Training improves reading speed in peripheral vision: Is it due to attention?

• Published in: Journal of vision (Charlottesville, Va.) Vol. 10; no. 6; p. 18
• Main Authors: Lee, H.-W., Kwon, M., Legge, G. E., Gefroh, J. J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.06.2010
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Attention - physiology; Fixation, Ocular; Humans; Memory - physiology; Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology; Recognition, Psychology - physiology; Vision Tests - methods; Visual Fields - physiology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1534-7362; 1534-7362
• DOI: 10.1167/10.6.18

Previous research has shown that perceptual training in peripheral vision, using a letter-recognition task, increases reading speed and letter recognition (S. T. L. Chung, G. E. Legge, & S. H. Cheung, 2004). We tested the hypothesis that enhanced deployment of spatial attention to peripheral vision explains this training effect. Subjects were pre- and post-tested with 3 tasks at 10° above and below fixation-RSVP reading speed, trigram letter recognition (used to construct visual-span profiles), and deployment of spatial attention (measured as the benefit of a pre-cue for target position in a lexical-decision task). Groups of five normally sighted young adults received 4 days of trigram letter-recognition training in upper or lower visual fields, or central vision. A control group received no training. Our measure of deployment of spatial attention revealed visual-field anisotropies; better deployment of attention in the lower field than the upper, and in the lower-right quadrant compared with the other three quadrants. All subject groups exhibited slight improvement in deployment of spatial attention to peripheral vision in the post-test, but this improvement was not correlated with training-related increases in reading speed and the size of visual-span profiles. Our results indicate that improved deployment of spatial attention to peripheral vision does not account for improved reading speed and letter recognition in peripheral vision.