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Binocular Advantages in Reading

2014; Elsevier BV; Volume: 24; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.cub.2014.01.014

1879-0445

Stephanie Jainta, Hazel I. Blythe, Simon P. Liversedge,

Language, Metaphor, and Cognition

Reading, an essential skill for successful function in today's society, is a complex psychological process involving vision, memory, and language comprehension [1Pinker S. The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. HarperCollins, London2010Google Scholar, 2Dehaene S. Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of Human Invention. Penguin, London2010Google Scholar]. Variability in fixation durations during reading reflects the ease of text comprehension [3Liversedge S.P. Findlay J.M. Saccadic eye movements and cognition.Trends Cogn. Sci. 2000; 4: 6-14Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (554) Google Scholar, 4White S.J. Rayner K. Liversedge S.P. Eye movements and the modulation of parafoveal processing by foveal processing difficulty: A reexamination.Psychon. Bull. Rev. 2005; 12: 891-896Crossref PubMed Scopus (105) Google Scholar, 5Henderson J.M. Ferreira F. Effects of foveal processing difficulty on the perceptual span in reading: implications for attention and eye movement control.J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 1990; 16: 417-429Crossref PubMed Scopus (436) Google Scholar], and increased word frequency results in reduced fixation times [6Rayner K. Eye movements and attention in reading, scene perception, and visual search.Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2009; 62: 1457-1506Crossref PubMed Scopus (1686) Google Scholar, 7Rayner K. Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research.Psychol. Bull. 1998; 124: 372-422Crossref PubMed Scopus (5083) Google Scholar, 8Rayner K. Liversedge S.P. White S.J. Vergilino-Perez D. Reading disappearing text: cognitive control of eye movements.Psychol. Sci. 2003; 14: 385-388Crossref PubMed Scopus (134) Google Scholar]. Critically, readers not only process the fixated foveal word but also preprocess the parafoveal word to its right, thereby facilitating subsequent foveal processing. Typically, text is presented binocularly, and the oculomotor control system precisely coordinates the two frontally positioned eyes online [7Rayner K. Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research.Psychol. Bull. 1998; 124: 372-422Crossref PubMed Scopus (5083) Google Scholar, 9Leigh R.J. Zee D.S. The Neurology of Eye Movements.Fourth Edition. Oxford University Press, New York2006Google Scholar, 10Steinman S.B. Steinman B.A. Garzia R.P. Foundations of Binocular Vision. McGraw-Hill, New York2000Google Scholar, 11Liversedge S.P. Rayner K. White S.J. Findlay J.M. McSorley E. Binocular coordination of the eyes during reading.Curr. Biol. 2006; 16: 1726-1729Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (65) Google Scholar, 12Blythe H.I. Liversedge S.P. Findlay J.M. The effective fusional range for words in a natural viewing situation.Vision Res. 2010; 50: 1559-1570Crossref PubMed Scopus (12) Google Scholar, 13Schor C.M. Ciuffreda K.J. Vergence Eye Movements: Basic and Clinical Aspects. Butterworths, Boston1983Google Scholar]. Binocular, compared to monocular, visual processing typically leads to superior performance [10Steinman S.B. Steinman B.A. Garzia R.P. Foundations of Binocular Vision. McGraw-Hill, New York2000Google Scholar, 13Schor C.M. Ciuffreda K.J. Vergence Eye Movements: Basic and Clinical Aspects. Butterworths, Boston1983Google Scholar, 14Howard I.P. Rogers B.J. Seeing in Depth, Volume 2: Depth Perception. Porteous, Toronto2002Google Scholar, 15Blake R. Sloane M. Fox R. Further developments in binocular summation.Percept. Psychophys. 1981; 30: 266-276Crossref PubMed Scopus (204) Google Scholar], termed the "binocular advantage"; few studies have investigated the binocular advantage in reading [16Sheedy J.E. Bailey I.L. Buri M. Bass E. Binocular vs. monocular task performance.Am. J. Optom. Physiol. Opt. 1986; 63: 839-846Crossref PubMed Scopus (73) Google Scholar, 17Heller D. Radach R. Eye movements in reading: Are two eyes better than one?.in: Becker W. Deubel H. Mergner T. Current Oculomotor Research: Physiological and Psychological Aspects. Plenum Press, New York1999: 341-348Crossref Google Scholar, 18Jainta S. Jaschinski W. Individual differences in binocular coordination are uncovered by directly comparing monocular and binocular reading conditions.Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2012; 53: 5762-5769Crossref PubMed Scopus (16) Google Scholar]. We used saccade-contingent display change methodology [19Rayner K. The perceptual span and peripheral cues in reading.Cognit. Psychol. 1975; 7: 65-81Crossref Scopus (776) Google Scholar] to demonstrate the benefit of binocular relative to monocular text presentation for both parafoveal and foveal lexical processing during reading. Our results demonstrate that denial of a unified visual signal derived from binocular inputs provides a cost to the efficiency of reading, particularly in relation to high-frequency words. Our findings fit neatly with current computational models of eye movement control during reading, wherein successful word identification is a primary determinant of saccade initiation.