This paper reports an expansion of the English as a second language (L2) component of the Multilingual Eye Movement Corpus (MECO L2), an international database of eye movements during text reading. While the previous Wave 1 of the MECO project (Kuperman et al., 2023) contained English as a L2 reading data from readers with 12 different first language (L1) backgrounds, the newly collected dataset adds eye-tracking data on English text reading from 13 distinct L1 backgrounds (N = 660) as well as participants’ scores on component skills of English proficiency and information about their demographics and language background and use. The paper reports reliability estimates, descriptive statistics, and correlational analyses as means to validate the expansion dataset. Consistent with prior literature and the MECO Wave 1, trends in the MECO Wave 2 data include a weak correlation between reading comprehension and oculomotor measures of reading fluency and a greater L1-L2 contrast in reading fluency than reading comprehension. Jointly with Wave 1, the MECO project includes English reading data from more than 1,200 readers representing a diversity of native writing systems (logographic, abjad, abugida, and alphabetic) and 19 distinct L1 backgrounds. We provide multiple pointers to new venues of how L2 reading researchers can mine this rich publicly available dataset.

This paper reports the Wave 2 expansion of the Multilingual Eye-Movement Corpus (MECO), a collaborative multi-lab project collecting eye-tracking data on text reading in a variety of languages. The present expansion comes with new eye-tracking data of N = 654 from 13 languages, collected in 16 labs over 15 countries, including in several languages that have little to no representation in current eye-tracking studies on reading. MECO also contains demographic, language use, and other individual differences data. This paper makes available the first-language reading data of MECO Wave 2 and incorporates reliability estimates of all tests at the participant and item level, as well as other methods of data validation. It also reports the descriptive statistics on all languages, including comparisons with prior similar data, and outlines directions for potential reuse.

In this study, we investigated the impact of a 10-week free weight resistance training (RT) program on cognitive function in healthy young adults. In this randomized controlled trial, 18 participants were assigned to either an experimental or control group. We assessed cognitive function by using eye-tracking (ET) technology during text processing tasks. First-pass reading times (FPRTs) and total reading times (TRTs) were measured. Results revealed a significant three-way interaction between group, moment, and syntactic complexity in FPRTs, demonstrating training effects on cognitive processing. The experimental group showed a distinctive shift in processing patterns: from longer times in low complexity pre-intervention to increased times in high complexity post-intervention, particularly in early processing measures (FPRTs). Complementary analyses of strength improvements showed that increased strength was associated with enhanced attention allocation to complex structures and improved processing efficiency for simpler texts, suggesting RT’s potential to modulate cognitive function.

Studies on the relationship between age and situation model updating during narrative text reading have mainly used response or reading times. This study enhances previous measures (working memory, recognition probes, and comprehension) by incorporating eye-tracking techniques to compare situation model updating between young and older Chilean adults. The study included 82 participants (40 older adults and 42 young adults) who read two narrative texts under three conditions (no shift, spatial shift, and character shift) using a between-subject (age) and within-subject (dimensional change) design. The results show that, while differences in working memory capacity were observed between the groups, these differences did not impact situation model comprehension. Younger adults performed better in recognition tests regardless of updating conditions. Eye-tracking data showed increased fixation times for dimensional shifts and longer reading times in older adults, with no interaction between age and dimensional shifts.

La comunicación emotiva es el uso motivado y estratégico de las emociones en el discurso. Debido a su protagonismo en la construcción de sentido sobre los asuntos públicos, resulta interesante explorar cómo se utiliza en los medios de comunicación, específicamente en la columna de opinión, uno de los géneros periodísticos en que más se reconoce su uso. Dado esto, en esta investigación, de carácter cualitativo, nos preguntamos: ¿cuál es el uso de la emoción que hacen expertos económicos en columnas de opinión publicadas en dos periódicos chilenos? El corpus estuvo constituido por 30 columnas de opinión en el área de la economía, publicadas entre 2013 y 2019 en los principales periódicos chilenos: El Mercurio y La Tercera. Las columnas estaban relacionadas con 7 eventos que marcaron la agenda social y mediática del debate previsional en Chile. Los resultados evidencian un despliegue emocional estratégico que busca calmar las críticas a las administradoras de fondos de pensiones y preocupar a los lectores respecto a las propuestas de modificaciones emanadas tanto del Gobierno como del movimiento social. Esto implica que los diarios, a través de sus columnistas, han desarrollado un discurso emotivo coherente con el proyecto de influencia social que orienta suparticipación en el espacio público.