An eye-tracking and neuroimaging investigation of negative wording in an L2 metacognitive awareness questionnaire

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Type
Thesis
Author
Wang, Xinhe
Supervisor
Aryadoust, Vahid
Abstract
This study set out to investigate the effect of cognitive load, related explicitly to constructs (five MALQ constructs) versus wording (negative wording and non-negated wording), on respondents' responses to metacognitive awareness listening questionnaire (MALQ), a widely used instrument for assessing self-perceived metacognitive awareness strategies. Respondents’ (N=109) eye movement measured by eye-tracker and brain activation levels measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) were obtained to examine their cognitive load in responding to MALQ. Distinct gaze behavior and neural activation associated with negatively worded items were identified, indicating increased cognitive load in the presence of negatively worded items, while English second language (E-L2) participants were found to exhibit higher cognitive load than English as first (EL1) respondents. Additionally, linear mixed effect models (LMEMs) were employed to test the power of eye behaviors, neural activations, language, constructs, and wording in predicting MALQ results. The results showed that although models under two-wording conditions caused a significant amount of variation in respondents’ MALQ scores, they had relatively lower explanatory power (R²) compared to the models based on the five constructs. The implications of these findings and recommendations for future studies and questionnaire design are discussed.
Date Issued
2024
Call Number
P53.47 Wan