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The University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ, T +44 (0)1227 764000
Dr Ulrich WegerSenior Lecturer in Psychology and
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Research interests
People are frequently interrupted during office work; the consequences of such interruptions are often costly and time-consuming. Interruptions during reading are particularly problematic because of the large amount of information that often needs to be maintained, especially during the reading of complex texts. The aim of this line of research is to understand how interruptions affect reading and how the negative consequences of such interruptions can be avoided.
In a separate line of research I study how social climate influences behaviour. Various different metaphors are used in scientific and public discourse to characterise the human being: for instance, the machine/computer metaphor as an analogy for the mind. How do the concepts and labels we use influence and shape our view of the human being? How do people feel and behave when they are described as “machines”, “biological supercomputers”, “animals”, and so on? At a time when our understanding of who we are has wide environmental, medical, economic and military implications, it is important to investigate the dimensions that shape and influence this understanding.
Dr
Ulrich Weger is the director of the Centre
for Research on Social Climate.
Key Publications
Weger, U.W., Hooper, N., Meier, B.P., & Hopthrow, T. (in press). Mindful Maths: Reducing the impact of stereotype threat through a mindfulness exercise. Consciousness and Cognition.
Weger, U. W., & Pratt, J. (2008). Time flies like an arrow: Space-time compatibility effects suggest the use of a mental time-line. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15, 426-430.
Weger, U. W., Meier, B.P., Robinson, M.D., & Inhoff, A.W. (2007). Things are sounding up: affective influences on auditory tone perception. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14, 517-521.
Weger, U.W. & Inhoff, A.W. (2006). Attention and eye movements in reading. Inhibition of return predicts the size of regressive saccades. Psychological Science, 17, 187-191.
Also view these in the Kent Academic Repository
Articles
Weger, U.W. and Hooper, N and Meier, B.P. et al. (2012)
Mindful maths: Reducing the impact of stereotype threat through a mindfulness exercise.
Consciousness and Cognition, 21 (1). pp. 471-475. ISSN 1053-8100.
Abstract
Individuals who experience stereotype threat the pressure resulting from social compar- isons that are perceived as unfavourable show performance decrements across a wide range of tasks. One account of this effect is that the cognitive pressure triggered by such threat drains the same cognitive (or working-memory) resources that are implicated in the respective task. The present study investigates whether mindfulness can be used to moderate stereotype threat, as mindfulness has previously been shown to alleviate work- ing-memory load. Our results show that performance decrements that typically occur under stereotype threat can indeed be reversed when the individual engages in a brief (5 min) mindfulness task. The theoretical implications of our findings are discussed.
Cane, J.E. and Cauchard, F. and Weger, U.W. (2012)
The time-course of recovery from interruption during reading: Eye movement evidence for the role of interruption lag and spatial memory.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. ISSN 1747-0218.
Abstract
Two experiments examined how interruptions impact reading and how interruption lags and the reader's spatial memory affect the recovery from such interruptions. Participants read paragraphs of text and were interrupted unpredictably by a spoken news story while their eye movements were monitored. Time made available for consolidation prior to responding to the interruption did not aid reading resumption. However, providing readers with a visual cue that indicated the interruption location did aid task resumption substantially in Experiment 2. Taken together, the findings show that the recovery from interruptions during reading draws on spatial memory resources and can be aided by processes that support spatial memory. Practical implications are discussed.
Cauchard, F. and Cane, J.E. and Weger, U.W. (2012)
Influence of Background Speech and Music in Interrupted Reading: An Eye-Tracking Study.
Applied Cognitive Psychology. pp. 381-390. ISSN 1099-0720.
Abstract
The current study examined the influence of interruption, background speech and music on reading, using an eye movement paradigm. Participants either read paragraphs while being exposed to background speech or music or read the texts in silence. On half of the trials, participants were interrupted by a 60-second audio story before resuming reading the paragraph. Interruptions increased overall reading time, but the reading of text following the interruption was quicker compared with baseline. Background speech and music did not modulate the interruption effects, but the background speech slowed down the reading rate compared with reading in the presence of music or reading in silence. The increase in reading time was primarily due to an increase in the time spent rereading previously read words. We argue that the observed interruption effects are in line with a theory of long-term working memory, and we present practical implications for the reported background speech effects.
Weger, U.W. and Pratt, J. (2008)
Time flies like an arrow: Space-time compatibility effects suggest the use of a mental timeline.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15 (2). pp. 426-430. ISSN 1069-9384.
Abstract
The concept of time is elusive to direct observation, yet it pervades almost every aspect of our daily lives. How is time represented, given that it cannot be perceived directly? Metaphoric mapping theory assumes that abstract concepts such as time are represented in terms of concrete, readily available dimensions. Consistent with this, many languages employ spatial metaphors to describe temporal relations. Here we investigate whether the time-is-space metaphor also affects visuospatial attention. In a first experiment, subjects categorized the names of actors in a manner compatible or incompatible with the orientation of a timeline. In two further experiments, subjects categorized or detected left- or right-side targets following prospective or retrospective time words. All three experiments show compatibility effects between the dimensions of space (left-right) and time (earlier-later) and indicate that the concept of time does indeed evoke spatial associations that facilitate responses to targets at spatially compatible locations.
Weger, U.W. and Inhoff, A.W. (2007)
Long-range regressions to previously read words are guided by spatial and verbal memory.
Memory & Cognition, 35 (6). pp. 1293-1306. ISSN 0090-502X.
Abstract
To examine the nature of the information that guides eye movements to previously read text during reading (regressions), we used a relatively novel technique to request a regression to a particular target word when the eyes reached a predefined location during sentence reading. A regression was to be directed to a close or a distant target when either the first or the second line of a complex two-line sentence was read. In addition, conditions were created that pitted effects of spatial and linguistic distance against each other. Initial regressions were more accurate when the target was spatially near, and effects of spatial distance dominated effects of verbal distance. Initial regressions rarely moved the eyes onto the target, however, and subsequent "corrective' regressions that homed in on the target were subject to general linguistic processing demands, being more accurate during first-line reading than during second-line reading. The results suggest that spatial and verbal memory guide regressions in reading. Initial regressions are primarily guided by fixation-centered spatial memory, and corrective regressions are primarily guided by linguistic knowledge.
Weger, U.W. and Meier, B.P. and Robinson, M.D. et al. (2007)
Things are sounding up: Affective influences on auditory tone perception.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14 (3). pp. 517-521. ISSN 1069-9384.
Abstract
Recent studies have documented robust and intriguing associations between affect and performance in cognitive tasks. The present two experiments sought to extend this line of work with reference to potential cross-modal effects. Specifically, the present studies examined whether word evaluations would bias subsequent judgments of low- and high-pitch tones. Because affective metaphors and related associations consistently indicate that positive is high and negative is low, we predicted and found that positive evaluations biased tone judgment in the direction of high-pitch tones, whereas the opposite was true of negative evaluations. Effects were found on accuracy rates, response biases, and reaction times. These effects occurred despite the irrelevance of prime evaluations to the tone judgment task. In addition to clarifying the nature of these cross-modal associations, the present results further the idea that affective evaluations exert large effects on perceptual judgments related to verticality
Greenberg, S. and Inhoff, A.W. and Weger, U.W. (2006)
The impact of letter detection on eye movement patterns during reading:Reconsidering lexical analysis in connected text as a function of task.
The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59 (6). pp. 987-995. ISSN 1747-0218.
Abstract
A comparison was made between reading tasks performed with and without the additional requirement of detecting target letters. At issue was whether eye movement measures are affected by the additional requirement of detection. Global comparisons showed robust effects of task type with longer fixations and fewer word skippings when letter detection was required. Detailed analyses of target words, however, further showed that reading with and without letter detection yielded virtually identical effects of word class and text predictability for word-skipping rate and similar effects for different word viewing duration measures. The overall oculomotor pattern suggested that detection does not substantially shift normal reading movements in response to lexical cues and thereby indicated that detection tasks are informative about word and specifically word class processing in normal reading.
Weger, U.W. and Inhoff, A.W. (2006)
Attention and eye movements in reading: Inhibition of return predicts the size of regressive saccades.
Psychological Science, 17 (3). pp. 187-191. ISSN 0956-7976.
