Reading as a Physiological Process

                                        
                                                               Photo by: Bhokme

Physiology is the science dealing with the functions and vital processes of living organisms. Reading is a process that requires the vitality of the human mind.

            Reading is a physiological process because as your eyes read what on the paper, the brain has to make an action on what to do with text written on it. In similar perspective Barton (2013) defined reading as a physiological process as your brain needs to react to what is on the page. It is the thinking and alertness of the brain that is used to process the words that are on a page or screen when you read. Whilst you are alert and thinking, the brain is working at full capacity, but even at rest it is performing physiological functions to keep us alive and keep us breathing. Our body is constantly performing physiological tasks, most of the time we are not aware of the reactions within our body that our brain and nervous system are causing.

            As the eyes see the printed word or the images, the Light patterns from the printed symbols hit the foveal areas or closely-packed sensory cells of the retina. Then, Chemical change is induced that create patterns of nerve currents into the optic nerve fiber, quickly currents travel to the center of the mid- brain and lastly, using the currents, the cerebral cortex interprets the symbols.

What are the different eye movements involved in reading?

a.       Fixation

• Eyes stopping or getting fixated on the word or words

• The duration of fixation is the length of time the eyes have to pause.

b.       Inter-fixation

• Eyes moving from stopping point to the other

c.       Return Sweeps

• Eyes swinging back from the end line to the beginning of the next line

d.       Saccades

• Short quick hop and jump movements done especially by literate people to move ahead on a line of print

e.       Regressions

·         Backward right-to-left movement in case there is a need to double check what is being read

Reading as a Process              
Reading is Physiological in Nature