title: Is pupillary response a reliable index of word recognition? Evidence from a delayed lexical decision task.
abstract: Previous word recognition studies have shown that the pupillary response is sensitive to a word's frequency. However, such a pupillary effect may be due to the process of executing a response, instead of being an index of word processing. With the aim of exploring this possibility, we recorded the pupillary responses in two experiments involving a lexical decision task (LDT). In the first experiment, participants completed a standard LDT, whereas in the second they performed a delayed LDT. The delay in the response allowed us to compare pupil dilations with and without the response execution component. The results showed that pupillary response was modulated by word frequency in both the standard and the delayed LDT. This finding supports the reliability of using pupillometry for word recognition research. Importantly, our results also suggest that tasks that do not require a response during pupil recording lead to clearer and stronger effects.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Behavior Assessment (CRAMC) and Department of Psychology, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Crta. de Valls s/n, Campus Sescelades, 43007, Tarragona, Spain. juan.haro@urv.cat.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Haro
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Behavior Assessment (CRAMC) and Department of Psychology, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Crta. de Valls s/n, Campus Sescelades, 43007, Tarragona, Spain.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guasch
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Behavior Assessment (CRAMC) and Department of Psychology, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Crta. de Valls s/n, Campus Sescelades, 43007, Tarragona, Spain.
authors.forename: Blanca
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vallès
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Behavior Assessment (CRAMC) and Department of Psychology, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Crta. de Valls s/n, Campus Sescelades, 43007, Tarragona, Spain.
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ferré
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011680:Pupil / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Delayed lexical decision task; Lexical decision task; Pupillometry; Visual word recognition; Word frequency effect