Using Eye-Tracking to Better Understand Child Language Learning

Abstract

Purpose: A common area of difficulty for the 7% of children with developmental language disorder is grammar. Current literature is demonstrating a possible shift from grammar interventions that rely on implicit instruction to grammar intervention that incorporate explicit instruction. The purpose of the current study was to examine the feasibility of using eye tracking measures to evaluate language learning processes in Implicit-only and Explicit-added grammatical instruction conditions. Method: The study included 13, 5- to 8-year-old children with typical development (TD) and 40 adults aged 18 to 45 years. Participants were randomly assigned an Implicit-only grammar Acquisition Task (either Gender form or Person form) and an alternate Explicit-added grammar Acquisition Task (either Gender form or Person form) in random order. Each grammar Acquisition Task consisted of a Teaching Task, a Feedback Task, and an Acquisition Task. Efficacy of the different approaches was assessed after each session using eye gaze data (specifically fixation duration, Number of Fixations, and Location of Fixations) gathered from Tobii TX300 eye tracking hardware during the Acquisition Task in combination with information regarding correct and incorrect responses. Results: Adult participants demonstrated significant differences in Location of Fixations (Areas of Interest) across Implicit-only and Explicit-added conditions. Both adult and child participants demonstrated small differences in Number of Fixations and Duration of Fixations across Implicit-only and Explicit-added conditions. Conclusion: The current study provides researchers with a preliminary understanding of the differences in physiological effects that can be seen across a variety of grammatical instruction conditions. Future studies may increase sample size and levels of language ability to observe stronger differences in performance across Implicit-only and Explicit-added instruction conditions using eye-tracking measures.