2018/07/31 by Michael G. Hahn, Frank Keller, Hahn, Michael +1 · 1 citation
Computer Science · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Computation and Language (cs.CL) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Mind wandering and attention #Reading and Literacy Development #Text Readability and Simplification
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1808.00054
openalex publication_date 2018/07/31 · openalex created_date 2022/09/20 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Research on human reading has long documented that reading behavior shows task-specific effects, but it has been challenging to build general models predicting what reading behavior humans will show in a given task. We introduce NEAT, a computational model of the allocation of attention in human reading, based on the hypothesis that human reading optimizes a tradeoff between economy of attention and success at a task. Our model is implemented using contemporary neural network modeling techniques, and makes explicit and testable predictions about how the allocation of attention varies across different tasks. We test this in an eyetracking study comparing two versions of a reading comprehension task, finding that our model successfully accounts for reading behavior across the tasks. Our work thus provides evidence that task effects can be modeled as optimal adaptation to task demands.