Lund eye tracking studies in research on language and cognition

The research group from Humanities Laboratory at Lund University, Sweden, presents three strands of research on language and cognition where eye-tracking methodology has been used as a window on the mind. The paper includes: (1) eye tracking studies on picture viewing and picture description showing the dynamics of how speakers perceive, conceptualize and spontaneously describe complex visual scenes on higher levels of discourse, (2) studies using a combination of eye tracking and spoken scene descriptions to study mental imagery and to track the ability of “seeing something in the mind’s eye”, and (3) eye tracking studies conducted in order to study “thinking for speaking” and linguistic diversity by investigating language-specific cognitive effects. The paper ends with a visionary outlook for future applications of eye tracking methodology in the study of language and cognition.