Eye Movements and Reading Speed in Macular Disease: The Shrinking Perceptual Span Hypothesis Requires and Is Supported by a Mediation Analysis

Calabrèse, Aurélie; Bernard, Jean Baptiste; Faure, Géraldine; Hoffart, L.; Castet, Éric

doi:10.1167/iovs.13-13408

Cited by 40 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…In that study, the authors examined the relationship between reading speed and three oculomotor characteristics: fixation rate, forward saccade ratio and letters per forward saccade, and found that only the number of letters per forward saccade shows a strong positive correlation with reading speed. The effect of reduced number of letters per forward saccade on reading speed is consistent with the shrinking visual span hypothesis . More recently, Calabrèse et al .…”

Section: Visual Factors Limiting Reading In Macular Diseasesupporting

confidence: 77%

Reading in the presence of macular disease: a mini‐review

Chung

2020

Ophthalmic Physiologic Optic

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Purpose Reading is vital to full participation in modern society. To millions of people suffering from macular disease that results in a central scotoma, reading is difficult and inefficient, rendering reading as the primary goal for most patients seeking low vision rehabilitation. The goals of this review paper are to summarize the dependence of reading speed on several key visual and typographical factors and the current methods or technologies for improving reading performance for people with macular disease. Important findings In general, reading speed for people with macular disease depends on print size, text contrast, size of the visual span, temporal processing of letters and oculomotor control. Attempts at improving reading speed by reducing the crowding effect between letters, words or lines; or optimizing properties of typeface such as the presence of serifs or stroke‐width thickness proved to be futile, with any improvement being modest at best. Currently, the most promising method to improve reading speed for people with macular disease is training, including perceptual learning or oculomotor training. Summary The limitation on reading speed for people with macular disease is likely to be multi‐factorial. Future studies should try to understand how different factors interact to limit reading speed, and whether different methods could be combined to produce a much greater benefit.

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Section: Visual Factors Limiting Reading In Macular Diseasesupporting

confidence: 77%

Reading in the presence of macular disease: a mini‐review

Chung

2020

Ophthalmic Physiologic Optic

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“…15% (median 13%, range 2% to 34%). This increase in visual span is consistent with the hypothesis that reading speed is associated with the size of the visual span [10]. …”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

“…They showed that for lateral PRLs, the size of the visual span is indeed decreased by the presence of the scotoma. It is hypothesized that reading speed is determined in part by the size of the visual span [8, 9]: a reduced visual span increases the reading time (and therefore, decreases reading speed) by increasing the number of fixations [10]. We might expect people with PRLs lateral to a scotoma to have a smaller horizontal visual span, and as a result, to experience slower reading speed with horizontal text.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Vertical Reading Help People with Macular Degeneration: An Exploratory Study

2017

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Individuals with macular degeneration often develop a Preferred Retinal Locus (PRL) used in place of the impaired fovea. It is known that many people adopt a PRL left of the scotoma, which is likely to affect reading by occluding text to the right of fixation. For such individuals, we examined the possibility that reading vertical text, in which words are rotated 90° with respect to the normal horizontal orientation, would be beneficial for reading. Vertically oriented words would be tangential to the scotoma instead of being partially occluded by it. Here we report the results of an exploratory study that aimed at investigating this hypothesis. We trained individuals with macular degeneration who had PRLs left of their scotoma to read text rotated 90° clockwise and presented using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP). Although training resulted in improved reading of vertical text, the training did not result in reading speeds that appreciably exceeded reading speeds following training with horizontal text. These results do not support the hypothesis that people with left PRLs read faster with vertical text.

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“…Mediation analyses or models are statistical tools to help understand or explain the underlying relationship between an independent and a dependent variable, by including a third explanatory variable. The analyses are commonly used in social psychological research but have recently been applied to vision research (Calabrèse et al, 2014). Interested readers should refer to Calabrèse et al (2014) for an excellent description and explanation of the mediation analysis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The analyses are commonly used in social psychological research but have recently been applied to vision research (Calabrèse et al, 2014). Interested readers should refer to Calabrèse et al (2014) for an excellent description and explanation of the mediation analysis. Figure 6 is a schematic depiction of the model, listing the relationship between the independent variable (error magnitude or amplitude of microsaccades), the dependent variable (acuity) and the third explanatory variable, or, the mediator variable (fixation stability).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics of fixational eye movements in amblyopia: Limitations on fixation stability and acuity?

et al. 2015

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Persons with amblyopia, especially those with strabismus, are known to exhibit abnormal fixational eye movements. In this paper, we compared six characteristics of fixational eye movements among normal control eyes (n=16), the non-amblyopic fellow eyes and the amblyopic eyes of anisometropic (n=14) and strabismic amblyopes (n=14). These characteristics include the frequency, magnitude of landing errors, amplitude and speed of microsaccades, and the amplitude and speed of slow drifts. Fixational eye movements were recorded using retinal imaging while observers monocularly fixated a 1° cross. Eye position data were recovered using a cross-correlation procedure. We found that in general, the characteristics of fixational eye movements are not significantly different between the fellow eyes of amblyopes and controls, and that the strabismic amblyopic eyes are always different from the other groups. Next, we determined the primary factors that limit fixation stability and visual acuity in amblyopic eyes by examining the relative importance of the different oculomotor characteristics, adding acuity (for fixation stability) or fixation stability (for acuity), and the type of amblyopia, as predictive factors in a multiple linear regression model. We show for the first time that the error magnitude of microsaccades, acuity, amplitude and frequency of microsaccades are primary factors limiting fixation stability; while the error magnitude, fixation stability, amplitude of drifts and amplitude of microsaccades are the primary factors limiting acuity. A mediation analysis showed that the effects of error magnitude and amplitude of microsaccades on acuity could be explained, at least in part, by their effects on fixation stability.

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Eye Movements and Reading Speed in Macular Disease: The Shrinking Perceptual Span Hypothesis Requires and Is Supported by a Mediation Analysis

Abstract: Results are consistent with the shrinking perceptual span hypothesis: reading speed decreases with the average number of letters traversed on each forward saccade, an effect fully mediated by the total number of fixations.

Cited by 40 publications

References 57 publications

Reading in the presence of macular disease: a mini‐review

Reading in the presence of macular disease: a mini‐review

Does Vertical Reading Help People with Macular Degeneration: An Exploratory Study

Characteristics of fixational eye movements in amblyopia: Limitations on fixation stability and acuity?

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