1993 Volume 11 Issue 2 Pages 87-101
Two male students wore goggles continuously for 12 days which rotated the visual field of each eye 180°around the line of sight. The subjects were tested on reading and several actions. In the reading test, the subjects read aloud four types of transformed texts: normal (N), rotation (R), inversion (I), and mirror image (M). The reading speed in R became faster as test sessions were repeated, but the tendency did not differ from that of control subjects who wore the goggle only in test sessions. In N, the reading speed in the vertical-writing condition was significantly slowed down, but the control group showed no such tendency. As action tests, the subjects performed three tasks: tracing a maze with a pen, walking along a path with turns, and pointing targets with a stick. The tracing and the walking speeds increased but did not differ from those of the control group. Veridicality in pointing was improved, although the control group showed no progress. It is proposed that reading process can be devided into two processes, i.e., perceptual-motor coordination and higher order cognitive processes, and argued that the adaptation process to the rotated visual field primalily affects the perceptual-motor processes in reading.
