Did Javal measure eye movements during reading?

Louis-Émile Javal is widely credited as the first person to record eye movements in read-ing. This is so despite the fact that Javal himself never made that claim but it is perpetu-ated in contemporary text books, scientific articles and on the internet. Javal did coin the term ‘saccades’ in the con...

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Main Authors: Nicholas J. Wade, Benjamin W. Tatler
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2009-05-01
Series:Journal of Eye Movement Research
Subjects:
Online Access:https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/2284
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author Nicholas J. Wade
Benjamin W. Tatler
author_facet Nicholas J. Wade
Benjamin W. Tatler
author_sort Nicholas J. Wade
collection DOAJ
description Louis-Émile Javal is widely credited as the first person to record eye movements in read-ing. This is so despite the fact that Javal himself never made that claim but it is perpetu-ated in contemporary text books, scientific articles and on the internet. Javal did coin the term ‘saccades’ in the context of eye movements during reading but he did not measure them. In this article we suggest that a misreading of Huey’s (1908) book on reading led to the misattribution and we attempt to dispel this myth by explaining Javal’s contribution and also clarifying who did initially describe discontinuous eye movements during reading.
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spelling doaj-art-e130545e7ff143e29a57e545134f14a12025-08-20T01:55:02ZengMDPI AGJournal of Eye Movement Research1995-86922009-05-012510.16910/jemr.2.5.5Did Javal measure eye movements during reading?Nicholas J. Wade0Benjamin W. Tatler1University of DundeeUniversity of DundeeLouis-Émile Javal is widely credited as the first person to record eye movements in read-ing. This is so despite the fact that Javal himself never made that claim but it is perpetu-ated in contemporary text books, scientific articles and on the internet. Javal did coin the term ‘saccades’ in the context of eye movements during reading but he did not measure them. In this article we suggest that a misreading of Huey’s (1908) book on reading led to the misattribution and we attempt to dispel this myth by explaining Javal’s contribution and also clarifying who did initially describe discontinuous eye movements during reading.https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/2284saccadeeye movementjerkhistoryJavalHering
spellingShingle Nicholas J. Wade
Benjamin W. Tatler
Did Javal measure eye movements during reading?
Journal of Eye Movement Research
saccade
eye movement
jerk
history
Javal
Hering
title Did Javal measure eye movements during reading?
title_full Did Javal measure eye movements during reading?
title_fullStr Did Javal measure eye movements during reading?
title_full_unstemmed Did Javal measure eye movements during reading?
title_short Did Javal measure eye movements during reading?
title_sort did javal measure eye movements during reading
topic saccade
eye movement
jerk
history
Javal
Hering
url https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/2284
work_keys_str_mv AT nicholasjwade didjavalmeasureeyemovementsduringreading
AT benjaminwtatler didjavalmeasureeyemovementsduringreading