Validation of semantic illusions independent of anomaly detection: evidence from eye movements. Issue 1 (January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cook, Anne E; Walsh, Erinn K; Bills, Margaret A A; Kircher, John C; O'Brien, Edward J
• Other Names: Liversedge Simon P guest-editor.; Castelhano Monica guest-editor.; Reichle Erik D guest-editor.; Ferreira Fernanda guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. Volume 71:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: 113
• Page End: 121
• Publication Date: 2018-01
• Subjects: Eye movements -- RI-Val model -- Semantic illusions -- Validation; Psychology, Experimental -- Periodicals; Psychophysiology -- Periodicals; Psychology, Comparative -- Periodicals; 150.72405
• DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2016.1264432
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1747-0218

Abstract

Several theorists have argued that readers fail to detect semantic anomalies during reading, and that these effects are indicative of "shallow processing" behaviours. Previous studies of semantic anomalies such as the Moses illusion have focused primarily on explicit detection tasks. In the present study, we examined participants' eye movements as they read true/false statements that were non-anomalous, or contained a semantic anomaly that was either high- or low-related to the correct information. Analyses of reading behaviours revealed that only low-related detected anomalies resulted in initial processing difficulty, but both detected and undetected anomalies, regardless of whether they were high- or low-related, resulted in delayed processing difficulty. The results extend previous findings on semantic anomalies and are discussed in terms of the RI-Val model of text processing.