the congruent less than incongruent difference) was significant for low frequency but not for high frequency target words. In Experiment 2, the congruency effect persisted across a 1 week lag between the first and second presentations of the target words. Overall, the present demonstration of the long-term retention of superficial perceptual details (i.e., typography) supports the existence of perceptually specific memory representations. (Contains 4 tables.)

There is a taken-for-granted acceptance that sports stars have responsibilities as "role models", yet the concept of a "role model" is unclear. The present study addressed the choice of "role models" amongst elite young British rugby league players, and the reasons for their choices. During the summer of 2002 under-13 and under-14 participants of regional training camps (N = 291) completed a questionnaire survey. Almost all indicated that they had a "favourite player"--though some were not current rugby league players. The most frequently cited were all senior international players, and many had on-field leadership experience. Analysis of the reasons for the choices revealed important general dimensions of technical competence, decision-making, physical characteristics, (explicit reference to) "role models" and temperament. These provided the basis for a preliminary explanatory model. This particular cohort of young players demonstrated broad consensus and were able to make clear judgements through nuanced understandings of the game. (Contains 7 notes, 1 table, and 3 figures.)

To study the mechanisms and boundary conditions of expertise effects on change detection, we introduced a novel music-related variant of the flicker paradigm. Specifically, we monitored the eye movements of expert musicians (with 10 years of music experience) and non-musicians (who could not read music) while they located changes across two rapidly alternating versions of a music score, with a blank screen presented between each screen change. Relative to the non-musicians, experts were faster at change detection, with shorter fixations and larger saccade amplitudes. Expertise effects on accuracy and saccade amplitude were magnified for visually complex relative to simple music scores. Consistent with the assumptions of chunking and template theories of expertise, our results suggest that expert musicians can use chunking (i.e., perceptual grouping) mechanisms to facilitate perceptual encoding during change detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In multiple-target visual searches, subsequent search misses (SSMs; [Cain, M. S., Adamo, S. H., & Mitroff, S. R. (2013). A taxonomy of errors in multiple-target visual search. Visual Cognition, 21(7), 899–921. https://doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2013.843627]) occur when the discovery of one target hinders detection of another target (formerly referred to as Satisfaction of Search [Tuddenham, W. J. (1962). Visual search, image organization, and reader error in roentgen diagnosis studies of the psychophysiology of Roentgen image perception memorial fund lecture. Radiology, 78(5), 694–704. https://doi.org/10.1148/78.5.694]). Here, we examined whether SSMs would occur during a proofreading task, and we contrasted the cognitive resource depletion theory and the Satisfaction of Search (SOS) accounts of SSMs. We monitored participants' eye movements while proofreading for typographical errors (i.e., typos) in lists of words that were presented either in a straight horizontal line or in random locations. There was a significant SSM effect since detection of a first typo hindered the detection of a second typo. Furthermore, in support of the SOS account, the detection of a first typo expedited search, as shown by faster reaction times and reduced fixation durations and refixations on the second typo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schizophrenia (Sz) is associated with deficits in fluent reading ability that compromise functional outcomes. Here, we utilize a combined eye-tracking, neurophysiological, and computational modeling approach to analyze underlying visual and oculomotor processes. Subjects included 26 Sz patients (SzP) and 26 healthy controls. Eye-tracking and electroencephalography data were acquired continuously during the reading of passages from the Gray Oral Reading Tests reading battery, permitting between-group evaluation of both oculomotor activity and fixation-related potentials (FRP). Schizophrenia patients showed a marked increase in time required per word (d = 1.3, P <.0001), reflecting both a moderate increase in fixation duration (d =.7, P =.026) and a large increase in the total saccade number (d = 1.6, P <.0001). Simulation models that incorporated alterations in both lower-level visual and oculomotor function as well as higher-level lexical processing performed better than models that assumed either deficit-type alone. In neurophysiological analyses, amplitude of the fixation-related P1 potential (P1f) was significantly reduced in SzP (d =.66, P =.013), reflecting reduced phase reset of ongoing theta-alpha band activity (d =.74, P =.019). In turn, P1f deficits significantly predicted increased saccade number both across groups (P =.017) and within SzP alone (P =.042). Computational and neurophysiological methods provide increasingly important approaches for investigating sensory contributions to impaired cognition during naturalistic processing in Sz. Here, we demonstrate deficits in reading rate that reflect both sensory/oculomotor- and semantic-level impairments and that manifest, respectively, as alterations in saccade number and fixation duration. Impaired P1f generation reflects impaired fixation-related reset of ongoing brain rhythms and suggests inefficient information processing within the early visual system as a basis for oculomotor dyscontrol during fluent reading in Sz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adults process words that are rated as being learned earlier in life faster than words that are rated as being acquired later in life. This age-of-acquisition (AoA) effect has been observed in a variety of word-recognition tasks when word frequency is controlled. AoA has also previously been found to influence fixation durations when words are embedded into sentences and eye movements are recorded. However, the time course of AoA effects during reading has been inconsistent across studies. The current study further explored the time course of AoA effects on distributions of first-fixation durations during reading. Early and late acquired words were embedded into matched neutral sentence frames. Participants read the sentences while their eye movements were recorded. AoA effects were observed in both early and late fixation duration measures, suggesting that AoA has an early and long-lasting effect on word-recognition processes during reading. Survival analysis revealed that the earliest discernable effect of AoA on distributions of first-fixation durations emerged beginning at 158 ms. This rapid influence of AoA was confirmed through the use of Vincentile plots, which demonstrated that the effect of AoA occurred early and was relatively consistent across the distribution of fixations. This pattern of results provides support for the direct lexical-control hypothesis, as well as the viewpoint that AoA may exert an influence at multiple loci within the mental lexicon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the investigation of eye movement control in visual cognition has focused on the influence of experimental variables on mean fixation durations. In this article, we explored the convergence between two distributional analysis techniques that were recently introduced in this domain. First, Staub, White, Drieghe, Hollway and Rayner, proposed fitting the ex-Gaussian distribution to individual participants' data in order to ascertain whether a variable has a rapid or a slow influence on fixation durations. Second, the divergence point analysis (DPA) procedure was introduced by Reingold, Reichle, Glaholt and Sheridan in order to determine more precisely the earliest discernible impact of a variable on the distribution of fixation durations by contrasting survival curves across two experimental conditions and determining the point at which the two curves begin to diverge. In this article, we introduced a new version of the DPA procedure which is based on ex-Gaussian fitting. We evaluated this procedure by re-analyzing data obtained in previous empirical investigations as well as by conducting a simulation study. We demonstrated that the new ex-Gaussian DPA technique produced estimates that were consistent with estimates produced by prior versions of DPA procedure, and in the present simulation, the ex-Gaussian DPA procedure produced somewhat more accurate individual participant divergence point estimates. Based on the present findings, we also suggest guidelines for best practices in the use of DPA techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three eye-movement experiments were conducted to examine how the complexity of characters in Chinese words (i.e., number of strokes per character) influences their processing and eye-movement behaviour. In Experiment 1, English speakers with no significant knowledge of Chinese searched for specific low-, medium-, and high-complexity target characters in a multi-page narrative containing characters of varying complexity (3-16 strokes). Fixation durations and skipping rates were influenced by the visual complexity of both the target characters and the characters being searched even though participants had no knowledge of Chinese. In Experiment 2, native Chinese speakers performed the same character-search task, and a similar pattern of results was observed. Finally, in Experiment 3, a second sample of native Chinese speakers read the same text used in Experiments 1 and 2, with text characters again exhibiting complexity effects. These results collectively suggest that character-complexity effects on eye movements may not be due to lexical processing per se but may instead reflect whatever visual processing is required to know whether or not a character corresponds to an episodically represented target. The theoretical implications of this for our understanding of normal reading are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduced a novel paradigm for investigating covert attention and eye-movement control in reading. In 2 experiments, participants read sentence words (shown in blue color) while ignoring interleaved distractor strings (shown in orange color). Each single-line text display contained a target word and a critical distractor. Critical distractors were located just prior to the target in the text and were either words or symbol strings (e.g., @#%&). Target word availability for parafoveal processing (i.e., preview validity) was also manipulated. The results indicated much shallower processing of distractors than targets, and this pattern was more pronounced for symbol than word distractors. The influences of word frequency and fixation location on first-pass fixation durations on distractors were dramatically different than the well-documented pattern obtained in normal reading. Robust preview benefits were demonstrated both when the critical