Using eye-tracking and retrospective verbal reports to explore the cognitive processes of banked gap-filling: a case study featuring methodological triangulation

Abstract

This study made triangulated use of eye-tracking and retrospective verbal reports (RVRs) to compare the banked gap-filling processes of two same-scorers and those of a top scorer and a bottom scorer. The two same-scorers differed in their cognitive effort on global and local processing, fluency of choice making, and strategy use when completing the task and half of the mutual correct responses. Contrary to findings from previous studies, the top scorer exerted much greater effort on global and local processing than the bottom scorer, in her pursuit of perfection, and she reported much less use of syntax analysis as a strategy. The findings of this study increase our understanding of individual differences in the cognitive processes of English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) reading and test-taking and prove the value of in-depth, multi-faceted process research. Featuring the use of heatmaps, eye-tracking metrics, choice-making graphs, gaze plots, and RVRs, this study also responds to an emergent concern in language assessment about how the enormous process data can be handled effectively. Implications for testing and learning EFL reading are further developed.