An effect on a student's eye movement management during reading of screen optimisation?

This is a short report on the effect of using an optimised computer screen on the reading performance of an FE student who has had major problems all the way through his education.

Can you spot what might have been the problem?

The first graph shows the student ‘s eye movements reading on a default computer screen.

To read the 83 words/493 characters his eyes had to stop 122 times. He was processing around 4 characters per fixation.

The second graph shows his eye movements when reading from an optimised computer screen.

To read 88 words/ 515 characters his eyes had to stop only 38 times. He was processing over 13 characters per fixation.

His eyes showed much greater symmetry of movement, not perfect, but we do not yet really know what is ‘perfect’.

His reading speed had gone from 178 words per minute to 447 words per minute.

We do not know for certain yet how this will affect his concentration, but his self confidence took a boost.

The question I ask is this.

Was his Phonological processing speed being controlled by the visual components of the task on the default background?

Or was the visual processing speed being controlled  by the phonological processing speed?

Optimum Settings
Red	Green	Blue
255	172	255

There was an improvement in  Oral Reading Fluency of 44%.  But the change in prosody, which cannot be quantified was absolutely immense.

There was no evidence of any focussing issues with his eyes.

I suppose this sort of anecdotal data can just be ignored. But what if robust psychophysical data is published?

第2轮。优化上一个诵读困难的学生的影响（阅读障碍专家）

第2轮。优化上一个诵读困难的学生的影响（阅读障碍专家）

这个学生最后发表的文章（实际上是阅读障碍专家）关注她的电脑屏幕上的优化。

很明显，，除了优化电脑屏幕，她的裸眼矫正视力/屈光问题。

这些可能是她需要大字体。任命是专业的验光师在工作遇到困难的人与文本。

的诊断证明，我们是正确的，在确定两只眼睛的散光问题。她的新眼镜纠正。另外一个三棱镜矫正已订明的两只眼睛。 A'光敏感性“是公认的一个”灰色“的色彩被放置在眼镜的建议。

眼镜（不带任何色彩），现在可以用了几个星期，连同她的覆盖和精确的电脑屏幕上设置。

接下来会发生什么呢？

我们会再次见面，并重新评估

她的最佳字体大小

她的最佳屏幕设置

她的视觉的注意力字符/每此验光配镜校正后，固定和眼球运动管理。

这种特殊的情况下，研究之后，将在这个博客。

如果你想确保你得到的'故事'的发展情况，以及其他类似的，相关的信息，那么请遵循的博客。 （顶说，加入这个博客的页面）

研究将报告以及对视觉的注意力，因为我们进入春天和夏天。

（道歉，我的许多美国读者重新“优化”在英国，我们使用的Z S而不是许多的话。语言很有趣！）

由彼得·艾恩斯00:29

Round 2. The effects of optimisation on a dyslexic student ( Dyslexia specialist)

Round 2. The effects of optimisation on a dyslexic student ( Dyslexia specialist)

The last post on this student (Dyslexia specialist actually) concerned the optimisation of her computer screen.

It was clear that in addition to optimising the computer screen that she had uncorrected but correctable visual/refractive issues. 

These may have been contributing to her need for a large font.  An appointment was made  with an optometrist who specialises in working with people experiencing difficulties with text.

A diagnosis shows that we were correct in identifying an astigmatism problem in both eyes. Her new glasses will correct for this. In addition a prism correction has been prescribed for both eyes. A ‘light sensitivity’ was recognised with the suggestion that a ‘grey’ tint be placed in the spectacles.

The glasses (without any tint) will now be used for a few weeks together with her overlays and precise computer screen settings.

What will happen next?

We will meet again and reassess

1. her optimal font size
2. Her optimal screen settings
3. Her visual attention span/ characters per fixation and eye movement management following this optometric correction.

This particular case study will be followed on this blog. 

If you want to make sure you get 'story' as it unfolds, and other similar, associated information then please sign up to follow the blog. ( top of the page where it says join this blog)

Research on Visual attention span will be reported here as well as we move into the spring and summer.

( apologies to my many American readers re.  'optimisation'... In the UK we use the S rather than the Z in many words..  Language is fun!)'

The real experience of the dyslexic student. Visual attention span?

I would not usually post the personal experience of a student I have worked with. But this blew me away.  The student sent me an unsolicited summary of his experience.  All I did was  to MEASURE the computer screen conditions needed to maximise his reading off a computer screen.

This was quite complex, not a question of ‘what do you like?’ or which do you prefer. It is a rigorous protocol.  The last two posts have had the details/ metrics of the response of his visual system to the use  of the identified settings.

Now this guy had been identified as dyslexic, with the implication that he had

• a working memory problem
• 
  
• A phonological processing problem

In any system, you need to identify if something is ‘a limiting factor’. If it is then changing it will increase or decrease performance. Changing anything else will either make it limiting, do   reduce performance or have no effect..

