Monteiro, P. 1 , Costa, A. 1 , Carvalho, M. 1 & Baptista, A. 2, 1
1 Universidade de Lisboa, FLUL/CLUL
2 IPP/ESEP
In this study we want to know how visual and semantic properties of scenes determine linguistic production. We prepared an experiment with two factors: scene type (photograph vs. drawing) and semantic consistency (congruent vs. incongruent), resulting in four experimental conditions. 24 pictures representing natural scenes were created, each one in the four conditions.
24 children (8 y/o), native speakers of European Portuguese, without visual or attentional deficits or language disorders, were given a picture viewing task, followed by 2 questions. Participants? eye-movements and linguistic production were recorded with an SMI IVIEW X? HI-SPEED system and with a Logitech® Webcam Pro 9000. First fixation, fixation duration and gaze were taken from two AoI (heads and (in)congruent objet). Produced speech was computerized with TEITOK and measures of fluency and linguistic complexity were extracted.
Preliminary results show a main effect of scene type on first fixation (p=0,010), and of scene congruency on gaze (p=0,006). Scene type and congruency also impact on fluency and on production of Nouns referring represented or inferred entities: 60% of words in response to photographs; 53% Nouns to incongruent photos. As expected, results show a relationship between visual scene properties and congruency, and visual behavior and produced speech.