Realizing new potential in vocabulary studies: Co-registration of eye movements and brain potentials

Abstract

Progress in vocabulary learning is often not immediately apparent in behavior, posing limitations to our understanding of ongoing development. One potentially fruitful approach lies in the use of EEG to examine brain potentials, which may reveal changes in vocabulary acquisition that precede behavioral outcomes. Until recently, however, the word-by-word presentation of EEG paradigms was not compatible with natural reading experiments. The simultaneous recording (or “co-registration”) of eye movements and EEG can advance our current understanding of how vocabulary processing and learning unfolds in real time during reading, e.g., indicating when a sensitivity to the form and meaning components of vocabulary emerges. Despite advances of co-registration in allied fields, its potential in vocabulary studies is still unrealized. This may be due to uncertainty on how to design studies that appropriately match the method with research questions. We provide some methodological guidance and provide suggestions to help kick-start co-registration in vocabulary research.