TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wallot, Sebastian
A1  - Lee, Jun Taek
A1  - Kelty-Stephen, Damian G.
T1  - Switching between reading tasks leads to phase-transitions in reading times in L1 and L2 readers
T2  - PLoS one
N2  - Reading research uses different tasks to investigate different levels of the reading process, such as word recognition, syntactic parsing, or semantic integration. It seems to be tacitly assumed that the underlying cognitive process that constitute reading are stable across those tasks. However, nothing is known about what happens when readers switch from one reading task to another. The stability assumptions of the reading process suggest that the cognitive system resolves this switching between two tasks quickly. Here, we present an alternative language-game hypothesis (LGH) of reading that begins by treating reading as a softly-assembled process and that assumes, instead of stability, context-sensitive flexibility of the reading process. LGH predicts that switching between two reading tasks leads to longer lasting phase-transition like patterns in the reading process. Using the nonlinear-dynamical tool of recurrence quantification analysis, we test these predictions by examining series of individual word reading times in self-paced reading tasks where native (L1) and second language readers (L2) transition between random word and ordered text reading tasks. We find consistent evidence for phase-transitions in the reading times when readers switch from ordered text to random-word reading, but we find mixed evidence when readers transition from random-word to ordered-text reading. In the latter case, L2 readers show moderately stronger signs for phase-transitions compared to L1 readers, suggesting that familiarity with a language influences whether and how such transitions occur. The results provide evidence for LGH and suggest that the cognitive processes underlying reading are not fully stable across tasks but exhibit soft-assembly in the interaction between task and reader characteristics.
KW  - Cognition
KW  - Language
KW  - Semantics
KW  - Syntax
KW  - Cognitive linguistics
KW  - Dynamical systems
KW  - Psycholinguistics
KW  - Natural language
Y1  - 2019
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/48849
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-488498
SN  - 1932-6203
N1  - Copyright: © 2019 Wallot et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
VL  - 14
IS  - (2): e0211502
SP  - 1
EP  - 34
PB  - PLoS
CY  - Lawrence, Kan.
ER  -