scholarly journals Individuals with dyslexia use a different visual sampling strategy to read text

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Léon Franzen ◽  
Zoey Stark ◽  
Aaron P. Johnson

AbstractIndividuals with dyslexia present with reading-related deficits including inaccurate and/or less fluent word recognition and poor decoding abilities. Slow reading speed and worse text comprehension can occur as secondary consequences of these deficits. Reports of visual symptoms such as atypical eye movements during reading gave rise to a search for these deficits’ underlying mechanisms. This study sought to replicate established behavioral deficits in reading and cognitive processing speed while investigating their underlying mechanisms in more detail by developing a comprehensive profile of eye movements specific to reading in adult dyslexia. Using a validated standardized reading assessment, our findings confirm a reading speed deficit among adults with dyslexia. We observed different eye movements in readers with dyslexia across numerous eye movement metrics including the duration of a stop (i.e., fixation), the length of jumps (i.e., saccades), and the number of times a reader’s eyes expressed a jump atypical for reading. We conclude that individuals with dyslexia visually sample written information in a laborious and more effortful manner that is fundamentally different from those without dyslexia. Our findings suggest a mix of aberrant cognitive linguistic and oculomotor processes being present in adults with dyslexia.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Léon Franzen ◽  
Zoey Stark ◽  
Aaron Paul Johnson

Individuals with dyslexia present with reading-related deficits including slow reading speed, and worse text comprehension and word encoding. Reports of visual symptoms such as atypical eye movements during reading gave rise to a search for these deficits’ underlying mechanisms. This study sought to replicate established behavioural deficits in reading and cognitive processing speed while investigating their underlying mechanisms in more detail by developing a comprehensive profile of eye movements specific to reading in adult dyslexia. Using a validated standardized reading assessment, our findings confirm a persistent reading speed deficit among adults with dyslexia. These individuals exhibited slower cognitive processing speed on one type of processing speed task, which correlated with reading speed across all readers. We observed different eye movements in readers with dyslexia across numerous eye movement metrics including the duration of a stop (i.e., fixation), the length of jumps (i.e., saccades), and the number of times a reader’s eyes expressed a jump atypical for reading. We conclude that individuals with dyslexia visually sample written information in a laborious and more effortful manner that is fundamentally different from those without dyslexia. Our findings suggest a mix of aberrant cognitive linguistic and oculomotor processes being present in adults with dyslexia.


2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. 929-940 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scarlett Child ◽  
Jane Oakhill ◽  
Alan Garnham

An eye-tracking study explored perspective effects on eye-movements during reading. We presented texts that included either a personal perspective ( you) or an onlooker perspective (he or she). We measured whether fixations on the pronouns themselves differed as a function of perspective, and whether fixations on pronouns were affected by the emotional valence of the text which was either positive or negative. It was found that early in the text, processing of you is easier than he or she. However, as the character referred to by he or she becomes more familiar, fixations on he or she decrease, specifically in negative contexts.


1994 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 776-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Ong ◽  
William C. Wyatt

A Beckman Type RM Dynograph was used to record eye movements of 31 college students, 23 of whom had never worn contact lenses and 8 who had worn contact lenses for at least five years and 12 hours a day, while reading equivalent print at a distance of 33 cm. Analysis showed that the deviation indexes of .28 and .26 were comparable, meaning that these two groups showed similar return-sweep velocity amplitudes. A difference of 1.73 mm/.1 sec. between these two group means, 6.79 vs 5.06, respectively, was significant, implying that, while wearing contact lenses improved visual efficiency, it adversely affected reading speed. Further, other tasks involving rapid scanning such as scanning the roadway ahead while driving might similarly be affected.


2020 ◽  
Vol 237 (04) ◽  
pp. 510-516
Author(s):  
Jason Wertli ◽  
Andreas Schötzau ◽  
S. Trauzettel-Klosinski ◽  
Anja Palmowski-Wolfe

Abstract Introduction Eye movements during reading can be impaired in amblyopia, developmental dyslexia, reduced visual acuity, or visual field defects. To detect pathology, normative values are important for comparison. In healthy children, there is sparse data on eye movements during reading. Therefore, the aim of this study was to, in a first step, explore the feasibility of applying the SMI RED eye tracker bar to record eye movements in 10- and 11-year-old children while reading a text. Materials and Methods Thirty-three (19 aged 10 years, 14 aged 11 years) normally sighted children attending a primary school in Switzerland participated in our study. Visual acuity, the Lang test, and the cover test were performed as a screening for ophthalmologic pathology that might influence the results. Eye movements were recorded with the SMI RED eye tracker bar while the child read aloud two texts from the International Reading Speed Test (IReST), presented on a laptop. Both texts were in German with an equal level of difficulty and were presented in a randomized order. Reading speed (words/minute), number of saccades, number of fixations, and reading errors (mistakes in the reading) were evaluated. Results Screening did not reveal pathology other than refractive errors and children had full corrected visual acuity. Eye movements could be obtained in all but six children where the reflection of the glasses worn prevented a good pupil recording with the tracker. Younger children performed more saccades per word with a mean of 1.41 (SD 0.39) at 10 years of age versus 1.10 (SD 0.21) at 11 years of age. The number of fixations per word was also higher in younger children (mean: 1.63 [SD 0.37]) than in 11-year-old children (mean: 1.32 [SD 0.33]). Ten-year-old children seem to analyze a text in smaller units than 11-year-olds. Thus, 10-year-old children took more time to complete the reading task than the 11-year-olds (mean: 88.8 s [SD 24.1] versus 84.4 s [SD 15.1]). In addition, 10-year-old children made more reading errors compared to 11-year-olds (mean: 4.47 [SD 2.95] versus 2.28 [SD 1.72]). Conclusion It is feasible to record eye movements in children aged 10 – 11, albeit this is more difficult when glasses are worn. As parameters change with age, further data is needed for a representative evaluation regarding eye movements during reading in children of different age groups. The information gained may offer help in recognizing reading difficulties and monitoring of treatment effects.


2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 1407-1434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjaana Penttinen ◽  
Erkki Anto ◽  
Mirjamaija Mikkilä-Erdmann

2000 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 1061-1080 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Rayner ◽  
Gretchen Kambe ◽  
Susan A. Duffy

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 297-311
Author(s):  
José David Moreno ◽  
José A. León ◽  
Lorena A. M. Arnal ◽  
Juan Botella

Abstract. We report the results of a meta-analysis of 22 experiments comparing the eye movement data obtained from young ( Mage = 21 years) and old ( Mage = 73 years) readers. The data included six eye movement measures (mean gaze duration, mean fixation duration, total sentence reading time, mean number of fixations, mean number of regressions, and mean length of progressive saccade eye movements). Estimates were obtained of the typified mean difference, d, between the age groups in all six measures. The results showed positive combined effect size estimates in favor of the young adult group (between 0.54 and 3.66 in all measures), although the difference for the mean number of fixations was not significant. Young adults make in a systematic way, shorter gazes, fewer regressions, and shorter saccadic movements during reading than older adults, and they also read faster. The meta-analysis results confirm statistically the most common patterns observed in previous research; therefore, eye movements seem to be a useful tool to measure behavioral changes due to the aging process. Moreover, these results do not allow us to discard either of the two main hypotheses assessed for explaining the observed aging effects, namely neural degenerative problems and the adoption of compensatory strategies.


2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 257-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Munk ◽  
Günter Daniel Rey ◽  
Anna Katharina Diergarten ◽  
Gerhild Nieding ◽  
Wolfgang Schneider ◽  
...  

An eye tracker experiment investigated 4-, 6-, and 8-year old children’s cognitive processing of film cuts. Nine short film sequences with or without editing errors were presented to 79 children. Eye movements up to 400 ms after the targeted film cuts were measured and analyzed using a new calculation formula based on Manhattan Metrics. No age effects were found for jump cuts (i.e., small movement discontinuities in a film). However, disturbances resulting from reversed-angle shots (i.e., a switch of the left-right position of actors in successive shots) led to increased reaction times between 6- and 8-year old children, whereas children of all age groups had difficulties coping with narrative discontinuity (i.e., the canonical chronological sequence of film actions is disrupted). Furthermore, 4-year old children showed a greater number of overall eye movements than 6- and 8-year old children. This indicates that some viewing skills are developed between 4 and 6 years of age. The results of the study provide evidence of a crucial time span of knowledge acquisition for television-based media literacy between 4 and 8 years.


1994 ◽  
Vol 39 (12) ◽  
pp. 1087-1089
Author(s):  
Fernanda Ferreira

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