Journal of Eye Movement Research
Not a member yet
517 research outputs found
Sort by
Microsaccade generation requires a foveal anchor
Full text linkVisual scene characteristics have the ability to affect various aspects of saccade and microsaccade dynamics. For example, blank visual scenes are known to elicit diminished saccade and microsaccade production, compared to natural scenes. Similarly, microsaccades are less frequent in the dark. Yet, the extent to which foveal and peripheral visual information contribute to microsaccade production remains unclear: because microsaccade are directed to covert attention locations as per the superior colliculus activation map, it follows that peripheral stimulation could suffice to produce regular microsaccade dynamics, even without foveal stimulation being present. Here we compared the characteristics of microsaccades generated in the presence or absence of foveal and/or peripheral visual stimulation, while human subjects conducted four types of oculomotor tasks (fixation, free-viewing, guided-viewing and fixation during passive viewing). Foveal information was either available, or made unavailable by the presentation of both solid and blurred scotomas. We found foveal stimulation to be critical for microsaccade production, and peripheral stimulation, by itself, to be insufficient to yield microsaccades. Our results indicate that a foveal visual anchor is necessary for microsaccade generation.
Following in Jakobson and Lévi-Strauss’ footsteps: A neurocognitive poetics investigation of eye movements during the reading of Baudelaire’s ‘Les Chats’
Full text linkFollowing Jakobson and Levi-Strauss famous analysis of Baudelaire’s poem ‘Les Chats’ (‘The Cats’), in the present study we investigated the reading of French poetry from a Neurocognitive Poetics perspective. Our study is exploratory and a first attempt in French, most previous work having been done in either German or English (e.g., Jacobs, 2015a, 2018a, b; Müller et al., 2017; Xue et al., 2019). We varied the presentation mode of the poem Les Chats (verse vs. prose form) and measured the eye movements of our readers to test the hypothesis of an interaction between presentation mode and reading behavior. We specifically focussed on rhyme scheme effects on standard eye movement parameters. Our results replicate those from previous English poetry studies in that there is a specific pattern in poetry reading with longer gaze durations and more rereading in the verse than in the prose format. Moreover, presentation mode also matters for making salient the rhyme scheme. This first study generates interesting hypotheses for further research applying quantitative narrative analysis to French poetry and developing the Neurocognitive Poetics Model of literary reading (NCPM; Jacobs, 2015a) into a cross-linguistic model of poetry reading
Vergence Eye Movements: From Basic Science to Clinical Application: - Foreword to the Special Issue
No full textThe abstract book of the last European Conference on Eye Movements (Martinez-Conde, Martinez-Otero, Compte, & Groner, 2019) lists abstracts of 373 presentations, but less than five percent investigate vergence eye movements, i.e. the coordination of the right and left eye. Why then a special issue on this neglected issue? Human vision under natural conditions involves both eyes in coordination controlled by interacting processes subsumed under the concept of vergence.. Further, vergence is important for people in their daily lives since disorders of vergence can have serious consequences: ophthalmologists deal with squinting patients on the basis of heterophoria and heterotropia testing, eye strain or visual complaints can be related to impaired vergence dynamic or less accurate static vergence, remediation by optometrist includes vergence training or prism eye glasses, etc.
What are the reasons why processes of vergence are underestimated in our scientific community? The main reason seems to be the fact that the two eyes must be analysed separately with high precision. The differences between the measured two eye positions are typically relatively small and often at the limit of the recording systems. The question arises: Are the difference in the measurements due to noise, to error, or due to physiological processes? A further difficulty arises from the individual differences between observers. Thus, a vergence researcher has a rather difficult job in critically evaluating the eye tracker technology and taking into account different scientific areas like ophthalmology, optometry, psychology, and using adequate statistical analyses. This kind of research requires a multidisciplinary perspective.
In this special issue, three studies concentrated on the methodology of measuring vergence. An established clinical method is the prism cover test, which measures the heterophoria, i.e. the misalignment of the visual axes under monocular viewing conditions compared to binocular fixation. Paulus, Straube & Eggert (2019) developed an automated alternating cover test based on a combination of video-oculography and shutter glasses which minimizes stimulus noise and has a defined measurement noise. The total variance of the measurement is composed of components related to the observer, to the size of the heterophoria and to the availability of sensory vergence cues. Paulus et al. (2019) examined these factors and found that a major component of the within-subject variance of the manual prism cover test is due to the variability in the manifest heterophoria of the tested persons.
Wang, Holmqvist, & Alexa (2019) define a point of interest in binocular viewing, which is the intersection point of the two lines of sight in three-dimensional space, or – more precisely - the point closest to the two lines of sight. By means of theoretical simulations compared to empirical recordings they demonstrated a bias of the vergence distance depending on the noise of the tracked eye position. The authors propose mathematical models of calibration as part of the analysis of the experimental data.
Yaramothu, Jaswal & Alvarez (2019) measured vergence velocity and latency for step responses and found that eccentric circles with 6° eccentricity resulted in a faster response latency than a cross at central fixation. Their results have implications for the stimulus design in a variety of applications ranging from virtual reality to interventions in vision therapy.
Vergence operates well within a limited physiological range; but when the limit of fusion is reached, single vision is lost and double vision occurs. McGinnis, I., Tierney, R., Mansell, J., & Phillips, J. (2019) measured the clinically established convergence fusion break point (near point of convergence, NPC) by shifting a target towards the eyes in three different velocities and varied the verbal instruction (“double” versus “blurry”). The statistical analysis resulted in significant differences in NPC for the two variables target speed and verbal instruction. A consequence of this study will be that the experimental conditions for examinations and research on NPC must be standardized with respect to the experimental variables investigated in this study.
Dostalek, Hejda, Fliegel, Duchackova, Dusek, Hozman, Lukes & Autrata, R. (2019) investigated the fusion break point at a fixed test distance, but reduced the quality of the image in one eye by different modes (luminance contrast, higher-spatial frequency content, or luminance contrast plus higher-spatial frequency content). These modes had a certain influence, but the largest effect was the one of vergence demand, i.e. the absolute disparity of the two images. The authors argue that the image´s details (i.e. higher-spatial frequency content) protect binocular fusion from disruption under the lowest vergence demand.
The dynamics of vergence responses to step stimuli includes two components, a high velocity fusion initiating component followed by a slower component that may mediate sustained fusion. The slow fusion-sustaining component was analysed by Semmlow and Alvarez (2019). This component was modelled by the authors as a feedback control system consisting of a time delay and an integral/derivative controller. The fast fusion-initiating component was explored by Scheiman, Yaramothu, & Alvarez (2019) by means of analysing the ratio of the velocity divided by the response amplitude. For convergent step stimuli, this ratio was affected by a vergence/accommodation training therapy. The study of Poffa and Joos (2019) used a traditional clinical method referred to as vergence facility: the examiner induces vergence responses by applying prisms and counts the number vergence movements per minute. This clinical measure was found to be related to fixations disparity, i.e. the static vergence error measured with an eye tracker.
Comparing clinical test results with eye tracker recordings were included in the two studies which took also into account individual differences. Schroth, Joos, Alshuth & Jaschinski (2019) used a clinical nonius method for measuring the amount of the prism eye glass which is required to correct a fixation disparity (vergence error); this prism power was able to predict the prism-induced change in fixation disparity recorded with an eye tracker. Jainta and Joss (2019) tested the largest sample of subjects in this issue (n= 94) which allowed demonstrating the influence of the individual heterophoria on the binocular advantage, i.e. the extent to which during reading the fixation of a word is shorter in binocular than in monocular reading. The eye tracker measure of the heterophoria achieved superior results compared with subjective clinical measurements.
The academic background of the present authors illustrates that vergence research is covered by different scientific disciplines including computer engineering, physics, optometry, ophthalmology and psychology. This has the advantage that vergence research benefits from the different approaches of these disciplines, given that a common language and mutual understanding is achieved. A common basis for such a multidisciplinary research could be the seminal book of Ian Howard (2012).
This first special issue on vergence eye movements should give an overview of ongoing research in a relatively small scientific community and might motivate more relevant and multidisciplinary research, to be published in regular issues of the Journal of Eye Movement Research.
References
Dostalek, M., Hejda, J., Fliegel, K., Duchackova, M., Dusek, L., Hozman, J., Lukes, T., & Autrata, R. (2019). Influence of artificially generated interocular blur difference on fusion stability under vergence stress. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.4.4.
Howard, I. P. (2012). Perceiving in Depth, Volume 1: Basic Mechanisms. New York: Oxford University Press, USA.
Jainta, S., & Joss, J. (2019). Binocular advantages in reading revisited: attenuating effects of individual horizontal heterophoria. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.4.10.
Martinez-Conde, S., Martinez-Otero, L., Compte, A., & Groner, R. (2019). Abstracts of the 20th European Conference on Eye Movements, 18-22 August 2019, in Alicante (Spain). Journal of Eye Movement Research, 12(7). https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.7.1.
McGinnis, I., Tierney, R., Mansell, J., & Phillips, J. (2019). The Effect of target speed and verbal instruction on NPC measures in a young, healthy, and active population. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.4.5.
