Insights from Eye Blinks into the Cognitive Processes Involved in Visual Word Recognition

Ronen Hershman; David L Share; Elisabeth M Weiss; Avishai Henik; Adi Shechter

doi:10.5334/joc.343

Insights from Eye Blinks into the Cognitive Processes Involved in Visual Word Recognition

J Cogn. 2024 Jan 17;7(1):14. doi: 10.5334/joc.343. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Ronen Hershman¹, David L Share^{2

3}, Elisabeth M Weiss¹, Avishai Henik⁴, Adi Shechter^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
² Department of Learning Disabilities, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
³ Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
⁴ Department of Psychology and The Zelman Center for Brain Science, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Abstract

Behavioral differences in speed and accuracy between reading familiar and unfamiliar words are well-established in the empirical literature. However, these standard measures of skill proficiency are limited in their ability to capture the moment-to-moment processing involved in visual word recognition. In the present study, the effect of word familiarity was initially investigated using an eye blink rate among adults and children. The probability of eye blinking was higher for familiar (real) words than for unfamiliar (pseudo)words. This counterintuitive pattern of results suggests that the processing of unfamiliar (pseudo)words is more demanding and perhaps less rewarding than the processing of familiar (real) words, as previously observed in both behavioral and pupillometry data. Our findings suggest that the measurement of eye blinks might shed new light on the cognitive processes involved in visual word recognition and other domains of human cognition.

Keywords: eye blinks; mental effort; reading; word recognition.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Ministry of Science & Technology, Israel; by the Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. 1002/20 to D. L. Share); and by the Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities.