Everyone has different ’bad spots’ in their vision

The ability to distinguish objects in peripheral vision varies significantly between individuals, finds new research from UCL, Paris Descartes University and Dartmouth College, USA. For example, some people are better at spotting things above their centre of vision while others are better at spotting things off to the right. The research and Dartmouth College, shows that on average we are worse at spotting objects in crowded environments when they are above or below eye level, although the extent to which this happens varies between individuals. "If you're driving a truck with a high cabin and looking straight ahead, you're less likely to notice pedestrians or cyclists at street level in your peripheral vision than if you were lower down with those same pedestrians on the left and right," explains lead author Dr John Greenwood (UCL Experimental Psychology). "A visually cluttered environment like a busy city road makes it even more difficult. As well as the physical blind spots on vehicles, people behind the wheel will also have different areas where their peripheral vision is better or worse." The study involved 12 volunteers who took part in a series of perception tests over several years. The key experiment involved focusing on a point in the centre of the screen while images of clocks were shown in different parts of the visual field, either a clock alone or with two other clocks next to it.