5 ms·
I think it'd be impossible because when you think you move your eye, your brain is essentially just moving a bitmap image of what you're looking at around the c
by sillysaurus2 13y ago
I think it'd be impossible because when you think you move your eye, your brain is essentially just moving a bitmap image of what you're looking at around the center of your vision. E.g. look at the word "sillysaurus2" above my comment. Look at the 's', then look at the 'y' -- keep looking back and forth. Your eye likely isn't moving at all, even though your focus of vision does. It happens mentally rather than physically.
- yackob03 13y agoI tried what you said and I could definitely feel my eye moving. Is that being synthesized by my brain?
- sillysaurus2 13y agoIndeed, it is. Strange but true. The way to convince yourself your eyeball isn't moving is to touch your actual eyeball with your fingertip -- like press lightly against the left corner side of your left eyeball with your left index finger -- and then switch your gaze back and forth between the two letters. As long as your viewing distance is correct, you won't feel any movement. (You may have to back your head away from the screen. I'm viewing from a distance of arm's length.) On the other hand, if you look back and forth between adjacent words, then you can feel physical eye movement.
- erikpukinskis 13y agoI recorded a video of myself doing this, and I certainly can't see any obvious eye movements. But if I think about the number of degrees that my eye is shifting between the 's' and the 'y', it's probably one degree at most. It's not clear to me that even if my eye was moving I would be able to register that movement in a video. I'm assuming you've seen some peer reviewed research that fixed peoples' heads and used high resolution eye tracking to support your hypotheses, though?