Vergence responses to vertical binocular disparity during lexical identification

Nikolova, Mirela, Jainta, Stephanie, Blythe, Hazel, Jones, Matthew and Liversedge, Simon (2015) Vergence responses to vertical binocular disparity during lexical identification. Vision Research, 106. pp. 27-35. ISSN 0042-6989

[img]
Preview
Text
VertDispRevisionFINALFigures.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 4.0.

Download (558kB) | Preview
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2014.10.034

Abstract

Humans typically make use of both eyes during reading, which necessitates precise binocular coordination in order to achieve a unified perceptual representation of written text. A number of studies have explored the magnitude and effects of naturally occurring and induced horizontal fixation disparity during reading and non-reading tasks. However, the literature concerning the processing of disparities in different dimensions, particularly in the context of reading, is considerably limited. We therefore investigated vertical vergence in response to stereoscopically presented linguistic stimuli with varying levels of vertical offset. A lexical decision task was used to explore the ability of participants to fuse binocular image disparity in the vertical direction during word identification. Additionally, a lexical frequency manipulation explored the potential interplay between visual fusion processes and linguistic processes. Results indicated that no significant motor fusional responses were made in the vertical dimension (all p-values > .11), though that did not hinder successful lexical identification. In contrast, horizontal vergence movements were consistently observed on all fixations in the absence of a horizontal disparity manipulation. These findings add to the growing understanding of binocularity and its role in written language processing, and fit neatly with previous literature regarding binocular coordination in non-reading tasks.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Vertical vergence, Fixation disparity, Binocular fusionm, Reading
Subjects: B900 Others in Subjects allied to Medicine
C800 Psychology
Department: Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Psychology
Depositing User: Elena Carlaw
Date Deposited: 13 Sep 2019 10:42
Last Modified: 01 Aug 2021 10:31
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/40678

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics