On June 11, 2019, at the invitation of Language Cognition Laboratory of SIS, professor Kevin Paterson from University of Leicester delivered an academic lecture entitled “Older Adults Make Greater Use of Word Predictability in Chinese Reading” at Room 201, East Building 5. The lecture was presided by professor Wang Xiaolu.
Prof. Kevin Paterson, specialized in psychology, is a doctoral supervisor in the University of Leicester, and a member of Experimental Psychology Society. His research centers on experimental cognitive psychology and psychological linguistics, the visual and cognitive mechanisms in reading and lifelong development of psychological research in reading and intercultural verbal cognition. Up to now, he has published nearly a hundred high-impact papers in world top journals like Current Biology, Cortex, and Psychology and Aging. Professor Paterson has long been in the review of academic journals and project grants. In charge of ten or more research projects funded by the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge and Leverhulme Trust, he is also experienced in leading large international academic teams to conduct research together.
In the lecture, Paterson gave a detailed introduction to his research. He explained the method for eye movement research during reading, measures of eye movements, and the importance of studies on elder reading and its characteristics. Then he expounded the aging effect in pinyin characters and Chinese reading. After that, he went on to focus on the experiment design and findings of context predictability effect in reading Chinese and cognitive mechanism related to reading difficulty for the elderly via a series of empirical research. He also touched on the theoretical model of his reading research. In the end, professor Paterson compared the results from EEG and eye movements, introduced the research methods integrating the two, as well as the challenges in current studies.
In the Q & R session, professor Paterson had deep and heated discussion with students and teachers present, which in turn inspired discussion and reflection among them. This wonderful lecture gave us a comprehensive understanding of eye movement research, and new ideas on related studies and experiments.
Language Cognition Lab of SIS
June 12, 2019
Written by Li Hui
Photo by Wei Ziyu, Xu Ningjun
Translated by Cai Sihui and Zheng Wenhui
Edited by Xu Xueying
