Eye Movements and Learning

Poor eye movements can create confusion while reading. Ordinarily, reading begins on the left side of a paragraph, and as the eyes are moving to the right, the brain relies on global search mechanisms. This means that as you are looking at one word, the brain is processing all the surrounding words at the same time based on size and shape of the word. Recognition then plays a large role. For instance, if out of the corner of your eye your brain recognizes a three letter word, with the last letter being tall, you may automatically insert "and" into your sentence. If the eye movements aren't efficient, this means the eyes may skip words, read the same words again, or lose place in a paragraph. This jumbles the targeted word and the global search words. This can become very confusing.

Here is an exercise illustrating poor eye movements and poor global searching.

Please time yourself when reading paragraph 1:

Withoutthespacesbetweenthesewordstheglobalsearchmechanismisbrokendown.Thismeansthe braincannotrecognizesurroundingwordsaseasily,andreadingbecomeschoppy.Ifyouhadvision relatedlearningproblemssuchasthisyoumayfinditdifficulttositandread.Thisisalsoacommon problemwithpeoplediagnosedwithlearningdisabilitiesandattentionproblems.

How did you feel when reading? How long did it take you? Did you notice a difference? Did you get frustrated? Did you lose your place? Do you remember what you read?

Now read paragraph 2 with more efficiency, please time yourself again:

This is an example of a person having reading troubles due to poor eye movements.

Without the spaces between these words the global search mechanism is broken down. This means the brain cannot recognize surrounding words as easily, and reading becomes choppy. If you had vision related learning problems such as this you may find it difficult to sit and read. This is also a common problem with people diagnosed with learning disabilities and attention problems.

How did you feel when reading? How long did it take you? Did you notice a difference? Did you get frustrated? Did you lose your place? Do you remember what you read?