Roadside joggers endure sweat, pain and angry drivers in
the name of fi tness. A healthy body may seem reward...
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2Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)
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Intelligent guesswork
Curiously, words are not necessarily fi xated in the order
of their occurrence. Ten to 15 per cent of all saccades
are regressive. This means that the eyes jump frequently
backwards in a sentence during the reading process.
Equally important is the fact that the forward saccades
often skip one or several words. This indicates that
reading is a matter of hypothesis testing. Readers seem
to make assumptions about unseen text elements in
order to skip certain words and to be able to read more
quickly. The regressive saccades suggest that readers
sometimes need to verify the assumptions made by
jumping backwards, so as to double-check the meaning
of certain words which were skipped at fi rst. It seems
evident that the scanning pattern of the reader’s eyes
depends on his or her expectations of the text content
that is to yet come. This process of hypothesis testing
applies to virtual typography too. As soon as a graphic
pattern starts to take on typographic characteristics,
expectations of emerging text information arise. The
viewer then tries to assemble the graphic elements in
his or her mind like the pieces of a puzzle.Saccadic eye movements
As illustrated in Typo, January 2005.Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)
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