Paulus, M., Straube, A., & Eggert, T. (2019). Variance components affecting the repeatability of the alternating cover test. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.4.3.
Poffa, R., & Joos, R. (2019). The influence of vergence facility on binocular eye movements during reading. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.4.9.
Scheiman, M., Yaramothu, C., & Alvarez, T. (2019). Changes in the disparity vergence main sequence after treatment of symptomatic convergence insufficiency in children. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.4.6.
Schroth, V., Joos, R., Alshuth, E., & Jaschinski, W. (2019). Short-term effects of aligning prisms on the objective and subjective fixation disparity in far distance. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.4.8.
Semmlow, J.L., Yaramothu, C., & Alvarez, T.L. (2020). Dynamics of the disparity vergence slow (fusion sustaining) component. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.4.11.
Wang, X., Holmqvist, K., & Alexa, M. (2019). The mean point of vergence is biased under projection. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.4.2.
Yaramothu, C., Jaswal, R., & Alvarez, T. (2019). Target eccentricity and form influences disparity vergence eye movements responses: A temporal and dynamic analysis. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.4.7
Eye-tracking and learning experience: gaze trajectories to better understand the behavior of memorial visitors
Full text linkEye-tracking technology is increasingly introduced in museums to assess their role in learning and knowledge transfer. However, their use provide limited quantitative and/or qualitative measures such as viewing time and/or gaze trajectory on an isolated object or image (Region of Interest "ROI"). The aim of this work is to evaluate the potential of the mobile eye-tracking to quantify the students’ experience and behaviors through their visit of the "Genocide and mass violence" area of the Caen memorial. In this study, we collected eye-tracking data from 17 students during their visit to the memorial. In addition, all visitors filled out a questionnaire before the visit, and a focus group was conducted before and after the visit. The first results of this study allowed us to analyze the viewing time spent by each visitor in front of 19-selected ROIs, and some of their specific sub-parts. The other important result was the reconstruction of the gaze trajectory through these ROIs. Our global trajectory approach allowed to complete the information obtained from an isolated ROI, and to identify some behaviors such as avoidance. Clustering analysis revealed some typical trajectories performed by specific sub-groups. The eye-tracking results were consolidated by the participants\u27 answers during the focus group.
 
Reading development at the text level: an investigation of surprisal and embedding-based text similarity effects on eye-movements in Chinese early readers
Full text linkThis paper describes the use of semantic similarity measures based on distributed representations of words, sentences, and paragraphs (so-called“embeddings”) to assess the impact of supra-lexical factors on eye movement data from early readers of Chinese. In addition, we used a corpus-based measure of surprisal to assess the impact of local word predictability. Eye movement data from 56 Chinese students were collected (a) in the students’ 4th grade and (b) one year later while they were in 5th grade. Results indicated that surprisal and some text similarity measures have a significant impact on the moment-to-moment processing of words in reading. The paper presents an easy-to-use set of tools for linking the low-level aspects of fixation durations to a hierarchy of sentence-level and paragraph-level features that can be computed automatically. The study is the first attempt, as far as we are aware, to track the developmental trajectory of these influences in developing readers across a range of reading abilities. The similarity-based measures described here can be used (a) to provide a measure of reader sensitivity to sentence and paragraph cohesion and (b) to assess specific texts for their suitability for readers of different reading ability levels
Microsaccadic rate signatures correlate under monocular and binocular stimulation conditions
Full text linkMicrosaccades are involuntary eye movements occurring naturally during fixation. In this study, microsaccades were investigated under monocularly and binocularly stimulated conditions with respect to their directional distribution and rate signature, that refers to a curve reporting the frequency modulation of microsaccades over time. For monocular stimulation the left eye was covered by an infrared filter. In both stimulation conditions, participants fixated a Gabor patch presented randomly in orientation of 45° or 135° over a wide range of spatial frequencies appearing in the center of a monitor. Considering the microsaccadic directions, this study showed microsaccades to be preferably horizontally oriented in their mean direction, regardless of the spatial characteristics of the grating. Furthermore, this outcome was found to be consistent between both stimulation conditions. Moreover, this study found that the microsaccadic rate signature curve correlates between both stimulation conditions, while the curve given for binocular stimulation was already proposed as a tool for estimation of visual performance in the past.
