Conditional co-occurrence probability acts like frequency in predicting fixation durations

  • The predictability of an upcoming word has been found to be a useful predictor in eye movement research, but is expensive to collect and subjective in nature. It would be desirable to have other predictors that are easier to collect and objective in nature if these predictors were capable of capturing the information stored in predictability. This paper contributes to this discussion by testing a possible predictor: conditional co-occurrence probability. This measure is a simple statistical representation of the relatedness of the current word to its context, based only on word co-occurrence patterns in data taken from the Internet. In the regression analyses, conditional co-occurrence probability acts like lexical frequency in predicting fixation durations, and its addition does not greatly improve the model fits. We conclude that readers do not seem to use the information contained within conditional co-occurrence probability during reading for meaning, and that similar simple measures of semantic relatedness are unlikely to be ableThe predictability of an upcoming word has been found to be a useful predictor in eye movement research, but is expensive to collect and subjective in nature. It would be desirable to have other predictors that are easier to collect and objective in nature if these predictors were capable of capturing the information stored in predictability. This paper contributes to this discussion by testing a possible predictor: conditional co-occurrence probability. This measure is a simple statistical representation of the relatedness of the current word to its context, based only on word co-occurrence patterns in data taken from the Internet. In the regression analyses, conditional co-occurrence probability acts like lexical frequency in predicting fixation durations, and its addition does not greatly improve the model fits. We conclude that readers do not seem to use the information contained within conditional co-occurrence probability during reading for meaning, and that similar simple measures of semantic relatedness are unlikely to be able to replace predictability as a predictor for fixation durations. Keywords: Co-occurrence probability, Cloze predictability, frequency, eye movement, fixation duration.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author details:James Kwan Yau Ong, Reinhold KlieglORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-56771
Publication series (Volume number):Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe (paper 232)
Publication type:Postprint
Language:English
Publication year:2008
Publishing institution:Universität Potsdam
Release date:2011/12/01
Tag:Cloze predictability; Co-occurrence probability; eye movement; frequency; fixation duration
Source:Journal of Eye Movements Research. - ISSN 1995-8692. - 2 (2008), 1, S. 1-7
Organizational units:Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften
DDC classification:4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache
License (German):License LogoKeine öffentliche Lizenz: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz
External remark:first published in:
http://www.jemr.org/online/2/1/3
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