Aurélie Calabrèse1, Jean-Baptiste Bernard2, Géraldine Faure3, Louis Hoffart4, Eric Castet2. 1. Minnesota Laboratory for Low-Vision Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, United States. 2. Aix Marseille University, CNRS, LPC UMR 7290, Marseille, France. 3. Low Vision Clinic, University Hospital of La Timone, Marseille, France. 4. Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital of La Timone, Marseille, France.
Abstract
PURPOSE: Reading speed of patients with central field loss (CFL) correlates with the size of saccades (measured in letters per forward saccade [L/FS]). We assessed whether this effect is mediated by the total number of fixations, by the average fixation duration, or by a mixture of both. METHODS: We measured eye movements (with a video eye tracker) of 35 AMD and 4 Stargardt patients (better eye decimal acuity from 0.08-0.3) while they monocularly read single-line French sentences continuously displayed on a screen. All patients had a dense scotoma covering the fovea, as assessed with MP1 microperimetry, and therefore used eccentric viewing. Results were analyzed with regression-based mediation analysis, a modeling framework that informs on the underlying factors by which an independent variable affects a dependent variable. RESULTS: Reading speed and average fixation duration are negatively correlated, a result that was not observed in prior studies with CFL patients. This effect of fixation duration on reading speed is still significant when partialling out the effect of the total number of fixations (slope: -0.75, P < 0.001). Despite this large effect of fixation duration, mediation analysis shows that the effect of L/FS on reading speed is fully mediated by the total number of fixations (effect size: 0.96; CI [0.82, 1.12]) and not by fixation duration (effect size: 0.02; CI [-0.11, 0.14]). CONCLUSIONS: 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. Copyright 2014 The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Inc.
PURPOSE: Reading speed of patients with central field loss (CFL) correlates with the size of saccades (measured in letters per forward saccade [L/FS]). We assessed whether this effect is mediated by the total number of fixations, by the average fixation duration, or by a mixture of both. METHODS: We measured eye movements (with a video eye tracker) of 35 AMD and 4 Stargardt patients (better eye decimal acuity from 0.08-0.3) while they monocularly read single-line French sentences continuously displayed on a screen. All patients had a dense scotoma covering the fovea, as assessed with MP1 microperimetry, and therefore used eccentric viewing. Results were analyzed with regression-based mediation analysis, a modeling framework that informs on the underlying factors by which an independent variable affects a dependent variable. RESULTS: Reading speed and average fixation duration are negatively correlated, a result that was not observed in prior studies with CFL patients. This effect of fixation duration on reading speed is still significant when partialling out the effect of the total number of fixations (slope: -0.75, P < 0.001). Despite this large effect of fixation duration, mediation analysis shows that the effect of L/FS on reading speed is fully mediated by the total number of fixations (effect size: 0.96; CI [0.82, 1.12]) and not by fixation duration (effect size: 0.02; CI [-0.11, 0.14]). CONCLUSIONS: 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. Copyright 2014 The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Inc.
Entities:
Keywords:
central field loss; fixation duration; mediation model; reading speed; visual span