distractors were fixated and when the critical distractors were skipped. Finally, with the exception of larger preview benefits that were obtained in the condition in which the target and critical distractor were identical, the magnitude of the preview effect was largely unaffected by the nature of the critical distractor. Implications of the present paradigm and findings to the study of eye-movement control in reading are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japanese–English bilinguals completed a masked phonological priming study with Japanese Katakana primes and English targets. Event related potential (ERP) data were collected in addition to lexical decision responses. A cross-script phonological priming effect was observed in both measures, and the effect did not interact with frequency. In the ERP data, the phonological priming effect was evident before the frequency effect. These data, along with analyses of response latency distributions, provide evidence that the cross-script phonological priming effects were the consequence of the activation of sublexical phonological representations in a store shared by both Japanese and English. This activation fed back to sublexical and lexical orthographic representations, influencing lexical decision latencies. The implications for the Bilingual Interactive Activation (BIA+) model of word recognition are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explored the ability of expert and novice chess players to rapidly distinguish between regions of a chessboard that were relevant to the best move on the board, and regions of the board that were irrelevant. Accordingly, we monitored the eye movements of expert and novice chess players, while they selected white's best move for a variety of chess problems. To manipulate relevancy, we constructed two different versions of each chess problem in the experiment, and we counterbalanced these versions across participants. These two versions of each problem were identical except that a single piece was changed from a bishop to a knight. This subtle change reversed the relevancy map of the board, such that regions that were relevant in one version of the board were now irrelevant (and vice versa). Using this paradigm, we demonstrated that both the experts and novices spent more time fixating the relevant relative to the irrelevant regions of the board. However, the experts were faster at detecting relevant information than the novices, as shown by the finding that experts (but not novices) were able to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information during the early part of the trial. These findings further demonstrate the domain-related perceptual processing advantage of chess experts, using an experimental paradigm that allowed us to manipulate relevancy under tightly controlled conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a wide range of problem-solving settings, the presence of a familiar solution can block the discovery of better solutions (i.e., the Einstellung effect). To investigate this effect, we monitored the eye movements of expert and novice chess players while they solved chess problems that contained a familiar move (i.e., the Einstellung move), as well as an optimal move that was located in a different region of the board. When the Einstellung move was an advantageous (but suboptimal) move, both the expert and novice chess players who chose the Einstellung move continued to look at this move throughout the trial, whereas the subset of expert players who chose the optimal move were able to gradually disengage their attention from the Einstellung move. However, when the Einstellung move was a blunder, all of the experts and the majority of the novices were able to avoid selecting the Einstellung move, and both the experts and novices gradually disengaged their attention from the Einstellung move. These findings shed light on the boundary conditions of the Einstellung effect, and provide convergent evidence for Bilalić, McLeod, & Gobet (2008)’s conclusion that the Einstellung effect operates by biasing attention towards problem features that are associated with the familiar solution rather than the optimal solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study employed distributional analyses of fixation times to examine the impact of removing spaces between words during reading. Specifically, we presented high and low frequency target words in a normal text condition that contained spaces (e.g., “John decided to sell the table in the garage sale”) and in an unsegmented text condition that contained random numbers instead of spaces (e.g., “John4decided8to5sell9the7table2in3the9garage6sale”). The unsegmented text condition produced larger word frequency effects relative to the normal text condition for the gaze duration and total time measures (for similar findings, see Rayner, Fischer, & Pollatsek, 1998), which indicates that removing spaces can impact the word identification stage of reading. To further examine the effect of spacing on word identification, we used distributional analyses of first-fixation durations to contrast the time course of word frequency effects in the normal versus the unsegmented text conditions. In replication of prior findings (Reingold, Reichle, Glaholt, & Sheridan, 2012; Staub, White, Drieghe, Hollway, & Rayner, 2010), ex-Gaussian fitting revealed that the word frequency variable impacted both the shift and the skew of the distributions, and this pattern of results occurred for both the normal and unsegmented text conditions. In addition, a survival analysis technique revealed a later time course of word frequency