L Liu
Lighthouse International, Arlene R. Gordon Research Institute, New York, United States
Purpose: Low vision patients may benefit from the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) technique. The traditional RSVP method presents one word per display cycle. The display window size and display duration are determined by the length of the longest word and by the time required to process the longest word. Once determined, these display parameters will be used for every display cycle, no matter how short the word may be and how little time may be needed to process the word. Because the majority of words in normal reading material are short, the traditional RSVP method does not take full advantage of the processing power and the remaining retinal resource (residual visual field) of low vision patients. A new RSVP method is proposed to overcome this shortcoming. This method allows more than one word to be presented in each display cycle, as long as the total length of the display does not exceed a pre-determined display window size. Comparing to the traditional RSVP, the new method not only allows better usage of residual retinal resource but also has the potential to increase reading speed. Methods: A computer program was used to parse text into display chunks. Each chunk might contain more than one word, and its length did not exceed a pre-determined window size. Short text paragraphs were presented sequentially in either the single-word mode or the chunk mode. Multiple-choice questions were used to access reading comprehension. A method of adjustment was used to determine the shortest display durations for the two presentation modes. Results: For normal foveal reading, the shortest display durations for single-word presentation and for chunk presentation with window sizes of 10-character and 12-character were similar. Since 10-character and 12-character chunk presentations used 34% and 45% less display cycles than a single-word presentation, the new presentation method could increase reading speed by 52% and 82%.
Return to the ISLRR.ORG Home Page
