NCT03640130

Peripheral Reading

Factors Limiting Peripheral Reading

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 6 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Houston · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to evaluate reading performance in the visual periphery by simulating central vision loss using a computer-controlled gaze-contingent display with an eye tracker. Participants will read a page of text at a comfortable rate. Several manipulations hypothesized to improve reading will be tested, such as an inverted-text "spotlight" of a single word that follows the participant's gaze.

Detailed description

Participants will view paragraphs of multiple sentences of text with their central vision blocked computationally with a "simulated scotoma." Participants will be free to move their eyes around the page of text at a comfortable rate. The three outcomes described elsewhere will be evaluated. In different blocks, text will contain one or more of several dynamic assistive manipulations that are hypothesized to enhance reading: 1) inverting the text at a given position, with instructions for the participant to attend to that location, which simulates a "surrogate fovea" of a patient with central vision loss. 2) horizontally expanding text to alleviate within-word crowding. 3) highlighting the next word with a visible indicator to encourage proper eye movements.

Conditions

• Central Visual Impairment

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Gaze-contingent text enhancement	In different testing blocks, the efficacy of the different enhancements will be evaluated, such as inverting the text in a gaze-contingent inverted "spotlight."

Timeline

• Start date: 2018-11-01
• Primary completion: 2019-03-01
• Completion: 2019-03-01
• First posted: 2018-08-21
• Last updated: 2018-11-14

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States