Recent developments in the cognitive science of Braille reading

Ashwin Mathur, Vania Glyn & Dr. Barry Hughes

Department of Psychology,

University of Auckland

Outline

• Braille research

• Current research

–Our method

–A closer look at smoothness

– Examples of experiments

• Future directions

Braille Research

• Not a great deal of previous research examining finger movements during reading.

• Braille research often focussed on quantifying individual differences.

• Often difficult to answer questions by introspection.

Reading Braille

• Tracking finger movements allows analysis.

• Often use multiple fingers, moving differently.

–Unlike visual reading.

• Finger movements appear smooth, continuous.

Our method

• Developed by Barry Hughes and colleagues.

• Finger attachment with recording pen.

• Digital tablet records position and movement.

• Fine analysis of finger movements possible.

• Reading only with one dominant finger.

Position vs. Time

Velocity vs. Time

Smooth?

• Different factors could affect smoothness:

–Friction between finger and page.

–Motor control: how the brain moves the finger.

–Linguistic processing: the demand of reading different words/sentences.

Experiment 1

• Some sentences made of common words and letter combinations.

– “She said she had a reasonable morning.”

• Some sentences made of uncommon words and letter combinations.

– “She said she had newfound idiosyncrasies.”

• Word frequency had an effect.

• No effect from letter combination familiarity.

Experiment 2

• Examines reversals: backwards movements while reading.

• Read a sentence, and target back to one of two nouns.

• A few things vary:

– Target position.

– Target length.

– Sentence meaning.

Experiment 2

• One main question: how is movement guided?

• Less common to ‘miss’ or go past the target.

• Short words targeted more accurately.

• Doesn’t matter if sentence is meaningful or not.

More experiments

• Further experiments could incorporate neuro-imaging techniques.

• Comparing brain activity between different tasks for one Braille reader.

• Comparing brain activity between Braille readers and visual readers for specific tasks.

In conclusion

• Aiming towards a better understanding of how information is processed in the mind during Braille reading.

• Understanding how we learn Braille, and how to teach it.