Work

Using Reinforcement Learning to Examine Dynamic Attention Allocation During Reading

Year: 2013

Type: article

Abstract: A fundamental question in reading research concerns whether attention is allocated strictly serially, supporting lexical processing of one word at a time, or in parallel, supporting concurrent lexical processing of two or more words (Reichle, Liversedge, Pollatsek, & Rayner, 2009). The origins of this debate are reviewed. We then report three simulations to address this question using artificial reading agents (Liu & Reichle, 2010; Reichle & Laurent, 2006) that learn to dynamically allocate attention to 1-4 words to "read" as efficiently as possible. These simulation results indicate that the agents strongly preferred serial word processing, although they occasionally attended to more than one word concurrently. The reason for this preference is discussed, along with implications for the debate about how humans allocate attention during reading.

Source: Cognitive Science

DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12027

Authors: Yanping Liu, Erik D. Reichle, Ding‐Guo Gao

Institutions: Sun Yat-sen University, University of Pittsburgh

Language: English

Topic: Reading and Literacy Development

Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: National Natural Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen University, Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province

Awards: G1084166965, G1209854279, G3341368201