title: Parafoveal magnification: visual acuity does not modulate the perceptual span in reading.
abstract: Models of eye guidance in reading rely on the concept of the perceptual span-the amount of information perceived during a single eye fixation, which is considered to be a consequence of visual and attentional constraints. To directly investigate attentional mechanisms underlying the perceptual span, we implemented a new reading paradigm-parafoveal magnification (PM)-that compensates for how visual acuity drops off as a function of retinal eccentricity. On each fixation and in real time, parafoveal text is magnified to equalize its perceptual impact with that of concurrent foveal text. Experiment 1 demonstrated that PM does not increase the amount of text that is processed, supporting an attentional-based account of eye movements in reading. Experiment 2 explored a contentious issue that differentiates competing models of eye movement control and showed that, even when parafoveal information is enlarged, visual attention in reading is allocated in a serial fashion from word to word.
authors.affiliation: University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QB, Scotland, United Kingdom. s.miellet@psy.gla.ac.uk
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Miellet
authors.forename: Patrick J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: O'Donnell
authors.forename: Sara C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Sereno
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D004585:Electrooculography; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D005584:Fovea Centralis / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D012858:Size Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D015357:Vision Disparity / Q000502:physiology; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult