Illusory Increases in Font Size Improve Letter Recognition

Lages, Martin; Boyle, Stephanie; Jenkins, Rob

doi:10.1177/0956797617705391

Cited by 10 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Specifically, according to this view, if objects on the far surface recruit more EVC processing, they should be seen with higher resolution than those perceived to be closer (and smaller). However, there is limited psychophysical support for this idea (Schindel & Arnold, 2010;Lages et al, 2017), instead, there is more consistent evidence in favor of enhanced processing of close objects. Thus, the question regarding the neural mechanisms underlying the close advantage remains an open one.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived depth modulates perceptual resolution

et al. 2021

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived depth modulates perceptual resolution

et al. 2021

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“…Previous studies have underscored the importance of character print size and shape that, together with the reader's viewing distance, determine the angular print size or the visual angle, thereby affecting letter recognition and reading performance. 5 , 16 , 17 Hence, different languages and their script may influence visual acuity and thereby their readability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual Demand and Acuity Reserve of Chinese versus English Newspapers

et al. 2020

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SIGNIFICANCE This study suggests that Chinese newspaper characters are more legible than English newspaper letters. Characters in Chinese newspapers have higher acuity reserve than English newspapers. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate visual demand and acuity reserve for Chinese newspapers in comparison with published data on U.S. newspapers. METHODS The test distances for visual acuity in Chinese clinical studies were reviewed systematically. Characters from different sections of newspapers printed in simplified Chinese were evaluated. The character height, frequency, and visual demand and acuity reserve of each newspaper section were determined for Chinese characters of the six different levels of complexity. RESULTS More than 70% of Chinese clinical studies measure near visual acuity at either 33 or 40 cm. The height of Chinese characters ranged from 1.95 to 3.28 mm across different sections of five newspapers compared with 1.0 to 2.0 mm for English letters. The frequency of Chinese characters from least to most complex ranged from 7 to 34% across 12 sections of one Chinese newspaper. The angular threshold across the six complexity levels of Chinese characters ranged from 4.62 to 5.93 arcmin (0.54 to 0.69 mm at 40-cm reading distance) with a weighted angular threshold of 5.18 arcmin compared with 3.37 arcmin (0.39 mm) for the English letters. For Chinese newspapers, at 40-cm reading distance, the acuity reserve for the smallest and largest median size was 3.55 and 4.61, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Chinese characters are larger than English characters in all newspaper sections newspapers by a factor of 1.60 to 2.34. Given that Chinese characters need to be 1.54 times larger than English letters to provide the same acuity reserve, on average, Chinese newspapers are more legible than U.S. English newspapers.

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“… Lages, Boyle, and Jenkins (2017) presented evidence for a small but reliable improvement in recognition acuity—specifically, reading strings of crowded letters—following adaptation to receding motion and inconclusive results for acuity decrease following adaptation to looming motion. The authors conclude that acuity can be changed by manipulating the perceived size of targets.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Here we set out to better understand the link between perceived size and acuity, as well as specifically to explore the mechanism that supports adaptation-induced changes in acuity. While our paradigm was guided by Lages et al (2017) , we made several changes to their experimental design in an effort to improve the reliability and sensitivity of the psychophysical measure. Notably: We used a different target and task.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Notably: We used a different target and task. While Lages and colleagues (2017) had participants read standard crowded Sloan optotypes (i.e., participants performed a 10AFC (ten alternative forced choice) recognition task), we used a Tumbling “T” optotype and a 4AFC orientation discrimination task. Our “T” optotypes are more similar in legibility to one another than the 10 Sloan optotypes ( Hamm, Yeoman, Anstice, & Dakin, 2018 ) and are widely used in crowding experiments as a better controlled proxy task for letter recognition ( Dakin, Cass, Greenwood, & Bex, 2010 ; Whitney & Levi, 2011 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Motion adaptation improves acuity (but perceived size doesn't matter)

et al. 2022

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Recognition acuity—the minimum size of a high-contrast object that allows us to recognize it—is limited by optical and neural elements of the eye and by processing within the visual cortex. The perceived size of objects can be changed by motion-adaptation. Viewing receding or looming motion makes subsequently viewed stimuli appear to grow or shrink, respectively. It has been reported that resulting changes in perceived size impact recognition acuity. We set out to determine if such acuity changes are reliable and what drives this phenomenon. We measured the effect of adaptation to receding and looming motion on acuity for crowded tumbling-T stimuli ( ). We quantified the role of crowding, individuals’ susceptibility to motion-adaptation, and potentially confounding effects of pupil size and eye movements. Adaptation to receding motion made targets appear larger and improved acuity (–0.037 logMAR). Although adaptation to looming motion made targets appear smaller, it induced not the expected decrease in acuity but a modest acuity improvement (–0.018 logMAR). Further, each observer's magnitude of acuity change was not correlated with their individual perceived-size change following adaptation. Finally, we found no evidence that adaptation-induced acuity gains were related to crowding, fixation stability, or pupil size. Adaptation to motion modestly enhances visual acuity, but unintuitively, this is dissociated from perceived size. Ruling out fixation and pupillary behavior, we suggest that motion adaptation may improve acuity via incidental effects on sensitivity—akin to those arising from blur adaptation—which shift sensitivity to higher spatial frequency-tuned channels.

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Illusory Increases in Font Size Improve Letter Recognition

Cited by 10 publications

References 42 publications

Perceived depth modulates perceptual resolution

Perceived depth modulates perceptual resolution

Visual Demand and Acuity Reserve of Chinese versus English Newspapers

Motion adaptation improves acuity (but perceived size doesn't matter)

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