Data_Sheet_2_The Comprehension of Counterfactual Conditionals: Evidence From Eye-Tracking in the Visual World Paradigm.pdf

Three experiments tracked participants’ eye-movements to examine the time course of comprehension of the dual meaning of counterfactuals, such as “if there had been oranges then there would have been pears.” Participants listened to conditionals while looking at images in the visual world paradigm, including an image of oranges and pears that corresponds to the counterfactual’s conjecture, and one of no oranges and no pears that corresponds to its presumed facts, to establish at what point in time they consider each one. The results revealed striking individual differences: some participants looked at the negative image and the affirmative one, and some only at the affirmative image. The first experiment showed that participants who looked at the negative image increased their fixation on it within half a second. The second experiment showed they do so even without explicit instructions, and the third showed they do so even for printed words.三项实验通过追踪被试的眼动轨迹，旨在探究反事实条件句（counterfactuals）双重含义的理解时间进程，例如"若曾存在橙子，便会存在梨"。被试在视觉世界范式（visual world paradigm）下聆听条件句的同时观察图片，实验所用图片包含一张对应该反事实条件句推测内容的橙子与梨共存图像，以及一张对应其预设事实（无橙子且无梨）的图像，以此确定被试会在何时分别关注这两类图片。实验结果呈现出显著的个体差异：部分被试会同时关注负向图像与正向图像，而部分被试仅会关注正向图像。第一项实验结果表明，那些关注负向图像的被试会在半秒内提升对该图像的注视时长。第二项实验显示，即便未获得明确的实验指导语，被试仍会产生此类注视行为；第三项实验则证实，即便实验材料为印刷文字，该效应依然存在。