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Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects
Published on: November 30, 2018
Lévy-like diffusion in eye movements during spoken-language comprehension
Damian G Stephen1, Daniel Mirman, James S Magnuson
1Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road, Unit 1020, Storrs, Connecticut 06269-1020, USA.
Abstract:
This study explores the diffusive properties of human eye movements during a language comprehension task. In this task, adults are given auditory instructions to locate named objects on a computer screen. Although it has been convention to model visual search as standard Brownian diffusion, we find evidence that eye movements are hyperdiffusive. Specifically, we use comparisons of maximum-likelihood fit as well as standard deviation analysis and diffusion entropy analysis to show that visual search during language comprehension exhibits Lévy-like rather than Gaussian diffusion.
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