Scientists used a sophisticated eye-tracking system to examine which letters the eye reads. They found that humans combine parts of a word by reading letters alternately - letter yes and letter no
When we read, our eyes lock onto different letters in the same word instead of scanning the page smoothly from left to right (in English), as researchers have believed until now.
Scientists used a sophisticated eye-tracking system to examine which letters the eye reads. They found that humans combine parts of a word by reading letters alternately - letter yes and letter no.
The researcher, Simon Liveridge, a cognitive psychologist from the University of Southampton, said that the findings could lead to improved methods of teaching children to read and develop medical treatments for those suffering from reading problems such as dyslexia. The researcher presented his work at a meeting organized by the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
"I am trying to understand the interrelationship between the physiological processes that occur when reading written texts, and their relationship to the eye movement that people make when reading the sentences."
Over the past 40 years, the scientists who have studied the movement of the eyes while reading have come to a consensus that both eyes look at the same letter at the same time. To test this, Liversedge and his colleagues measured the reflectance of low-density infrared rays projected onto the eyes of volunteers as they read.
This allowed the researchers to track precisely when the eye focused on the word. They then conducted their experiment further to see why people don't get double vision from picking up separate letters. According to the findings, the brain combines the two signals coming from the separate eyes into one clear image," said Liversedge.
"It used to be common to think that the eyes move in perfect harmony and that a word is observed in one focus," said the researcher, "therefore, scientists studying reading measured only one eye because they estimated that both eyes perform the same task," Libersedge said. According to him, the findings shed light on the understanding of language, from which those suffering from reading problems and disorders will benefit in the future.
