Online Fictive Motion Understanding: An Eye-Movement Study With Hindi

Two visual world eye-tracking studies explored the online simulation of illusory motion during comprehension of sentences containing fictive motion verbs in Hindi during perception (Experiment 1) and in imagery (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 was designed to see the effect of sentence structure on magnitude and time course of simulation motion as reflected in eye movements. Fixational eye movement data revealed significant gaze durations and number of fixations during comprehension of fictive motion sentences compared to a nonfictive motion sentence and an effect of sentence type. Experiment 2 used a blank-screen paradigm to measure motion simulation in the absence of a visual scene. However, there was no evidence of motion simulation for fictive motion sentences as reflected in eye-movement measures. The results indicate that figurative expressions, that is, fictive motion sentences, induce illusory motion simulation during active perception but not during imagery. Furthermore, the results indicate an effect of sentence structure on observed simulation.