Abstract
A spatial cuing task was used to identify two types of readers, those with a relatively fast and those with a relatively slow buildup of inhibition of return (IOR). Backward-directed eye movements (regressions) during sentence reading were then examined as a function of the two IOR types. The results revealed that readers with fast IOR executed larger regressions than readers with slow IOR, as they directed the eyes away from the most recently attended area of text. Forward-directed eye movements (saccades), by contrast, were not a function of IOR type. Ease of sentence comprehension influenced the size of regressions, but this effect was also independent of IOR type. Multiple mechanisms of spatial attention, including IOR, bias eye movements toward upcoming words in the text during reading.
Weger, U.W. and Inhoff, A.W. (2006)
Semantic inhibition of return is the exception rather than the rule.
Perception and Psychophysics, 68 (2). pp. 244-253. ISSN 0031-5117.
Abstract
Inhibition of return (IOR) has recently been reported for lexical/semantic categories (see, e.g., Fuentes, Vivas, & Humphreys, 1999). The present research examines the impact on semantic IOR of three components: item repetition, item heterogeneity, and spatial variability. Experiments 1 and 2 indicate that lexical/semantic IOR occurs only after extensive repetition. Experiment 2 also shows that semantic IOR is independent of spatial variability. Experiments 3 through 5 show facilitatory rather than inhibitory effects when the item pool is heterogeneous. The results support an episodic account of semantic IOR, according to which inhibitory effects accumulate with massive repetition of homogeneous items.
Inhoff, A.W. and Weger, U.W. (2005)
Memory for word location during reading: Eye movements to previously read words are spatially selective but not precise.
Memory & Cognition, 33 (3). pp. 447-461. ISSN 0090-502X.
Abstract
In two experiments, readers' use of spatial memory was examined by asking them to determine whether an individually shown probe word had appeared in a previously read sentence (Experiment 1) or had occupied a right or left sentence location (Experiment 2). Under these conditions, eye movements during the classification task were generally directed toward the right, irrespective of the location of the relevant target in the previously read sentence. In two additional experiments, readers' knowledge of prior sentence content was examined either without (Experiment 3) or with (Experiment 4) an explicit instruction to move the eyes to a target word in that sentence. Although regressions into the prior sentence were generally directed toward the target, they rarely reached it. In the absence of accurate spatial memories, readers reached previously read target words in two distinct steps-one that moved the eyes in the general vicinity of the target, and one that homed in on it.
Nuerk, H.C. and Weger, U.W. and Willmes, K. (2005)
Language effects in magnitude comparison: Small, but not irrelevant.
Brain and Language, 92 (3). pp. 262-277. ISSN 0093-934X.
Abstract
It is assumed that number magnitude comparison is performed by assessing magnitude representation on a single analog mental number line. However, we have observed a unit-decade-compatibility effect in German which is inconsistent with this assumption (Nuerk, Weger, I Willmes, 2001). Incompatible magnitude comparisons in which decade and unit comparisons lead to different responses (e.g., 3752 for which 3 < 5, but 7 > 2) are slower and less accurately responded to than compatible trials in which decade and unit comparisons lead to the same response (e.g., 4257, for which 4 < 5 and 2 < 7). As overall distance was held constant, a single holistic magnitude representation could not account for this compatibility effect. However, because of the inversion property of the corresponding German two-digit number words ("einundzwanzig" < one-and-twenty >), the language-generality of the effect is questionable. We have therefore examined the compatibility effect with native English speakers. We were able to replicate the compatibility effect using Arabic notation. Thus, the compatibility effect is not language-specific. However, in cross-linguistic analyses language-specific modulations were observed not only for number words but also for Arabic numbers. The constraints imposed on current models by the verbal mediation of Arabic number comparison are discussed.
Nuerk, H.C. and Weger, U.W. and Willmes, K. (2004)
On the perceptual generality of the unit decade compatibility effect.
Experimental Psychology, 51 (1). pp. 72-79. ISSN 1618-3169.
