A large body of evidence suggests that people spontaneously and implicitly learn about regularities present in the visual input. Although theorized as critical for reading, this ability has so far been demonstrated only for non-linguistic materials. We tested whether local statistical regularities are also extracted from materials that closely resemble one’s native language. In two experiments, Italian speakers saw a set of letter strings modelled on the Italian lexicon and guessed which of these strings were words in a fictitious language and which were foils.

We evaluate nine algorithms for the correction of “vertical drift” in eye tracking data — the vertical displacement of fixations that results from a gradual loss of eye tracker calibration over time. Our results — based on both simulated and natural eye tracking data — show that certain algorithms are better than others on particular kinds of vertical drift and reading behavior. We offer evidence-based advice to researchers on how to choose an appropriate technique and concrete suggestions on how drift correction software can be improved going forward. A preprint and all the materials related to this project are available here and here, respectively.

Recent evidence points to the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) as a crucial semantic hub integrating both abstract and concrete conceptual features according to a dorsal-to-medial gradient. It is however unclear when this conceptual gradient emerges and how semantic information reaches the ATL during conceptual retrieval. Here we addressed this issue via a multiple regression approach to magnetoencephalography signals of spoken words, combined with dimensionality reduction in concrete and abstract semantic feature spaces. Results showed that the dorsal-to-medial abstract-to-concrete ATL gradient emerges only in late stages of word processing: Abstract and concrete semantic information are initially encoded in posterior temporal regions and travel along separate cortical pathways eventually converging in the ATL.

The paper is available as a pre-print on bioRxiv.