Attentional distribution and semantic parafoveal processing in natural reading
Author
Antúnez García, MartínDate
2022Abstract
The current thesis aims to increase the current knowledge about how we can access to the
meaning of parafoveal words and the role of individual differences in visual attentional
distribution of readers over semantic parafoveal processing. The thesis starts by providing a
theoretical background of reading and parafoveal perception, focusing on semantic parafoveal
processing. The initial theoretical chapters also cover the role of individual differences of
readers in reading, focusing mainly on attentional distribution and the perceptual span. An
informative section of the co-registration technique of EEG and EM is also provided, to better
understand the avantages and limitations of the chosen technique of this thesis. The three aims
and hyptheses of the current work are also showed and discussed. As the reader will see, our
studies aimed to obtain neurological markers of semantic parafoveal processing in artifitial and,
more importantly, ecologically valid scenarios of natural reading. The next step was to explore
how these neurological markers are modulated by individual differences in the ability of
readers to distribute their attentional resources across the visual field, highlighting the
importance of considering such variable when studying semantic parafoveal processing. We
show here the three studies with all detailed information, including theoretical introduction,
methodology, results and discussion of each sepparated study. We then conclude by
interpreting the results obtained in the three studies and highlighting the maing conclusions
extracted from the thesis. As it is showed in the final sections, the thesis fulfilled the presented
aims. The results obtained here allowed to obtain electrophysiological markers of semantic
parafoveal processing in both artifitial and natural reading scenarios, which adds evidence that
the meaning of parafoveal words can be accessed and used to modulate reading behaviour.
Importantly, the results obtained showed that individual differences in attentional distribution
of readers modulate such mentioned semantic parafoveal processing, highlighting the
importance of understanding the visual spatial distribution of readers during natural reader in
future research involving parafoveal processing