Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm
Published on: May 15, 2019
The role of age and perceptual symbols in language comprehension
Katinka Dijkstra1, Richard H Yaxley, Carol J Madden
1Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA. dijkstra@psy.fsu.edu
Abstract:
Older and younger participants read sentences about objects and were then shown a picture of an object that either matched or mismatched the implied shape of the object in the sentence. Participants' response times were recorded when they judged whether the object had been mentioned in the sentence. Responses were faster in the shape-matching condition for all participants, but the mismatch effect was stronger for older than for younger adults, even when the larger variability of the older group's response times was controlled for. These results suggest that older adults may construct stronger situation models than younger adults.
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