Influence of foveal load on the functional visual field

Abstract

The functional visual field defined in terms of a discrimination task of a target presented peripherally among ambiguous background patterns was investigated for various foveal loads which were to be recognized at the central retina. Foveal loads were numbers, letters, place names, traffic signs, and other figures to simulate commonplace situations for foveal information processing, and grouped into three in order of recognition difficulty based on daily experience. Boundaries of the functional visual field were obtained for simple fixation and for certain foveal loads. Comparison of these boundaries clearly showed shrinkage of the functional visual field size with the foveal loads of greater recognition difficulty. © 1975 Psychonomic Society, Inc.