Reading Speed Benefits from Increased Vertical Word Spacing in Normal Peripheral Vision

Chung, Susana T. L.

doi:10.1097/00006324-200407000-00014

Cited by 61 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…When the spaces between the lines was increased (intermediate line spaces used), this problem disappeared such that the lines were close enough to guide the eyes back to the beginning of the next line, but , they were not so close as to confuse the subjects. This result is consistent with previous findings (S. T. Chung, 2004;Russell-Minda et al, 2007). Increase the line spaces to three or four spaces had a negative influence on the reading rate of the visually impaired persons but not on the normal persons as shown in Fig.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

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Effects of Line Spacing on Reading Performance of Normally Sighted and Simulated Visually-Impaired Subjects: A Pilot Study Using Arabic Words

Alotaibi

2017

GJHS

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The study aims to evaluate the role of line spacing during reading in normal and visually-impaired persons. A total of 225 normally-sighted participants with mean age of 23.7 years were asked to read Arabic sentences in a randomized order. Each Arabic sentence contains 7 lines with and without simulated cataract. The words were printed with black letters on white background to enhance contrast and fonts were in Times New Roman and of N12 letter size. The reading pages were placed on reading stand situated 25 cm away from the subject's eyes. The simulated cataract was created by using a Bernell Cling Patch Occluder. This reduced the visual acuity of all subjects to 20/60. Each line of the text was separated by different line spacing namely: single space, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 which represents, 0.5 cm, 0.8 cm, 1.1 cm, 1.4 cm, 1.7 cm and 2.0 cm, respectively. The sheets were presented randomly and participants' voices were recorded as they read under a controlled time. The tape was analysed later and reading rate was calculated. There was a significant difference (p<0.0001) in reading rates between the normal sighted persons and the visually impaired persons for all line spacing. Modifying the spacing between lines in prints had a significant impact (p<0.0001) on the reading rate of the visually impaired but not in normally-sighted persons (p˃0.05). Intermediate line spacing (2 and 2.5) increased the reading rate of the visually impaired persons significantly more (p<0.001) than other line spacing, but smaller or larger line spacing slowed their reading rate, significantly (p<0.001). The visually-impaired persons reported that they felt the difference in reading prints with larger line spacing as compared with normal sighted participants who did not. It is beneficial to adequately modify the line spacing in prints commonly read by low vision persons. For Arab subjects the optimum line spacing to significantly improve reading in the visually impaired should range from 0.8 to 1.1 cm. This finding may be a useful for publishers of Arab prints targeting the visually impaired persons. Thus, the implication of the study in the field of health is that by establishing the least common line spacing visualized optimally among normal and simulated visually impaired persons would be fixed as default line spacing for Arab printing to achieve better reading performance.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

“…8;2017 was used because as the print size increased, Time New Roman (TNR) was read faster (A. Arditi, Knoblauch, & Grunwald, 1990;S. T. Chung, 2004).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Line Spacing on Reading Performance of Normally Sighted and Simulated Visually-Impaired Subjects: A Pilot Study Using Arabic Words

Alotaibi

2017

GJHS

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“…Rayner, Fischer, and Pollatsek (1998) found that the absence of word spaces has strong interfering effects on word identification and eye movement control. Chung (2004) has found a drop in reading speed for smaller than normal line spacing in text. Our analysis of white space is in line with these findings.…”

Section: Image Descriptions Of Textmentioning

confidence: 99%

The utility of image descriptions in the initial stages of vision: A case study of printed text

Watt

Dakin

2010

British J of Psychology

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Vision research has made very substantial progress towards understanding how we see.It is one area of psychology where the three-way thrust of behavioural measurements (psychophysics), brain imaging, and computational studies have been combined quite routinely for some years. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a relatively unusual form of computational modelling which we characterise as involving image descriptions. Image descriptions are statements about structures in images and relationships between structures. Most modelling in vision is either conceived in fairly abstract terms, or is done at the level of images. Neither is entirely satisfactory, and image descriptions are a simple formulation of age-old ideas about a vocabulary of image features that are detected and parameterized from actual digital images.For our example, we use the domain of the visual perception of printed text. This is an area that has been characterized by thorough, robust psychophysical experiments. The fundamental requirements of visual processing in this domain are: grouping of some parts if the image into words; at the same time segmenting words from each other. We show how these are readily understood in terms of our model of image descriptions, and show quantitatively that typographical practice, refined over centuries, is about optimum for the visual system at least as represented by our model. In addition, we show that the same notion of image descriptions could, in principle, support word recognition in certain circumstances.

