TY  - JOUR
AB  - ### Highlights
- We thoroughly assessed cognitive models of spatial language understanding.
- The models implement contrasting assumptions about the directionality of attention.
- We empirically tested predictions generated by the models.
- We found two new effects of object shape that informed modifications to the models.
- Both implemented directionalities of attention account equally well for the data.

### Abstract
Language and vision interact in non-trivial ways. Linguistically, spatial utterances are often asymmetrical as they relate more stable objects (reference objects) to less stable objects (located objects). Researchers have claimed that such linguistic asymmetry should also be reflected in the allocation of visual attention when people process a depicted spatial relation described by spatial language. More specifically, it was assumed that people move their attention from the reference object to the located object. However, recent theoretical and empirical findings challenge the directionality of this attentional shift. In this article, we present the results of an empirical study based on predictions generated by computational cognitive models implementing different directionalities of attention. Moreover, we thoroughly analyze the computational models. While our results do not favor any of the implemented directionalities of attention, we found that two unknown sources of geometric information affect spatial language understanding. We provide modifications to the computational models that substantially improve their performance on empirical data.
DA  - 2019
DO  - 10.1016/j.cognition.2018.09.006
KW  - language and vision
KW  - spatial language
KW  - spatial relations
KW  - visual attention
KW  - cognitive modeling
LA  - eng
M2  - 91 
PY  - 2019
SN  - 0010-0277
SP  - 91 - 120
T2  - Cognition
TI  - Does direction matter? Linguistic asymmetries reflected in visual attention
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0070-pub-29304897
Y2  - 2024-11-22T00:40:02
ER  -