Reading Is Disrupted by Intelligible Background Speech: Evidence From Eye-Tracking

Authors: Vasilev, M.R., Liversedge, S.P., Rowan, D., Kirkby, J.A. and Angele, B.

Journal: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

eISSN: 1939-1277

ISSN: 0096-1523

DOI: 10.1037/xhp0000680

Abstract:

It is not well understood whether background speech affects the initial processing of words during reading or only the later processes of sentence integration. Additionally, it is not clear how eye movements support text comprehension in the face of distraction by background speech and noise. In the present research, participants read single sentences (Experiment 1) and short paragraphs (Experiments 2-3) in 4 sound conditions: silence, speech-spectrum Gaussian noise, English speech (intelligible to participants), and Mandarin speech (unintelligible to participants). Intelligible speech did not affect the lexical access of words and had a limited effect on the first-pass fixations of words. However, it led to more regressions and more rereading fixations compared with both unintelligible speech and silence. The results suggested that the distraction is mostly semantic in nature, and there was only limited evidence for a contribution of phonology. Finally, intelligible speech disrupted comprehension only when participants were prevented from rereading previous words. These findings suggest that the semantic properties of irrelevant speech can disrupt the ongoing reading process, but that this disruption occurs in the postlexical stages of reading when participants need to integrate words to form the sentence context and to construct a coherent discourse of the text.

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/32389/

Source: Scopus

Reading is disrupted by intelligible background speech: Evidence from eye-tracking.

Authors: Vasilev, M.R., Liversedge, S.P., Rowan, D., Kirkby, J.A. and Angele, B.

Journal: J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform

Volume: 45

Issue: 11

Pages: 1484-1512

eISSN: 1939-1277

DOI: 10.1037/xhp0000680

Abstract:

It is not well understood whether background speech affects the initial processing of words during reading or only the later processes of sentence integration. Additionally, it is not clear how eye movements support text comprehension in the face of distraction by background speech and noise. In the present research, participants read single sentences (Experiment 1) and short paragraphs (Experiments 2-3) in 4 sound conditions: silence, speech-spectrum Gaussian noise, English speech (intelligible to participants), and Mandarin speech (unintelligible to participants). Intelligible speech did not affect the lexical access of words and had a limited effect on the first-pass fixations of words. However, it led to more regressions and more rereading fixations compared with both unintelligible speech and silence. The results suggested that the distraction is mostly semantic in nature, and there was only limited evidence for a contribution of phonology. Finally, intelligible speech disrupted comprehension only when participants were prevented from rereading previous words. These findings suggest that the semantic properties of irrelevant speech can disrupt the ongoing reading process, but that this disruption occurs in the postlexical stages of reading when participants need to integrate words to form the sentence context and to construct a coherent discourse of the text. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/32389/

Source: PubMed

Reading Is Disrupted by Intelligible Background Speech: Evidence From Eye-Tracking

Authors: Vasilev, M.R., Liversedge, S.P., Rowan, D., Kirkby, J.A. and Angele, B.

Journal: JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY-HUMAN PERCEPTION AND PERFORMANCE

Volume: 45

Issue: 11

Pages: 1484-1512

eISSN: 1939-1277

ISSN: 0096-1523

DOI: 10.1037/xhp0000680

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/32389/

Source: Web of Science (Lite)

Reading is disrupted by intelligible background speech: Evidence from eye-tracking

Authors: Vasilev, M., Liversedge, S.P., Rowan, D., Kirkby, J.A. and Angele, B.

Journal: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

Publisher: APA

ISSN: 0096-1523

Abstract:

It is not well understood whether background speech affects the initial processing of words during reading or only the later processes of sentence integration. Additionally, it is not clear how eye-movements support text comprehension in the face of distraction by background speech and noise. In the present research, participants read single sentences (Experiment 1) and short paragraphs (Experiments 2-3) in four sound conditions: silence, speech-spectrum Gaussian noise, English speech (intelligible to participants), and Mandarin speech (unintelligible to participants). Intelligible speech did not affect the lexical access of words and had a limited effect on the first-pass fixations of words. However, it led to more regressions and more re-reading fixations compared to both unintelligible speech and silence. The results suggested that the distraction is mostly semantic in nature, and there was only limited evidence for a contribution of phonology. Finally, intelligible speech disrupted comprehension only when participants were prevented from re-reading previous words. These findings suggest that the semantic properties of irrelevant speech can disrupt the ongoing reading process, but that this disruption occurs in the post-lexical stages of reading when participants need to integrate words to form the sentence context and to construct a coherent discourse of the text.

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/32389/

Source: Manual

Reading is disrupted by intelligible background speech: Evidence from eye-tracking.

Authors: Vasilev, M.R., Liversedge, S.P., Rowan, D., Kirkby, J.A. and Angele, B.

Journal: Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance

Volume: 45

Issue: 11

Pages: 1484-1512

eISSN: 1939-1277

ISSN: 0096-1523

DOI: 10.1037/xhp0000680

Abstract:

It is not well understood whether background speech affects the initial processing of words during reading or only the later processes of sentence integration. Additionally, it is not clear how eye movements support text comprehension in the face of distraction by background speech and noise. In the present research, participants read single sentences (Experiment 1) and short paragraphs (Experiments 2-3) in 4 sound conditions: silence, speech-spectrum Gaussian noise, English speech (intelligible to participants), and Mandarin speech (unintelligible to participants). Intelligible speech did not affect the lexical access of words and had a limited effect on the first-pass fixations of words. However, it led to more regressions and more rereading fixations compared with both unintelligible speech and silence. The results suggested that the distraction is mostly semantic in nature, and there was only limited evidence for a contribution of phonology. Finally, intelligible speech disrupted comprehension only when participants were prevented from rereading previous words. These findings suggest that the semantic properties of irrelevant speech can disrupt the ongoing reading process, but that this disruption occurs in the postlexical stages of reading when participants need to integrate words to form the sentence context and to construct a coherent discourse of the text. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/32389/

Source: Europe PubMed Central

Reading is disrupted by intelligible background speech: evidence from eye-tracking

Authors: Vasilev, M.R., Liversedge, S.P., Rowan, D., Kirkby, J.A. and Angele, B.

Journal: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

Volume: 45

Issue: 11

Pages: 1484-1512

ISSN: 0096-1523

Abstract:

It is not well understood whether background speech affects the initial processing of words during reading or only the later processes of sentence integration. Additionally, it is not clear how eye-movements support text comprehension in the face of distraction by background speech and noise. In the present research, participants read single sentences (Experiment 1) and short paragraphs (Experiments 2-3) in four sound conditions: silence, speech-spectrum Gaussian noise, English speech (intelligible to participants), and Mandarin speech (unintelligible to participants). Intelligible speech did not affect the lexical access of words and had a limited effect on the first-pass fixations of words. However, it led to more regressions and more re-reading fixations compared to both unintelligible speech and silence. The results suggested that the distraction is mostly semantic in nature, and there was only limited evidence for a contribution of phonology. Finally, intelligible speech disrupted comprehension only when participants were prevented from re-reading previous words. These findings suggest that the semantic properties of irrelevant speech can disrupt the ongoing reading process, but that this disruption occurs in the post-lexical stages of reading when participants need to integrate words to form the sentence context and to construct a coherent discourse of the text.

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/32389/

Source: BURO EPrints