Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T04:31:15.609Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Visual perceptual limitations on letter position uncertainty in reading

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2012

Marialuisa Martelli
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy. [email protected] Neuropsychology Unit, Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization, and Health Care (IRCCS, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico), Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00142 Rome, Italy. [email protected]
Cristina Burani
Affiliation:
Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC), National Research Council (CNR), 00185 Rome, Italy. [email protected]
Pierluigi Zoccolotti
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy. [email protected] Neuropsychology Unit, Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization, and Health Care (IRCCS, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico), Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00142 Rome, Italy. [email protected]

Abstract

Frost presents an explanatory theory of reading that generalizes across several languages, based on a revised role of orthographic coding. Perceptual and psychophysical evidence indicates a decay of letter position encoding as a function of the eccentricity of letters (crowding); this factor may account for some of the differences in the languages considered by Frost.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Changizi, M. A., Zhang, Q., Ye, H. & Shimojo, S. (2006) The structures of letters and symbols throughout human history are selected to match those found in objects in natural scenes. The American Naturalist 167:117–39.Google Scholar
Legge, G. E., Ahn, S. J., Klitz, T. S. & Luebker, A. (1997) Psychophysics of reading: XVI. The visual span in normal and low vision. Vision Research 37:19992010.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Legge, G. E. & Bigelow, C. A. (2011) Does print size matter for reading? A review of findings from vision science and typography. Journal of Vision 11 (5):8, 1–22. doi:10.1167/11.5.8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Legge, G. E., Mansfield, J. S. & Chung, S. T. L. (2001) Psychophysics of reading XX: Linking letter recognition to reading speed in central and peripheral vision. Vision Research 41(6):725–43.Google Scholar
Nandy, A. S. & Tjan, B. S. (2007) The nature of letter crowding as revealed by first- and second-order classification images. Journal of Vision 7:126.Google Scholar
Parkes, L., Lund, J., Angelucci, A., Solomon, J. A. & Morgan, M. (2001) Compulsory averaging of crowded orientation signals in human vision. Nature Neuroscience 4:739–44.Google Scholar
Pelli, D. G., Palomares, M. & Majaj, N. J. (2004) Crowding is unlike ordinary masking: Distinguishing feature integration from detection. Journal of Vision 4:1136–69.Google Scholar
Pelli, D. G. & Tillman, K. A. (2007) Parts, wholes, and context in reading: A triple dissociation. PLoS ONE 2(8):e680. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000680. Available at: http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0000680.Google Scholar
Pelli, D. G., Tillman, K. A., Freeman, J., Su, M., Berger, T. D. & Majaj, N. J. (2007) Crowding and eccentricity determine reading rate. Journal of Vision 7(2):20, 1–36. Available at: http://journalofvision.org/7/2/20/.Google Scholar
Popple, A. V. & Levi, D. M. (2005) The perception of spatial order at a glance. Vision Research 45:1085–90.Google Scholar
Rayner, K. & McConkie, G. (1976) What guides a reader's eye movements? Vision Research 16:829–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed