Dr. Timothy Slattery

Timothy J. Slattery Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2007, Cognitive Psychology
Graduate Minor in Quantitative Methods, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2005
M.S. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2004, Cognitive Psychology
B.A. University of Buffalo, 1996, Psychology
Office: UCOM 1110
Phone: (251) 460-7150
Fax: (251) 460-6320
Email: slattery@southalabama.edu
Discipline: Cognitive Psychology and Psycholinguistics
Research Interests
My research focuses primarily on eye movements during reading, and I am interested in advancing the field of psycholinguistics through the implementation and testing of computational models. I am particularly interested in the processing of abbreviations such as textisms and acronyms as they provide unique opportunities to explore the processing of orthographic, phonological, and semantic representations. I have also been exploring how differences in reading perspective (what readers are interested in) influence reading comprehension (including the cross cultural influences that often drive differences in perspective). Efficient reading requires a number of complex cognitive processes operating in harmony. To that effect, much of my research has focused on the interplay between bottom-up (font characteristics) and top-down (language characteristics) influence both foveal and parafoveal processing.
Selected Publications
Schad, D.J., Risse, S., Slattery, T.J., Rayner, K. (2014). Word frequency in fast priming: Evidence for immediate cognitive control of eye movements during reading. Visual Cognition, (in press).
Yang, J., Li, N., Wang, S., Slattery, T.J., Rayner, K. (2014). Encoding the target or the plausible preview word? The nature of the plausibility preview benefit in reading Chinese. Visual Cognition, (in press).
Rayner, K., Yang, J., Schuett, S., Slattery, T.J. (2014). The effect of foveal and parafoveal masks on the eye movements of older and younger readers. Psychology and Aging, (in press).
Slattery, T.J., Sturt, P., Christianson, K., Yoshida, M., Ferreira, F. (2013). Lingering misinterpretations of garden path sentences arise from competing syntactic representations processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 69(2), 104-120.
Slattery, T.J., Rayner, K. (2013). Effects of intra-word and inter-word spacing on eye movements during reading: Exploring the optimal use of space in a line of text. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 76(6), 1275-1292.
Bélanger, N. N., Slattery, T. J., Mayberry, R. I., Rayner, K. (2012). Skilled deaf readers have an enhanced perceptual span in reading. Psychological Science, 23(7), 816-823.
Slattery, T.J., Staub, A., Rayner, K. (2012). Saccade launch site as a predictor of fixation durations in reading: Comments on Hand, Miellet, O’Donnell, and Sereno (2010). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 38, 251-261.
Slattery, T.J., Angele, B., Rayner, K., (2011). Eye movements and display change detection during reading. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 37, 1924-1938.
Slattery, T.J., Schotter, E.R., Berry, R.W., Rayner, K. (2011). Parafoveal and foveal processing of abbreviations during reading: Making a case for case. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 37, 1022-1031.
Gollan, T., Slattery, T.J., Goldberg, D., van Assche, E., Duyck, W., Rayner, K. (2011). Frequency drives lexical access in reading but not in speaking: The frequency-lag hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 140, 186-209.
Slattery, T.J., Rayner, K. (2010). Eye movements and text legibility. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24, 1129-1148.
Slattery, T.J., (2009). Word misperception, the neighbor frequency effect, and the role of sentence context: Evidence from eye movements. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 35(6), 1969-1975.
Levy, R., Bicknell, K., Slattery, T.J., Rayner, K., (2009). Readers maintain and act on uncertainty about past linguistic input: Evidence from eye movements. PNAS, 106(50), 21086-21090.
Angele, B., Slattery, T., Yang, J., Kliegl, R., Rayner, K. (2008). Parafoveal processing in reading: Manipulating n+1 and n+2 previews simultaneously. Visual Cognition, 16, 697-707.
Pollatsek, A., Slattery, T.J., Juhasz, B. (2008). The processing of novel and lexicalized prefixed words in reading. Language and Cognitive Processes, 23, 1133-1158.
Slattery, T.J., Pollatsek, A., Rayner, K. (2007). The effect of the frequencies of three consecutive content words on eye movements during reading. Memory & Cognition. 35, 1283-1292.
Slattery, T.J., Pollatsek, A., Rayner, K., (2006). The time course of phonological and orthographic processing of acronyms in reading: Evidence from eye movements. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 13(3), 412-417.
Rayner, K., Chace, K., Slattery, T.J., (2006). Eye Movements as Reflections of Comprehension Processes in Reading. Scientific Studies of Reading, 10(3), 241-255.
Classes Taught
- PSY120-Introduction to Psychology
- PSY320-Research Methods and Design II
- PSY416-Cognitive Psychology
- PSY590-Special Topics: Computational Modeling
- CAS100-First Year Experience