An Eye Fixation-Related Potential Study in Two Reading Tasks: Reading to Memorize and Reading to Make a Decision
Résumé
We investigated how two different reading tasks, namely reading to memorize [Read & Memorize (RM)] and reading to
decide whether a text was relevant to a given topic [Read & Decide (RD)], modulated both eye movements (EM) and brain
activity. To this end, we set up an ecological paradigm using the eye fixation-related potentials (EFRP) technique, in which
participants freely moved their eyes to process short paragraphs, while their electroencephalography (EEG) activity was
recorded in synchronization with their EM. A general linear model was used to estimate at best EFRP, taking account of the
overlap between adjacent potentials, and more precisely with the potential elicited at text onset, as well as saccadic potentials.
Our results showed that EM patterns were top-down modulated by different task demands. More interestingly, in both tasks,
we observed slow-wave potentials that gradually increased across the first eye fixations. These slow waves were larger in the
RD task than in the RM task, specifically over the left hemisphere. These results suggest that the decision-making process
during reading in the RD task engendered a greater memory load in working memory than that generated in a classic reading
task. The significance of these findings is discussed in the light of recent theories and models of working memory processing.
Origine : Publication financée par une institution
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