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Proquest Dissertations THE ATTENTIONAL DISENGAGEMENT MODEL OF THE MISSING-LETTER EFFECT: A TEST OF THE ATTENTIONAL BEAM by AMANDA LALANDE Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology (M.A.) School of Graduate Studies Laurentian University Sudbury, Ontario © AMANDA LALANDE, 2011 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-82018-6 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-82018-6 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada AD Model, MLE, Attentional Beam THE AD MODEL OF THE MLE: A TEST OF THE ATTENTIONAL BEAM Abstract When reading, participants miss more target letters in frequent function words compared to rare content words. The Attentional Disengagement model proposes the missing-letter effect is due to the precise timing of disengagement of the attentional beam. This study constituted the very first systematic exam of the attentional beam within the context of the missing-letter effect. More precisely, this study sought to examine the scope of processing and properties of the attentional beam. Division signs positioned along the top and bottom of lines of text were transformed into minus signs within the beam. This was expected to yield a differential rate of omission as a function of probe delay and word type. The results revealed a reverse missing-letter effect; a higher rate of omission for probes associated with content versus function words. This finding is the first of its kind within the entirety of the missing-letter effect field. We propose the scope of processing of the attentional beam varies as a function of the cognitive load associated with a word. On the one hand, function words represent a light cognitive load which permits the expansion of the beam and facilitates probe detection. On the other hand, content words represent a heavy cognitive load which constrains the expansion of the beam and impairs probe detection. in AD Model, MLE, Attentional Beam THE AD MODEL OF THE MLE: A TEST OF THE ATTENTIONAL BEAM Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the help, support, and contributions of many. I would like to acknowledge the following individuals for the important roles they played in the completion of this research and written document. Firstly, I would like to thank my Master's thesis supervisor Dr. Annie Roy- Charland. Thank you for your constant guidance and support throughout the entirety of this project. I am also grateful for your enthusiasm, your encouragement, your interest in my professional development, and even your early morning phone calls! Most of all, thank you for the endless hours of revisions, for enduring my preoccupation with details, and for allowing my 'wordiness' these past two years, as we so often put it! It all paid off! I would also like to thank my committee members Dr. Joel Dickinson and Dr. Melanie Perron. Dr. Dickinson, thank you for your unique perspective and contributions to this project, and for allowing me to present my preliminary research findings in your class. Moreover, thank you for always ensuring that I remained on the road to success and minimized all unnecessary distractions throughout graduate school! Dr. Perron, thank you for your feedback and constructive criticism. You always delivered in with a friendly and approachable smile. To the both of you, I am grateful for your support and for all of your suggestions and revisions. Thank you to my parents for your constant support and for the work ethic that you have instilled in me. I credit much of my academic success to you. Also, thank you for iv AD Model, MLE, Attentional Beam THE AD MODEL OF THE MLE: A TEST OF THE ATTENTIONAL BEAM allowing me to crowd your otherwise empty nest these past two years. I promise I won't move in again! A special thank you to my sister Joelle, to my dear friend Katherine, and to my boyfriend Angelo. Your unwavering support and understanding throughout the entirety of my academic career has meant so much to me. Thank you for always being my biggest fans! I also want to thank Beth Emptage and the rest of my graduate colleagues for all of their support these past two years. Another important thank you to Jessica Boulard for her interest and special contribution to this project. Finally, I would like to thank all faculty members, graduate students, undergraduate students, and research assistants who are members of the Cognitive Health Science Research Laboratory. You will all be missed! v AD Model, MLE, Attentional Beam THE AD MODEL OF THE MLE: A TEST OF THE ATTENTIONAL BEAM Table of Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents vi List of Tables viii List of Figures ix The Attentional Disengagement Model of the Missing-Letter Effect: A Test of the Attentional Beam 1 History of the Missing-Letter Effect 2 Unitization Account/Processing Time Hypothesis 2 Structural Account 5 Guidance-Organization (GO) Model 7 Attentional Disengagement (AD) Model 15 The Attentional Beam 19 The Attentional Beam in Reading 25 Present Study 27 Hypotheses 33 Methodology 36 Participants 36 Material 36 Apparatus 37 Procedure 38 vi AD Model, MLE, Attentional Beam THE AD MODEL OF THE MLE: A TEST OF THE ATTENTIONAL BEAM Results 40 Probability of Fixation 41 Omissions 44 Response Latencies 50 Fixation Durations 56 Word Frequency 63 Discussion 63 Overview 63 Reverse Missing-Letter Effect 66 Probe Delay Conditions 73 Limitations 75 Conclusion/Future Direction 79 References 81 vn AD Model, MLE, Attentional Beam THE AD MODEL OF THE MLE: A TEST OF THE ATTENTIONAL BEAM List of Tables Name Page Table 1 .Means and Standard Deviations Probabilities of Fixation of the Target Region of the Des and Pour/cour Texts as a Function of Probe Delay and Word Role 42 Table 2. Means and Standard Deviations for Omissions of the Target Region of the Dem­ and Pour/cour Texts as a Function of Probe Delay and Word Role 45 Table 3. Means and Standard Deviations for Omissions of the Target Region of the Des Text as a Function of Fixation Status, Probe Delay, and Word Role 48 Table 4. Means and Standard Deviations for Response Latencies of the Des and Pour/cour Texts as a Function of Probe Delay and Word Role 51 Table 5. Means and Standard Deviations for Response Latencies of the Des Text as a Function of Fixation Status, Probe Delay, and Word Role 54 Table 6. Means and Standard Deviations for Fixation Duration Measures of the Des Text as a Function of Detection Status, Probe Delay, and Word Role 58 Table 7. Means and Standard Deviations for Fixation Duration Measures of the Des and Pour/cour Texts as a Function of Detection Status and Probe Delay 61 vni AD Model, MLE, Attentional Beam THE AD MODEL OF THE MLE: A TEST OF THE ATTENTIONAL BEAM List of Figures Name Page Figure 1. Example of the manner in which text is unitized and processed in parallel at several different levels of analysis (Healy, 1994) 3 Figure 2. Example of the manner in which whole word-processing time distribution is split into two component distributions; omissions and detections (Roy-Charland et al., 2009) 14 Figure 3. Example of the two superimposed letter streams used in Muller and Hubner's (2002) study involving the attentional spotlight 23 Figure 4. Example of method to be used in Experiment 1 29 Figure 5. Probabilities of fixation in the Des text 43 Figure 6. Probabilities of fixation in the Pour/cour text 43 Figure 7. Proportion of omissions in the Des text 46 Figure 8. Proportion of omissions in the Pour/cour text 46 Figure 9. Proportion of omissions in the Des text as a function of fixation status 49 Figure 10. Response latencies in the Des text 52 Figure 11. Response latencies in the Pour/cour text 52 Figure 12. Response latencies in the Des text as a function of fixation status 55 Figure 13. Fixation duration measures in the Des text 62 Figure 14.
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