Eye movements and swear words

Kiminay de Oliveira,
Angela Ines Klein,
Romeu Miqueias Szmoski
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Abstract

The present work aims to analyze the cognitive processing of swear words. For that, eye movements were compared while reading certain target words in two different contexts: one in which they are presented in a figurative sense (such as swear words) and another in which they are in a literal context. The studied sample contains 30 participants, being students and employees of the Federal Technological University of Paraná. Data were collected through individual and silent reading, in front of the SMI RED 500 eye tracker, of 9 multiple-choice questions. The total time spent taking data with each participant was around 20 minutes.To analyze the data, the average percentage duration of fixations was defined, considering the ratio between the average duration of fixations by the total screen reading time per participant. The results indicate that target words in a figurative context are easier to process compared to target words in a literal context.

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