Binocular fusion during reading

在当今社会，阅读是一项非常有价值的技能，它被用于成千上万的日常任务中。因此，我们对这一重要的人类视觉认知功能发展出详细的心理学理论是至关重要的。为了准确地模拟阅读过程中的眼球运动，然后将它们的各个方面映射到支撑人类语言理解的心理过程中，准确了解人们的感知是至关重要的。我们用两只眼睛阅读，因此，视觉处理必然涉及到从两个独立的视觉信号中产生一个单一的感知表征，一个来自两只眼睛。在阅读过程中，眼动行为的一个被忽视的方面是双眼的协调：双眼视觉需要调整两个视觉轴之间的会聚角以允许融合过程。视差（轻微的聚光误差）和融合过程是双眼协调的核心现象，然而，迄今为止，还没有一个统一的理论解释这些现象。融合过程基本上是由差异驱动的。阅读过程中融合过程的时间进程尚不清楚。在拟议的研究中，我们将系统地探索这一时间过程，通过操纵双眼信息（中央眼和副中央眼）在扫视执行后出现的数量。此外，为了解决在融合仍可实现的情况下可容忍的注视视差的问题，我们将在扫视执行后操纵两个视觉输入的绝对视差。这两种实验操作都将通过一种先进的实验技术来实现，这种实验技术被称为眼跳偶然变化方法。

Reading is an incredibly valuable skill in today’s society, and it is used in thousands of day-today tasks. It is, therefore, vital that we develop detailed psychological theories about this important human visuo-cognitive function. In order to accurately model eye movements during reading - and then map aspects of them onto the psychological processes underpinning human language comprehension - it is critical to know exactly what people perceive. We read with both eyes, and therefore, visual processing necessarily involves the creation of a single perceptual representation from two independent visual signals, one from each eye. One neglected aspect of occulomotor behaviour during reading is the coordination of both eyes: binocular vision requires that the vergence angle between the two visual axes is adjusted to allow for processes of fusion. Fixation disparity (slight vergence errors) and the process of fusion are core phenomena in relation to binocular coordination, yet, to date, there is no single unified theoretical account of these phenomena. Fusional processes are, very fundamentally, disparity driven. The time course of fusional processes during reading is still unclear. In the proposed research, we will systematically explore this time course by manipulating the amount of binocular information (foveally and parafoveally) present after saccade execution. Further, in order to address the question of the amount of fixation disparity that can be tolerated whilst fusion is still attained, we will manipulate the absolute disparity of the two visual inputs after saccade execution. Both experimental manipulations will be realized by means of an advanced experimental technique termed saccade contingent change methodology.