effects in the unsegmented relative to the normal condition, such that the earliest discernible influence of word frequency was 112 ms from the start of fixation in the normal text condition, and 152 ms in the unsegmented text condition. This delay in the temporal onset of word frequency effects in the unsegmented text condition strongly suggests that removing spaces delays the word identification stage of reading. Possible underlying mechanisms are discussed, including lateral masking and word segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To investigate the time course of predictability effects in reading, the present study examined distributions of first-fixation durations on target words in a low predictability versus a high predictability prior context. In a replication of Staub (2011), ex-Gaussian fitting demonstrated that the low predictability distribution was significantly shifted to the right of the high predictability distribution in the absence of any contextual differences in the degree of skew. Extending this finding, the present study used a survival analysis technique to demonstrate a significant influence of predictability on fixation duration as early as 140 ms from the start of fixation, which is similar to prior results obtained with the word frequency variable. These results provide convergent evidence that lexical variables have a fast acting influence on fixation durations during reading. Implications for models of eye-movement control are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Barium titanate is one of the most thoroughly studied members of the perovskite family due to its prominent place in the electroceramic industry. To be used as a capacitor at room temperature, a high-dielectric constant is needed which is achieved through doping. The focus of this research was to develop a more environmentally benign alternative to the doping of barium titanate. The barium source was barium titanyl catecholate, Ba[Ti(cat)3] (aq) and the doping sources were strontium oxalate (SrC2O4) and strontium carbonate (SrCO3). The doping strategies included a solid-state synthetic pathway as well as microwave- and centrifuge-assisted methods which both employed water as the only solvent. The last two benign by design methods were tested with respect to their thermodynamic control over barium-to-strontium stoichiometric ratios. These methods of doping proved to be more environmentally friendly and economical while combining green chemistry and materials science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Barium titanate, barium zirconate, and barium hafnate are essential components of the electroceramic industry. Barium titanate is essentially used as multi-layered ceramic capacitors in computers, aerospace, and communication technologies. Barium zirconate is one of the most inert, stable, and corrosion-resistant perovskite employed in superconducting applications. Barium hafnate is used as a component of hybrid ceramic structures for high-temperature applications. The goal of this research was to apply a more environmentally benign synthesis design to the production of barium-based perovskites. The catecholate method, originally applied to the synthesis of barium titanate, was utilized as the approach for the synthesis of barium zirconate and barium hafnate. This developmental process consumed naturally occurring isomorphic forms of metal oxides and no post-sintering treatment was necessary. It resulted in the absence of by-products in most steps while achieving superior stoichiometric control over the barium-to-X (X=Ti, Zr, Hf) molar ratio compared to previous methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the method of "reflective equilibrium" as a possible decision-making method for the rational evaluation of technical and technological innovations in sporting practices. I use the recent change to the way male tennis players are seeded at the Wimbledon championships to illustrate that although fair play comprises an important part of any evaluation, it only takes us so far. I discuss critically the objection that "wide reflective equilibrium" disregards the diversity and the moral importance of the different cultures in which people live. I argue that although "wide reflective equilibrium" is a praiseworthy procedure for evaluating technical and technological innovations in sporting practices, it is too "thin" a method because it disregards the diversity and the moral importance of the different cultures in which people live in general and sporting practices more specifically. I offer instead the outline of an alternative decision-making method that includes a more embedded conception of the good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore and reflect critically on what elite sport may expect or fear from genetic technologies. In particular, we explore the language in which we (where ‘‘we’’ denotes scientists, sports scientists, the media, sports coaches, academics) tend to speak about genetics, elite sport, and the human body – we call this language ‘‘gene-talk’’ – which imagines the world of elite sport as one in which genes were always dominant in athletic performance. The dominant question here seems to be whether what is thought to be possible ought to be, and can be realized. We unpack the question by asking whether the practices needed for genetics to intervene so powerfully in elite sport exist in the straightforward and uncomplicated manner that the ‘‘gene-talk’’ literature seems to suggest. We argue that there is a lack of relevant studies to support and analyse the notion of sports performance as an immensely rich and complex