Search results for "Legibility"
showing 9 items of 9 documents
Legibility of Text and Pictograms in Variable Message Signs: Can Single-Word Messages Outperform Pictograms?
2018
The current research shows the advantage of single-word messages in the particular case of variable message signs (VMSs) with a high aspect ratio.Early studies on traffic sign design proposed that pictorial information would advantage equivalent text messages in static signs.We used a driving simulator to present individually 36 VMSs, showing six words (e.g., "congestion") and six danger signs (e.g., congestion traffic sign). In Experiment 1, 18 drivers read aloud the text or orally identified the pictograms as soon as they could correctly do it. In Experiment 2, a different sample of 18 drivers gave a motor response, according to the meaning of the message. We analyzed the legibility dista…
Accident ahead? Difficulties of drivers with and without reading impairment recognising words and pictograms in variable message signs
2017
A timely and accurate acquisition of the information provided by variable message signs (VMS) can be crucial while driving. In the current study, we assess the difficulties of adults with dyslexia acquiring the information shown in VMS and provide evidence to discuss the controversial use of pictograms as potential countermeasures. Twenty-two adults with dyslexia and 22 matched controls completed a simulated driving session. The legibility of 12 VMS was assessed, including six text messages (e.g. "ACCIDENT") and six single pictograms (e.g. the icon for "accident ahead"). On average, participants with dyslexia started reading text messages when they were closer to the VMS. In addition, while…
Increasing the default interletter spacing of words can help drivers to read traffic signs at longer distances
2018
Would an increase in the default interletter spacing improve the legibility of words in traffic signs? Previous evidence on traffic sign design and recent studies on the cognitive processes involved in visual word recognition have provided conflicting results. The present work examined whether an increase in the default interletter spacing would improve the search of a word in direction traffic signs. To achieve this objective, twenty-two drivers participated in a driving simulation experiment. They followed a highway route and indicated whether a target place name was present among a set of distractors shown on direction traffic signs along the route. We compared the default interletter sp…
The time course of processing handwritten words: An ERP investigation
2021
Available online 25 June 2021. Behavioral studies have shown that the legibility of handwritten script hinders visual word recognition. Furthermore, when compared with printed words, lexical effects (e.g., word-frequency effect) are magnified for less intelligible (difficult) handwriting (Barnhart and Goldinger, 2010; Perea et al., 2016). This boost has been interpreted in terms of greater influence of top-down mechanisms during visual word recognition. In the present experiment, we registered the participants’ ERPs to uncover top-down processing effects on early perceptual encoding. Participants’ behavioral and EEG responses were recorded to high- and low-frequency words that varied in scr…
Intelligibility in microbial complex systems: Wittgenstein and the score of life
2012
Knowledge in microbiology is reaching an extreme level of diversification and complexity, which paradoxically results in a strong reduction in the intelligibility of microbial life. In our days, the “score of life” metaphor is more accurate to express the complexity of living systems than the classic “book of life.” Music and life can be represented at lower hierarchical levels by music scores and genomic sequences, and such representations have a generational influence in the reproduction of music and life. If music can be considered as a representation of life, such representation remains as unthinkable as life itself. The analysis of scores and genomic sequences might provide mechanistic…
Eye movements when reading sentences with handwritten words.
2016
The examination of how we read handwritten words (i.e., the original form of writing) has typically been disregarded in the literature on reading. Previous research using word recognition tasks has shown that lexical effects (e.g., the word-frequency effect) are magnified when reading difficult handwritten words. To examine this issue in a more ecological scenario, we registered the participants’ eye movements when reading handwritten sentences that varied in the degree of legibility (i.e., sentences composed of words in easy vs. difficult handwritten style). For comparison purposes, we included a condition with printed sentences. Results showed a larger reading cost for sentences with dif…
The Black Block : Opaque Page as a Graphic Device
2019
The black block, a rectangle of black printing ink on the page of a book, surrounded by blank margins, is a peculiar graphic device. Its literary tradition has usually been considered to start from Tristram Shandy, which includes a renowned black page in memory of “poor Yorick”. Nevertheless, Sterne’s gimmick can be seen as an allusion to an older typographical tradition of the so-called mourning pages, which were featured in books remembering the departed decades before Tristram Shandy. In this article, we analyze the ways in which the black block is used in narrative literature, with examples chosen mainly from 20th century experimental fiction. The block proves ambivalent in that it seem…
Depth-of-Field of the Accommodating Eye
2014
Our eyes project information from a three-dimensional world to a basically two-dimensional surface, corresponding to the photoreceptor plane in the retina. In theory, only one plane or surface of world can be in focus at one time. However, the eye exhibits a certain tolerance to out-of-focus images, a feature that is known as depth-of-focus (DOF). The corresponding distance range in which the objects are seen “clearly” is known as depth-of-field (DOFi). Although DOF and DOFi refer to an interval of distances or a dioptric range in the image and object space, respectively, both parameters define a similar concept and are usually interchangeable. This article will mainly refer to DOFi because…
RAPID PROTOTYPING FOR THE EXTENSION OF THE ACCESSIBILITY TO CULTURAL HERITAGE FOR BLIND PEOPLE
2019
Abstract. The extension of accessibility of CH to disabled people is a current topic of great importance. Today, there exist a lot of ongoing projects aimed at the extension of accessibility using the most recent and low cost technologies to improve accessibility to CH. One of the technologies, today available that can help to improve accessibility to CH, is certainly rapid prototyping. The main goal of the research here illustrated is the application of rapid prototyping for the extension of accessibility of Cultural Heritage (CH) to blind and visually impaired people. This document reports an experiment that compared the effectiveness of different 3D models for the introduction of blind a…