The Optimal Viewing Position effect in the lower visual field.

The Optimal Viewing Position (OVP) effect shows that word identification is best when the eyes first fixate near the centre of words. While this effect has been extensively studied in normal reading conditions, it has not been much investigated for words in the periphery. Here, we compared, in a perceptual identification task, the OVP effect for words presented either on the line of sight or in the lower visual field.