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“…2 Reference frame for letters 4 These include paradigms studying the identification of letters in words and nonwords (e.g., McClelland & Rumelhart, 1981;Reicher, 1969;Wheeler, 1970), experiments on the effects on identification of visual feature information (e.g., Lanthier et al 2009), and research on type factors such as case alternation (e.g., Mayall, Humphreys, & Olson, 1997). 5 For example, the space between lines (referred to as interlinear or line spacing, leading, or vertical word space) affects reading speed (Chung, 2004;Paterson & Tinker, 1940). Efficiency may be influenced by transitions between lines, because greater leading eases location of the next line (Paterson & Tinker, 1940), and efficiency may be influenced by crowding (Chung, 2004; see the next section).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…5 For example, the space between lines (referred to as interlinear or line spacing, leading, or vertical word space) affects reading speed (Chung, 2004;Paterson & Tinker, 1940). Efficiency may be influenced by transitions between lines, because greater leading eases location of the next line (Paterson & Tinker, 1940), and efficiency may be influenced by crowding (Chung, 2004; see the next section). atic configuration of structures (Livne & Sagi, 2007).…”

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confidence: 99%

Letter processing and font information during reading: Beyond distinctiveness, where vision meets design

Sanocki

Dyson

2011

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Letter identification is a critical front end of the reading process. In general, conceptualizations of the identification process have emphasized arbitrary sets of distinctive features. However, a richer view of letter processing incorporates principles from the field of type design, including an emphasis on uniformities across letters within a font. The importance of uniformities is supported by a small body of research indicating that consistency of font increases letter identification efficiency. We review design concepts and the relevant literature, with the goal of stimulating further thinking about letter processing during reading.Keywords Letter identification . Letter perception . Font . Font tuning . Common features . Type design . Reading Motivated by the increasing realization that letter perception is an important but overlooked stage in the reading process (e.g., Finkbeiner & Coltheart, 2009;Grainger, 2008;Massaro & Schmuller, 1975;Pelli, Burns, Farell, & Moore-Page, 2006), there has been a resurgence of interest in letter perception in relation to reading. It is now clear that letter perception provides a critical front end for reading because letters are functional units; they are independent pieces of the word code (e.g., McClelland, 1976;Oden, 1984;Pelli, Farell, & Moore, 2003). The visual forms of letters exist within a larger structural design, a family of objects known as the type font. This idea has implications for perceptual identification that we begin to develop here.In previous research and theory, a core concept is distinctiveness-the properties that make one letter easy to discriminate from its alternatives in the alphabet. This has led to the central concept of feature detection in the literature (e.g., Fiset et al., 2008;Gibson, 1969;Massaro & Schmuller, 1975). Letters are defined by sets of features whose membership is determined by distinctiveness. If distinctiveness is indeed critical, increasing it through alphabet design should increase legibility. This logic has been recently advocated (e.g., Fiset et al., 2008;Gosselin & Tjan, 2008).1 However, if letter distinctiveness is an incomplete basis for understanding letter processing during reading, calls to redesign letters are premature.A richer view of letter processing incorporates structural relations between letters and originates in the field of type design. Type designers have long been concerned with letter form and its impact on reading. Text fonts are designed for reading continuous paragraphs of text, and the main goal in their design is to produce optimally legible letter forms. Type designers recognize the importance of distinctiveness, but they also emphasize the uniformity of letters (e.g., Carter, Day, & Meggs, 1985;Cheng, 2005). The classical goal of 1 The idea of improving legibility through research and design is not new. Modifications to increase distinctiveness have been explored by Kolers (1969), Crist (1980), and, more recently, Beier andLarson (2010). A modification that was actually used (mainly...

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Reading Speed Benefits from Increased Vertical Word Spacing in Normal Peripheral Vision

Abstract: Increased vertical word spacing, which presumably decreases the adverse effect of crowding between adjacent lines of text, benefits reading speed. This benefit is greater in peripheral than central vision.

Cited by 61 publications

References 29 publications

Effects of Line Spacing on Reading Performance of Normally Sighted and Simulated Visually-Impaired Subjects: A Pilot Study Using Arabic Words

Effects of Line Spacing on Reading Performance of Normally Sighted and Simulated Visually-Impaired Subjects: A Pilot Study Using Arabic Words

The utility of image descriptions in the initial stages of vision: A case study of printed text

Letter processing and font information during reading: Beyond distinctiveness, where vision meets design

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