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Friday stream 1-4 Session 09.50 - 11.10 Length 25 minutes
Trevor J. Crawford, Steve Higham
Mental Health and Neural Systems Unit, Department of Psychology, Lancaster University t.crawford@lancaster.ac.uk
Abstract
Low level computations that determine the size and direction of a rapid saccadic eye movement form an early component in skilled reading (O'Regan, 1981). Normal readers frequently fixate an intermediate point between the start and middle of a word (Rayner, 1979). The natural tendency of the eye to target an optimal viewing location can be studied with single and double targets in non-linguistic displays. This study examined the saccadic eye movements of dyslexic and normal readers in response to displays of single and double targets. Eye movement analyses revealed no differences in the spatial position of saccadic eye movements of dyslexic and non-dyslexics in response to single targets presented at 5o or 10o. However, when presented with two targets simultaneously at 5o AND 10o, in contrast to normal readers saccades, who generated saccades to an intermediate position between the two targets (towards the 'centre-of gravity'), dyslexics generated saccades that landed close to the near target eccentricity. These findings suggest that dyslexia is associated with a deficit in the processing of global spatial information for the control saccadic eye movements. O'Regan JK (1981) The convenient viewing hypothesis. In Monty DF, Senders RA, Senders JW (Eds) Eye Movements: Cognition and Visual Perception. Erlbaum Hillsdale,NJ pp. 289-298. Rayner K (1979) Eye guidance in reading: fixation locations within words. Perception 8: 21-30.
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