Abstract
How does contrast affect reading rate? What is the role of contrast sensitivity? We measured reading rate as a function of the contrast and character size of text for subjects with normal vision. Reading rates were highest (about 350 words/min) for letters ranging in size from 0.25° to 2°. Within this range, reading was very tolerant to contrast reduction-for 1° letters, reading rate decreased by less than a factor of two for a tenfold reduction in contrast. The results were very similar for white-on-black and black-on-white text. Reading rate declined more rapidly for very small (<0.25°) and very large (>2°) letters. People with low vision usually require large characters to read, so high contrast is particularly important for them. Taking 35 words/min to be a threshold for reading, we constructed a contrast-sensitivity function (CSF) for reading. We were able to relate the shape of this CSF to the shape of sine-wave grating CSFs.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1165-1177 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Vision Research |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1987 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Acknowledgements-We would like to thankD enisPelli for helpingu s with the schemef or contrasta ttenuationH, olli Rietmulderf or help with collectiona nd ~b~tion of data, and Mary Schleskef or preparationo f the figures. Pre-liminaryr esultsw erep resenteda t theA nnual Meetingo f the Optical Societyo f America,S an Diego, 1984T. he research was supportedb y PHS Grant EY02934.
Keywords
- Contrast
- Contrast sensitivity
- Low vision
- Psychophysics
- Reading
