Zhou Peng, Ma Weiyi, Zhan Likan, Ma Huimin
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Tsinghua University;
School of Human Environmental Sciences, University of Arkansas.
J Vis Exp. 2018 Oct 3(140):58452. doi: 10.3791/58452.
Sentence comprehension relies on the ability to rapidly integrate different types of linguistic and non-linguistic information. However, there is currently a paucity of research exploring how preschool children with autism understand sentences using different types of cues. The mechanisms underlying sentence comprehension remains largely unclear. The present study presents a protocol to examine the sentence comprehension abilities of preschool children with autism. More specifically, a visual world paradigm of eye-tracking is used to explore the moment-to-moment sentence comprehension in the children. The paradigm has multiple advantages. First, it is sensitive to the time course of sentence comprehension and thus can provide rich information about how sentence comprehension unfolds over time. Second, it requires minimal task and communication demands, so it is ideal for testing children with autism. To further minimize the computational burden of children, the present study measures eye movements that arise as automatic responses to linguistic input rather than measuring eye movements that accompany conscious responses to spoken instructions.
句子理解依赖于快速整合不同类型语言和非语言信息的能力。然而，目前很少有研究探讨自闭症学龄前儿童如何利用不同类型的线索来理解句子。句子理解背后的机制在很大程度上仍不清楚。本研究提出了一个方案来检验自闭症学龄前儿童的句子理解能力。更具体地说，采用一种眼动追踪的视觉世界范式来探索儿童逐时的句子理解情况。该范式有多个优点。首先，它对句子理解的时间进程敏感，因此可以提供关于句子理解如何随时间展开的丰富信息。其次，它对任务和交流的要求极低，所以是测试自闭症儿童的理想选择。为了进一步减轻儿童的计算负担，本研究测量的是作为对语言输入的自动反应而产生的眼动，而不是测量伴随对口头指令的有意识反应而出现的眼动。
