William Seiple1, Olga Overbury2, Bruce Rosenthal3, Tiffany Arango4, J Vernon Odom5, Alan R Morse6. 1. William Seiple, PhD, is Vice President of Research, Lighthouse Guild, New York, NY; Research Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, New York University School of Medicine, New York; and Adjunct Faculty, Institut de la Vision, Aging in Vision and Action, Paris, France; whs4@nyu.edu. 2. Olga Overbury, PhD, is Professor, School of Optometry, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 3. Bruce Rosenthal, OD, is Low Vision Optometrist, Lighthouse Guild, New York, NY. 4. Tiffany Arango, MA, is Research Assistant, Lighthouse Guild, New York, NY. 5. J. Vernon Odom, PhD, is Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, West Virginia University Eye Institute, Morgantown. 6. Alan R. Morse, PhD, is President and Chief Executive Officer, Lighthouse Guild, New York, NY.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine under what conditions brighter lighting improves reading performance. METHOD: Thirteen participants with typical sight and 9 participants with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) read sentences ranging from 0.0 to 1.3 logMAR under luminance levels ranging from 3.5 to 696 cd/m². RESULTS: At the dimmest luminance level (3.5 cd/m²), reading speeds were slowest at the smaller letter sizes and reached an asymptote for larger sizes. When luminance was increased to 30 cd/m², reading speed increased only for the smaller letter sizes. Additional lighting did not increase reading speeds for any letter size. Similar size-related effects of luminance were observed in participants with AMD. CONCLUSION: In some instances, performance on acuity-limited tasks might be improved by brighter lighting. However, brighter lighting does not always improve reading; the magnitude of the effect depends on the text size and the relative changes in light level.
OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine under what conditions brighter lighting improves reading performance. METHOD: Thirteen participants with typical sight and 9 participants with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) read sentences ranging from 0.0 to 1.3 logMAR under luminance levels ranging from 3.5 to 696 cd/m². RESULTS: At the dimmest luminance level (3.5 cd/m²), reading speeds were slowest at the smaller letter sizes and reached an asymptote for larger sizes. When luminance was increased to 30 cd/m², reading speed increased only for the smaller letter sizes. Additional lighting did not increase reading speeds for any letter size. Similar size-related effects of luminance were observed in participants with AMD. CONCLUSION: In some instances, performance on acuity-limited tasks might be improved by brighter lighting. However, brighter lighting does not always improve reading; the magnitude of the effect depends on the text size and the relative changes in light level.