Abstract
Number magnitude is assumed to be holistically represented along a single mental number line. Recently, we have observed a unit-decade-compatibility effect which is inconsistent with that assumption (Nuerk, Weger, & Willmes, 2001). In two-digit Arabic number comparison, we have demonstrated that compatible comparisons in which separate decade and unit comparisons lead to the same decision (32_47, 3 < 4 and 2 < 7) were faster than incompatible trials (3752, 3 < 5, but 7 > 2). Because overall distance was matched, a holistic model could not account for the compatibility effect. However, one could argue that the compatibility effect was due to the specific vertical perceptual arrangement of the two-digit numbers in Nuerk et al.'s (2001) experiment where the decade digits and unit digits were presented column-wise above each other. To examine this objection, we studied the perceptual generality of the compatibility effect with diagonal presentation. We replicated the compatibility effect with diagonal presentation. It is concluded that the compatibility effect is not due to encoding characteristics imposed by the perceptual setting of the original experiment. In particular, the assumption of an overall analog magnitude representation for two-digit numbers is not consistent with these data.
Nuerk, H.-C. and Weger, U.W. and Willmes, K. (2002)
A Unit-Decade Compatibility Effect in German Number Words.
Current Psychology Letters: Behaviour, Brain, & Cognition, 1 (7). pp. 19-38. ISSN 1379-6100.
Nuerk, H.-C. and Weger, U.W. and Willmes, K. (2001)
Decade breaks in the mental number line? Putting tens and units back into different bins.
Cognition, 82 (1). pp. B25-B33. ISSN 0010-0277.
Abstract
Most models of number recognition agree that among other number representations there is a central semantic magnitude representation which may be conceptualized as a logarithmically compressed mental number line. Whether or not this number line is decomposed into different representations for tens and units is, however, controversial. We investigated this issue in German participants in a magnitude comparison (selection) task in which the larger of two visually presented Arabic two-digit numbers had to be selected. Most importantly, we varied unit-decade-compatibility: a number pair was defined as compatible if the decade magnitude comparison and the unit magnitude comparison of the two numbers would lead to the same response (e.g. 52 and 67) and as incompatible if this was not the case (e.g. 47 and 62). While controlling for overall numerical distance, size and other variables, we consistently found compatibility effects. A control experiment showed that this compatibility effect was not due to perceptual presentation characteristics. We conclude that the idea of one single number line representation that does not additionally assume different magnitude representations for tens and units is not sufficient to account for the data. Finally, we discuss why decade effects were not found in other experimental settings.
Book Sections
Inhoff, A.W. and Weger, U.W. and Radach, R. (2005)
Sources of information for the programming of short- and long-range regressions during reading.
In: Underwood, Geoffrey Cognitive processes in eye guidance. Oxford University Press, United Kingdom, pp. 33-52. ISBN 9780198566816.
Inhoff, A.W. and Weger, U.W. (2003)
Advancing the methodological middle ground.
In: Hyönä, J. and Radach, R. and Deubel, H. The mind's eye: Cognitive and applied aspects of eye movement research. Elsevier Science & Technology, Netherlands, pp. 335-344. ISBN 9780444510204.
Current Research Students
Postgraduate Students
Daniel Dickinson
Ioannis Stavrakakis
Bayhano Riley
Krid Suwanwalaikorn
Pia Meads
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr Nic Hooper
Dr Stephen Loughnan
Dr Elisa Puvia
Former Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr James Cane
Dr Fabrice Cauchard
Dr Kim Knowles
Research Visitors
Luise Gootjes-Deesbach
Ben Kuhlmann
Ilka Thiele
Grants
2011 |
Using mindfulness to improve decision making and well being |
£4,856 |
August 2011 to July 2012 |
The impact of sexualised images on thoughts, perceptions and behaviours |
£80,489 |
September 2010 to August 2011 |
Practising mindfulness as a strategy to prevent premature judgements |
£48,475 |
January 2010 to December 2010 |
The influence of social climate on individual behaviour |
£136.344 |
February 2009 to March 2011 |
Poetry beyond text: vision, text and cognition |
£439,520 |
February 2009 to January 2010 |
Having to start all over again? The consequences of interruptions |
£80,955 |
September 2008 to December 2009 |
Counter-directional eye movements during reading |
£7,197 |
Postdoctoral Research Grant |
€60,200 |
Teaching
SP301 Biological and General Psychology
SP303 General and Biological Psychology
Coordinator, Work Experience Scheme
Coordinator, Research Experience Scheme
School of Psychology
Keynes College
University of Kent
Canterbury, Kent
CT2 7NP
United Kingdom
Tel. +44 (0)1227 827374
Fax. +44 (0)1227 827030
Email: Ulrich Weger
Office: Keynes A3.01
Office Hours: On study leave Autumn term 2011