practice.We conclude that elite sport may be more complex and heterogeneous than ‘‘gene-talk’’ has imagined to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among different kinds of performance-altering technologies in elite sport it is important to include those that dehumanize performance, improve safety and reduce harm, increase spectatorship and increase participation. This essay explores whether tennis racket technology de-skills and/or re-skills elite male tennis players and the implications of such technology for the game. I reflect critically on the empirical work of scientists and technologists that relates to performance-altering technologies and service dominance in elite male tennis. In particular, I also intend to explore the extent of effect the proposal to abolish the second service will have on the game. I conclude that allowing ‘one serve only’ would change the fundamental character of the game. Maintaining the status quo of two serves (potentially) per point retains the strategic and cognitive complexity of the game. It is imperative that technological and technical innovations do not compromise the nature of the good game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of 'fair play' is generally understood to be important in sport and in life yet it is not clear what precisely it refers to, why it is valued, what ethical principles, if any, it is grounded upon, and what kind of good it involves. The product of this confusion is a lack of consensus in conceptualizing 'fair play', which is reflected in a wide range of conceptions offered in the sport philosophical literature. In this paper I offer a critical review of the 'fair play' literature in sports philosophy and the mainstream ethical theories that underpin them in order to formulate and present a preferable conception of 'fair play'. First, I consider the historical roots of the concept in sports contexts. Second, I present six competing conceptions of 'fair play': (i) formalism, (ii) 'fair play' as play, (iii) 'fair play' as 'respect', (iv) 'fair play' as a contract or agreement, (v) 'fair play' as a system of rational norms and (vi) 'fair play' as virtue. I argue that all these accounts are lacking since they fail, in varying degrees, to consider the ethos of games that is partly generative of a richer concept of 'fair play' which I articulate and defend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the quick rise in popularity of emojis - with close to 3000 emojis listed in the official standard code at the time this abstract was submitted - emojis could provide a new frontier for studying the role of ideograms and non-verbal symbols during reading. In the present study, we used eye tracking to examine the time course of emoji processing during sentence reading. Specifically, we monitored participants' eye movements while they read sentences containing a target word (e.g., "cookies" in the sentence "These homemade cookies are delicious"). The sentences either contained no emoji, or there was an emoji located immediately after the final word of the sentence. The emoji was either congruent with the target word (e.g., the cookie emoji), or incongruent with the target word (e.g., the pie emoji). This emoji congruency manipulation produced a rapid and long-lasting effect on the eye movement record. As evidence that emoji processing begins in the parafovea, the incongruent emojis were skipped less often than the congruent emojis. Also, analogous to the disruption caused by semantically incongruent words during reading, the incongruent emojis were fixated for longer than the congruent emojis, and the incongruent emojis also elicited more regressions and longer overall sentence reading times. We discuss the implications of our results for models of eye movement control during reading, which could be extended to accommodate emojified text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the perceptual specificity of visual expertise in music reading, we monitored the eye movements of experts (>10 year of experience) and novices (who could not read music) during a music-related variant of the flicker paradigm. Specifically, across two experiments, we asked participants to rapidly locate a single note that was changing within a music score. In Experiment 1, we manipulated the visual complexity of music scores to test the prediction of chunking and template theories that experts' domain-specific knowledge would allow them to compensate for increases in visual complexity. In support of this prediction, novices showed larger visual complexity effects than experts across a variety of eye movement measures (e.g., saccade amplititudes, number of fixations, fixation durations). In Experiment 2, we manipulated the familiarity of the music's visual configurations by contrasting upright (i.e., typically oriented) music scores with those that were rotated by 90°. In support of chunking and template theories' prediction that expertise is perceptually specific, we did not observe any expertise effects on eye movements in the rotated music score condition, despite observing robust expertise effects in the upright condition. Building on similar findings in other domains, including radiology and chess, music reading experts display perceptual advantages that are remarkably perceptually specific. Taken together, the present experiments support chunking and template theory's assumption that experts acquire large mental vocabularies of domain-related visual patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across two experiments, we investigated experts' and novices' memory representations for complex visual search