One reads better with both eyes

Leibniz Research Centre for Working (IfADo) said on Monday that one can read better with both eyes. At IfADo, the eye movements during reading have now been thoroughly investigated with methods from basic research by the research group "Individual visual performance".

With help of a special technical equipment, the researchers can record in their lab specifically accurately the eye movements that perform the subjects during reading.

Based on these eye movements, the advantages binocular reading has in comparison to reading with one eye were investigated. IfADo researchers found link between binocular vision and more efficient text processing.

It is found that smooth interaction of two eyes has advantage, both in the elementary processes of perception and in the downstream processes of efficient text processing, as the advantage was confirmed in particular by frequently occurring words.

 In comparison, rare occuring words were generally processed more slowly, so that the different visual conditions did not affect the reading speed. The results of this experiment have now been published in the journal Current Biology.

Accoring to IfADo, these results explained that a further understanding of human information processing can often be achieved only through the use of new and expensive methods of investigation of the basic research.