The evidence is amassing that for many people the Visual attention span can be the limiting factor on reading performance for many dyslexic people and many people not diagnosed as dyslexic.

For this sort of outcome the screen optimisation must have increased   the visual attention span of the person. 

The next step is to undertake an academic study to find out of this is so!  Watch this space.

James has given me permission to quote him.

 Enjoy the read.

……………………..                    ………………………………          

 HI Peter

Yesterday was fantastic, as soon as I got home I started modifying all my computers and equipment to use the new colours we found work best.


I also setup a program called F.Lux which is a program that changes the "colour temperature" of your screen based on the time of day.
Basically it reduces the brightness and I think saturation, which makes it far easier to continue working when in low light conditions and when tired.
If you're interested here is the link for f.lux:

http://stereopsis.com/flux/

When I combined both the RGB colour change and the screen "colour temperature" changes from f.lux i was able to work for 11 hours revising for my exam today.
I took breaks every 20 mins from reading, but I was able to recall information far easier, and unlike previously, none of the concepts in the material seemed beyond my comprehension.

I went into the exam today and answered 48/50 questions, and I didn’t even need the extra time allocated to me.
I think it’s safe to say the changes I made based upon the session we had work fantastically well, far better than I anticipated.

You can quote me, and the psychological consequences were evident before my exam. I was revising with friends taking it in turn to ask each other questions, and they were far more worried than I was, for once they were asking me the answer to things, when normally it is the other way round.

It’s going to take me a long time to go over things from last term using the new colours, but I think I can learn the things I didn't and use that to catch up.

James Parker   Huddersfield University

                       

large font use

The larger font used in the last post was that needed by the person the data was from. The most common size needed is 14.  At size 14 half of the potential readers will have difficulties .BUT they will assume that that is normal because they always have difficulties at default sizes.  They think it is a fault in them,


The same text at font   14

The larger font used in the last post was that needed by the person the data was from. The most common size needed is 14.  At size 14 half of the potential readers will have difficulties .BUT they will assume that that is normal because they always have difficulties at default sizes.  They think it is a fault in them.

The same text at font 20

The larger font used in the last post was that needed by the person the data was from. The most common size needed is 14.  At size 14 half of the potential readers will have difficulties .BUT they will assume that that is normal because they always have difficulties at default sizes.  They think it is a fault in them.

Crowding is reduced by increasing the font size and it can reduce the problems of  some uncorrected focussing problems.

Effects of text optimization on a dyslexic student

Initial analysis suggests the following.

Default  conditions

99 fixation   26.2 sec

83 words  ( MS word definition)

0.84 words per fixation   3.78 fixations per second  265 milliseconds per fixation

Optimum conditions

77 fixations    15 sec

88 words (MS word definition)

1.14 words per fixation   5.13 fixations per second    194 milliseconds per fixation

Change in words per fixation…   +34 %

Increase in speed of fixation  edge detection/ ‘decoding’  36%.

You can look at this data in terms of mean number of characters decoded per fixation ( Visual attention span)

Default

5 characters per fixation

Optimal

7  (6.68) characters per fixation

This suggests an increase in visual attention span of 36%.

Increase in speed of processing of individual characters..

Default   18.8 characters per second

Optimal  34.2 characters per second. An  82% increase in character recognition speed!

This should give rise to reduced demand on your central executive/working memory which should release RAM for thinking about the ideas AS you read.

Explicit Synthetic Phonics and Visual attention span

Explicit Synthetic Phonics and Visual attention span

The claims made for ESP (explicit synthetic phonics) that the use of this approach will give rise to a generation of better readers should have been evidenced by now.

The first children exposed to the approach in the UK, in Clackmannanshire have taken their level 4 examinations.  

• What were their results like? I was assuming that if the claims were valid that there should have been a step like improvement in the quality of the results.

Was there one?  I can find no reference to their outcomes.  If I had been involved in the research, it is where I would have gone straight away to validate my ideas….or refute them.

        If there was no gain........

        then the whole expensive ‘game’ may have been futile and very disruptive.

        If there was a positive step gain....... 

        then we should hear about it.  

I am very suspicious.

The main researcher is now a Professor and progressing well in her career. When I approached her on this topic, she told me that she had not looked and was not paid to do so!

 I would have looked whether I was paid or not!  Wouldn’t you?

I understand the primacy of the Phonological deficit ‘orthodoxy’ at present.  But the Valdois research really questions it’s ‘totality’.

The contribution of the visual attention span of a person to their reading speed, may well make all the difference in prosody and intonation in the ‘inner voice’.

    What really matters is...... 

•     The ability to modulate the reading speed to the task in hand, rather than just ‘barking at the text’.
•     Reduced demand on the central executive from the Visuo-spatial scratchpad.
•     Having sufficient working memory available to deal with the ideas within the text as it is read

These contribute to comprehension, the enjoyment of reading, ultimately the total amount of reading undertaken by an individual and the development of ‘automaticity’.

If the Visual Attention Span of an individual can be extended, then this should create a step change!