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Related Concept Videos

Language Development01:22

Language Development

680
Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...
680
Language and Cognition01:27

Language and Cognition

594
Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.
594
The Anchoring-and-Adjustment Heuristic01:25

The Anchoring-and-Adjustment Heuristic

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In order to make good decisions, we use our knowledge and our reasoning. Often, this knowledge and reasoning is sound and solid. However, sometimes, we are swayed by biases or by others manipulating a situation. For example, let’s say you and three friends wanted to rent a house and had a combined target budget of $1,600. The realtor shows you only very run-down houses for $1,600 and then shows you a very nice house for $2,000. Might you ask each person to pay more in rent to get the...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 3, 2025

Eye-tracking to Distinguish Comprehension-based and Oculomotor-based Regressive Eye Movements During Reading
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Attention extends beyond single words in beginning readers.

Joshua Snell1,2,3, Christophe Cauchi4,5,6, Jonathan Grainger4,5

  • 1Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France. J.J.Snell@VU.nl.

Attention, Perception & Psychophysics
|October 30, 2020
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Beginning readers show attention extending beyond single letters, challenging the common notion of narrow focus. This suggests early orthographic processing in reading development is broader than previously thought.

Keywords:
AttentionDevelopmentReading

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Reading acquisition is often thought to involve a narrow attentional focus on individual letters.
  • Skilled adult readers demonstrate broader attention, recognizing words faster when surrounded by related words.
  • This suggests attention distribution expands with reading proficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the development of attentional scope during reading acquisition.
  • To test the hypothesis that attentional distribution increases with reading skill.
  • To map the progression of spatial integration effects in reading development.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized the flanker paradigm combined with the lexical decision task.
  • Tested 113 children across grades 1-6.
  • Presented central target words flanked by orthographically related and unrelated stimuli.

Main Results:

  • Significant effects of flanker relatedness on word recognition speed were observed even in the youngest children.
  • These effects were not modulated by reading age, contrary to expectations.
  • Orthographic processing extended beyond single words from the earliest stages.

Conclusions:

  • The study challenges the notion of a narrowly focused attention in beginning readers.
  • Findings suggest that orthographic processing can extend beyond single words early in reading development.
  • Attentional scope in reading may be broader from the outset than previously assumed.