Digital reading devices such as Kindle differ from paper books with respect to the kinesthetic and tactile feedback provided to the reader, but the role of these features in reading is rarely studied empirically. This experiment compares reading of a long text on Kindle DX and in print. Fifty participants (24 years old) read a 28 page (∼1 h reading time) long mystery story on Kindle or in a print pocket book and completed several tests measuring various levels of reading comprehension: engagement, recall, capacities to locate events in the text and reconstructing the plot of the story. Results showed that on most tests subjects performed identically whatever the reading medium. However, on measures related to chronology and temporality, those who had read in the print pocket book, performed better than those who had read on a Kindle. It is concluded that, basically comprehension was similar with both media, but, because kinesthetic feedback is less informative with a Kindle, readers were not as efficient to locate events in the space of the text and hence in the temporality of the story. We suggest that, to get a correct spatial representation of the text and consequently a coherent temporal organization of the story, readers would be reliant on the sensorimotor cues which are afforded by the manipulation of the book.
The present study investigates the developmental aspect of stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) effect in 8-11-years-old children. The task consisted in manually responding to the color of a pawn presented on a chessboard at different distances. Manual responses were provided by reaching a proximal or distal location depending on the color of the stimulus. We found that reaction time was affected by the conflict generated by the response suggested by the location of the stimulus and the response required according to its color. This was not the case for movement time despite we found a higher rate of long duration movements in the incongruent than in the congruent spatial condition. The SRC effect was, however, observed in children older than 10 years old. These findings provide additional evidence for a reorganization of the perceptual system during the period of 8-10 years, integrating progressively multimodal information and preparing more efficiently the body to act in the environment.
During a perceptual task, the presentation of a visual stimulus is known to automatically activate a spatially congruent manual response, which influences the speed of the motor response provided depending on the non-spatial stimulus feature (e.g., colour). Such effect was found to depend on the congruency between either the (1) right–left stimulus location and lateralized manual response (Simon effect), or (2) near–far stimulus location and manual response amplitude (Amplitude Congruency effect). In the present study, we conjointly manipulated Simon and Amplitude Congruency effects in a stimulus colour discrimination task. It was found that stimulus location potentiated concurrent but independent Simon and Amplitude Congruency effects: the more the to-be-executed response was congruent with the response activated by these effects, the faster was its execution. Moreover, our results suggest that the magnitude of Amplitude Congruency effect on response latency and execution time reflects the temporal characteristics of the motor response planning.
This behavioral study shows for the first time that the auditory perception of vowels influences silent labial responses. During a perceptual decision task, participants were instructed to choose and execute a silent labial response (lip protrusion versus chin lowering) as quickly as possible depending on the vowel they had perceived auditorily. The main result showed that gestural compatibility between the silent labial response and the articulation of the perceived vowel led to better performance (in terms of response times and errors) than an incompatibility between them. By including a somatic compatibility effect in a more dynamic gestural compatibility effect, this new result suggests that the role of motor activity during speech auditory perception lies in mentally simulating an articulation of the perceived phoneme.
There are a few works undertaken to verify the accuracy of corrosion measurements. In general, it is assumed that potentiostats are correctly fabricated and then efforts are made to check the repeatability of certain measurement types as polarization curves, with the same or different operator or to calibrate corrosion rate measurements with gravimetry. This paper makes a more in-depth study about repeatability and reproducibility of the measurements and deals with the comparison of corrosion parameters measured in concrete with various degradation types such as carbonation or chloride attack. Different field and laboratory devices were compared.