targets. Specifically, we monitored the eye movements of expert musicians (≥10 years of music reading experience) and novices (who could not read music) while they searched for a complex search target (i.e., a target bar of piano sheet music) within a search array (i.e., a larger music score that contained the target bar). In Experiment 1, the search target was displayed above the search array throughout the trial, such that participants could refer back to it as needed to support their search. As evidence that experts and novices adopted qualitatively different search strategies, experts had long initial dwells on the search target at the start of the trial, whereas novices exhibited more frequent but shorter dwells on the search target. To further explore this pattern of results, in Experiment 2, we contrasted trials in which the search target and the search array were presented simultaneously (as in Experiment 1) with a condition in which the search target was briefly displayed prior to the presentation of the search array (i.e., the sequential condition). As evidence that novices have a less precise memory representation for the search target, the sequential condition lowered the accuracy of the novices, without impacting the experts' accuracy. Also, the experts' dwell durations revealed that they were rapidly detecting relevant information during their search. Our results coincide with findings from other domains, including radiology and chess, and our results provide support for chunking/template theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subsequent search misses (SSMs) are a type of multiple-target search error in which the discovery of one target reduces the detectability of another target (Cain, Adamo, Mitroff, 2013). SSMs are a major source of errors in radiology, but also occur in non-medical tasks (Fleck, Samei, & Mitroff, 2010), such as baggage scans. To further assess the generalizability of SSMs, we used eye tracking to examine SSMs in proofreading for the first time. To understand the source of these errors, we contrasted the perspective that the discovery of an initial typo results in a less thorough search for additional typos (i.e., the "satisfaction of search" (SOS) account) with the alternative perspective that the discovery of an initial typo consumes working memory resources that otherwise could have aided in the subsequent search (i.e., the "cognitive resource depletion" account). Across two studies, we monitored eye movements while participants either proofread for typos in paragraphs (Experiment 1) or proofread lists of words that were arranged in a straight line or scrambled in random locations across the screen (Experiment 2). We document an SSM effect where detection of a high-salience typo (easy-to-detect; e.g., "carpeb" instead of "carpet") reduced the detectability of a low-salience typo (difficult-to-detect; e.g., "mitsake" instead of "mistake"). Moreover, in support of the SOS account, the detection of the high-salience typo resulted in a less thorough search, as revealed by shorter reaction times, as well as shorter fixation times and fewer refixations on the low-salience target word. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the perceptual component of chess expertise, we monitored the eye movements of expert and novice chess players during a chess-related visual search task that tested anecdotal reports that a key differentiator of chess skill is the ability to visualize the complex moves of the knight piece. Specifically, chess players viewed an array of four minimized chessboards, and they rapidly searched for the target board that allowed a knight piece to reach a target square in three moves. On each trial, there was only one target board (i.e., the "Yes" board), and for the remaining "lure" boards, the knight's path was blocked on either the first move (the "Easy No" board) or the second move (i.e., "the Difficult No" board). As evidence that chess experts can rapidly differentiate complex chess-related visual patterns, the experts (but not the novices) showed longer first-fixation durations on the "Yes" board relative to the "Difficult No" board. Moreover, as hypothesized, the task strongly differentiated chess skill: Reaction times were more than four times faster for the experts relative to novices, and reaction times were correlated with within-group measures of expertise (i.e., official chess ratings, number of hours of practice). These results indicate that a key component of chess expertise is the ability to rapidly recognize complex visual patterns.

The divergence point analysis procedure is aimed at obtaining an estimate of the onset of the influence of an experimental variable on response latencies (e.g., fixation duration, reaction time). The procedure involves generating survival curves for two conditions, and using a bootstrapping technique to estimate the timing of the earliest discernible divergence between curves. In the present paper, several key extensions for this procedure were proposed and evaluated by conducting simulations and by reanalyzing data from previous studies. Our findings indicate that the modified versions of the procedure performed substantially better than the original procedure under conditions of low experimental power. Furthermore, unlike the original procedure, the modified procedures provided divergence point estimates for individual participants and permitted testing the significance of the difference between estimates across conditions. The advantages of the modified procedures are illustrated, the theoretical and methodological implications are discussed, and promising future directions are outlined.