Dataset description : The dataset includes 68 participants reading a total of 254 sentences (8 learn-practice, 140 learn, 6 test-practice, 80 test) in Englishti, an English-based semi-artificial language incorporating high- and low-salient morphemes reflecting the meaning of possessive determiners (Simoens et al., 2017). Eye-tracking data focuses on two specific Interest Areas (IA): IA7, which contains the target morpheme, and IA5-8, which covers a broader area surrounding the morpheme. In addition to the eye-tracking data, the dataset includes basic demographic data (age, gender), participants' awareness interview scores, Working Memory scores as assessed by the Reading Span Task (van den Noort et al., 2008), and implicit learning ability as reflected by the Serial Reaction Time task (Kaufman et al., 2010).

Abstract of the publication : Acquiring morphology poses a considerable challenge in second language acquisition (SLA), highlighting the need to explore methods that facilitate this task for L2 learners. One potential facilitator is salience, which is theorized to aid language acquisition by directing learners’ attention to certain linguistic elements (Goldschneider & DeKeyser, 2001). To empirically investigate the impact of one type of salience, perceptual salience, a text-based eye-tracking experiment was conducted with 68 L1 Dutch speakers who read 240 sentences in Englishti, an English-based semi-artificial language featuring perceptually high-salient (-ulp) and low-salient (-o) morphemes according to length (Simoens et al., 2017). Within an implicit learning paradigm, participants were assigned to intentional or incidental learning contexts. The task consisted of two phases: a learning phase involving input flooding of the target morphemes followed by content-related questions, and a testing phase where participants completed a grammaticality judgment task on Englishti sentences, half of which were familiar from the learning phase and half of which were new. The results revealed a significant influence of salience, mediated by learning context and English proficiency, on fixation durations, thus empirically confirming the effect of perceptual salience on attention allocation in L2 morphology acquisition.

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Access to tasks sourced from external references:

Serial Reaction Time: Kaufman, S., DeYoung, C., Gray, J., Jiménez, L., Brown, J., & Mackintosh, N. (2010). Implicit learning as an ability. Cognition, 116(3), 321–340. 10.1016/j.cognition.2010.05.011


C-test: Keijzer, M. C. J. (2007). Last in first out? An investigation of the regression hypothesis in Dutch emigrants in Anglophone Canada. [PhD-Thesis - Research and graduation internal, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam]. LOT.


Working Memory: van den Noort, M., Bosch, P., Haverkort, M., & Hugdahl, K. (2008). A standard computerized version of the reading span test in different languages. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 24(1), 35–42. 10.1027/1015-5759.24.1.35