Part 1 Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements with Obstructions

Part 1: Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements with Obstructions and / or Guidelines • When you track a stimulus along a predictable path, your eyes movement in a smooth, fluid manner called smooth pursuit movements. • Stimulus 1: Track ball on oval path • Stimulus 2: Track ball on oval path; bottom of path obstructed • Stimulus 3: Track ball on oval path; top of path obstructed • Stimulus 4: Track ball on oval path; bottom of path obstructed add guideline • Dependent variables = speed of left / right movement; time paused at end • Independent variables = obstructions and presence of guideline • What is your hypothesis and why? – Write it down now. • The subject is to track the ball on the screen WITHOUT moving their head. There is a red fixation point in the center of the slide in between each stimulus. Focus on the red dot until the slide automatically advances and then follow the blue dot on the oval path. When the path is obstructed try to maintain the same path to catch the blue dot when it reappears. • When the subject is in position and ready, switch to the Biopac Science Lab program begin the recording by pressing start and then return to this presentation and advance to the first fixation slide.

End of Part 1 • Please switch to the Biopac Science Lab and stop the recording. • Then advance to Part 2 instructions.

Part 2 – Saccadic Eye Movements during Reading Varied Levels of Text • When you read, your eyes do not move smoothly across the line but rather make quick, reflexive jumps called saccades from fixation point to fixation point. • In the next portion you will silently read 3 passages that vary in reading level from easy to intermediate to difficult. • Dependent variable = number of saccades per line • Independent variable = level of reading • What is your hypothesis and why? – Write it down now. • The subject is to silently read each passage and press the enter key to advance to the next fixation slide after they finish reading the passage. • When the subject is in position and ready, begin the recording by pressing resume on the BIOPAC program and then return here to advance to the first fixation slide.

Easy Text It was a rainy gray Saturday morning. I was bored. All of my friends were out of town, and I had nothing to do. My two little sisters, Allison and Brooke, were playing in the next room. I decided to see what they were doing. I walked into the room that they shared, and saw the bags of candy they had brought home from the party the night before. Our mother had said they shouldn’t eat too much candy, so I stooped down to pick the bags up and put them away. As soon as my hand touched them, Whoosh! I was whizzing down a red licorice slide. I was moving so quickly that everything was a giant blur. Plop! I landed on what appeared to be a deserted beach

Intermediate Text Four of the five principal organs are located at the main United Nations headquarters, which is on international territory in New York City. They hold regular meetings throughout the year to discuss and decide on a variety of issues. The International Court of Justice is located in The Hague, where it hears cases related to war crimes, illegal state interference, and ethnic cleansing. Other major agencies are based in the UN offices in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi. Other UN institutions are located throughout the world. The six official languages of the United Nations, used in intergovernmental meetings and documents, are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

Difficult Text Make room, and let him stand before our face. Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too, that thou but leadest this fashion of thy malice to the last hour of act; and then 'tis thought thou wilt show thy mercy and remorse more strange than is thy strange apparent cruelty; And where thou now exacts the penalty, which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh, thou wilt not only loose the forfeiture, But, touched with human gentleness and love, forgive a moiety of the principal; Glancing an eye of pity on his losses, that have of late so huddled on his back, now to press a royal merchant down and pluck commiseration of his state.

You are done with data collection press stop on the BIOPAC and then done. You should then do the dot plot exercise to control the dot on the screen with your eye movements.