reading (redirected from perceptual span)

reading /read·ing/ (rēd´ing) understanding of written or printed symbols representing words.

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lip reading , speech reading understanding of speech through observation of the speaker's lip movements.

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reading

Etymology: AS, raedan

the linear process in which the genetic information contained in a nucleotide sequence is decoded, as in the translation of the messenger RNA into a sequence of amino acids in a polypeptide.

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reading 

The act of viewing and interpreting letters, words, sentences, etc. It consists of a pattern of eye movements. The eyes proceed along a line in a series of step-like saccades, separated by fixation pauses during which information from the text is acquired. The amount of reading matter correctly identified during the fixation pause is called the span of recognition or the perceptual span. Most saccades are made from left to right, but some occur in the opposite direction (called regression) to return to text recently read but not yet fully perceived. At the end of the line the eyes make a return sweep to the next line of text (Fig. R3). See saccadic eye movement; developmental eye movement test.

Fig. R3 Schematic illustration of eye movements during reading