Therefore, this study extends the applicability of microsaccades to clinical use, since parameters as contrast sensitivity, has been measured monocularly in the clinical attitude
Looking at Buswell\u27s pictures
Full text linkIn 1935 Guy Buswell, an educational psychologist at Chicago University, published How People Look at Pictures. In it he recorded photographically the eye movements of 200 observers when looking at a wide variety of pictures. He analysed the overall distribution of fixations on pictures, compared the first few fixations on a picture to the last few, measured the durations of fixations made early in viewing and those made near the end of viewing, examined how fixation duration changed with viewing time, recorded the consistency between different observers when viewing the same picture and he looked at the influence of instructions given to observers upon their eye movements when viewing a picture. He commented on the substantial differences between individuals and noted that instructions had a dramatic effect on the pattern of eye movements. Buswell’s analysis was graphical rather than statistical. In this article Buswell’s figures are recombined and his research is placed in the context of earlier investigations of eye movements with pictures by Stratton and Judd and later ones by Yarbus
Torsional component of microsaccades during fixation and quick phases during optokinetic stimulation
Full text linkWhile many studies have characterized the eye movements during visual fixation, including microsaccades, in most cases only horizontal and vertical components have been recorded and analyzed. Thus, little is known about the torsional component of microsaccades. We took advantage of a newly developed software and hardware to record eye movements around the three axes of rotation during fixation and torsional optokinetic stimulus. We found that the average amplitude of the torsional component of microsaccades during fixation was 0.34 ± 0.07 degrees with velocities following a main sequence with a slope comparable to the horizontal and vertical components. We also found the size of the torsional displacement during microsaccades was correlated with the horizontal but not the vertical component. In the presence of an optokinetic stimulus a nystagmus was induced producing a more frequent and larger torsional quick phases compared to microsaccades produced during fixation with a stationary stimulus. The torsional component and the vertical vergence component of quick phases grew larger with higher velocities. Additionally, our results validate and show the feasibility of recording torsional eye movements using video eye tracking in a desktop mounted setup
You read best what you read most: An eye tracking study
Full text linkAt the threshold of the digital era, Zuzana Licko was of the opinion that familiar letterforms owe legibility to centuries-long exposure and that all new, prototypically unmatching forms would be equally legible if used as frequently. This paper examined the legibility in the context of familiarity – is it affected by the time of exposure to a particular typeface or a typeface’s universal structure. We ran repeated measures tests with exposure period in-between. The experiment was conducted using for this purpose designed typefaces as stimuli, and the eye-tracking on-screen reading technology. The results confirmed that one’s familiarity with a typeface influences one’s reading speed. The universal letter structure, recognised by Frutiger as the prototype skeleton, is the constant that a priori provides legibility. On the other hand, the period of exposure to uncommon letterforms also has a positive impact on legibility. Therefore, considering that the period of familiarity with the humanist letterforms has been continuous since their establishment, the maxim from the dawn of the digital era can be regarded as valid
Effect of a visual tracking intervention on attention and behavior of attention deficit hyper activity children
No full textAttention deficit hyperactivity disorder is characterized by several cognitive and behavioral problems such as inattention and impulsivity, abnormal control of eye movements and relocation, visual fixation and visuospatial perception. There is a link between core motor functions such as oculomotor function and cognition to the extent that the oculomotor system acts as a mediator between the motor and cognitive functions. Therefore, the effects of eye-tracking intervention were investigated on attention in these children. Thirty - nine boys with ADHD, 6 to 10 years of age were recruited and randomized to receive current occupational therapy (control group), or occupational therapy accompanied with eye-tracking exercises (experimental group). They were evaluated using the Conner\u27s Parent Rating Scale, the Continuous Performance Task-2, and the Test of Visual-Motor Skills-Revised before and after the intervention. Significant improvements in the mean scores of cognitive problems (F=9/22), coping behavior (F=6.03) and hyperactivity (F=9.77) were detected in the posttest between the two groups (p<0.05). Furthermore, in the Continuous Performance Test scores, detectability (F=5.68), omission errors (F=17.89), commission errors (F=19.45), reaction time (F=8.95), variability (F=7.07), and preservation (F=6.33) showed significant differences between control and experimental groups (p<0.01). It appears that eye-tracking interventions designed based on the isolation of neck and eye movement might have an important role in improving cognitive function and coping behaviors in these children. It seems that these exercises could increase eye movement control; improve cognitive function and response inhibition
Data sources:
BORIS Portal Bern Open Repository and I...BAF-Online: Proceedings of the Berner Al...HASBonline – Hefte zur Archäologie des M...Informationswissenschaft: Theorie, Metho...Jahrbuch Diakonie Schweiz
Journal of Eye Movement ResearchJournal of Radiation Oncology Informatic...BOP SerialsVersants. Revista suiza de literaturas r...BORIS Theses
Journal of Eye Movement ResearchJournal of Radiation Oncology Informatic...BOP SerialsVersants. Revista suiza de literaturas r...BORIS ThesesAccess Repository Dashboard
Do you manage Journal of Eye Movement Research? Access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard!