Binocular Coordination of Eye Movements during Reading

Abstract

Binocular coordination of the eyes during reading was examined. Fixation disparity greater than one character occurred on 47% of fixations, with the disparity being predominantly uncrossed (39%), though a small proportion of fixations were crossed. The average magnitude of disparity, measured at the end of fixation, was 1.1 characters for all fixations. For the 47% of non-aligned fixations the average magnitude of disparity was 1.9 characters. Vergence movements that reduced fixation disparity occurred during fixations, and their magnitude was positively correlated with fixation duration. Finally, eye dominance did not modulate fixation disparity magnitude or the proportion of disparate fixations.