(from abstract): There are 3.5 million Americans with low vision, most of whom have reading difficulty. Macular degeneration is the leading cause, and often results in a loss of central vision. The reading deficits of people with central-field loss is a major, unsolved health problem, and is the primary focus of this proposal. Dr. Legge and his colleagues have developed an ideal-observer model of reading that provides a theoretical basis for understanding how central-field loss affects reading. The concept of the visual span plays a key role in the model. The visual span is the number of letters that are identified in a single glance during reading. The normal visual span is limited to about 10 letters in width. This small visual span is further diminished or distorted as a consequence of eye disease. The main hypothesis underlying this proposal is that the properties of the visual span can account for much (and perhaps all) of the unexplained reading deficits from central-field loss. In four series of experiments, Dr. Legge proposes to test specific hypotheses that account for reading deficits in terms of (i) spatiotemporal properties of letter recognition across the visual span; (ii) letter interactions within the visual span; (iii) global properties of the visual span (shape and size); and (iv) the influence of linguistic and motor constraints. The research plan also includes development of two new clinical tests, one for assessing contrast deficits in reading, and the other for measuring Braille reading speed.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01EY002934-19
Application #
2608560
Study Section
Visual Sciences B Study Section (VISB)
Project Start
1979-09-01
Project End
2001-11-30
Budget Start
1997-12-01
Budget End
1998-11-30
Support Year
19
Fiscal Year
1998
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
168559177
City
Minneapolis
State
MN
Country
United States
Zip Code
55455
He, Yingchen; Kwon, MiYoung; Legge, Gordon E (2018) Common constraints limit Korean and English character recognition in peripheral vision. J Vis 18:5
Gupta, Anshul; Mesik, Juraj; Engel, Stephen A et al. (2018) Beneficial Effects of Spatial Remapping for Reading With Simulated Central Field Loss. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 59:1105-1112
Xiong, Ying-Zi; Lorsung, Ethan A; Mansfield, John Stephen et al. (2018) Fonts Designed for Macular Degeneration: Impact on Reading. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 59:4182-4189
Granquist, Christina; Wu, Yueh-Hsun; Gage, Rachel et al. (2018) How People with Low Vision Achieve Magnification in Digital Reading. Optom Vis Sci 95:711-719
Xiong, Ying-Zi; Calabrèse, Aurélie; Cheong, Allen M Y et al. (2018) Reading Acuity as a Predictor of Low-Vision Reading Performance. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 59:4798-4803
He, Yingchen; Baek, Sori; Legge, Gordon E (2018) Korean reading speed: Effects of print size and retinal eccentricity. Vision Res 150:8-14
Calabrèse, Aurélie; To, Long; He, Yingchen et al. (2018) Comparing performance on the MNREAD iPad application with the MNREAD acuity chart. J Vis 18:8
Wang, Hui; Legge, Gordon E (2018) Comparing the minimum spatial-frequency content for recognizing Chinese and alphabet characters. J Vis 18:1
Husk, Jesse S; Yu, Deyue (2017) Learning to recognize letters in the periphery: Effects of repeated exposure, letter frequency, and letter complexity. J Vis 17:3
Calabrèse, Aurélie; Liu, Tingting; Legge, Gordon E (2017) Does Vertical Reading Help People with Macular Degeneration: An Exploratory Study. PLoS One 12:e0170743

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