The eye–hand span is the distance between the eye

Human eye

The human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...

s and the hand

Hand

A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered extremity located at the end of an arm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs...

s on a text—usually linguistic text that is being copy-typed or music notation that is being performed. The eye–hand span is typically measured from the location of central visual input

Fovea

The fovea centralis, also generally known as the fovea , is a part of the eye, located in the center of the macula region of the retina....

, and stretches between the syllable

Syllable

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...

 or chord

Chord (music)

A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...

 currently being typed or performed, and the lateral location of the simultaneous fixation. Some authors refer to the eye–hand span as the "perceptual span", in some cases including peripheral input

Peripheral vision

Peripheral vision is a part of vision that occurs outside the very center of gaze. There is a broad set of non-central points in the field of view that is included in the notion of peripheral vision...

. The eye–hand span is analogous to the eye–voice span in reading

Reading (process)

Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of constructing or deriving meaning . It is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas...

 language

Language

Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...

 aloud and in singing

Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

.

See also

• Eye–hand coordination
  Eye–hand coordination
  Eye–hand coordination is the coordinated control of eye movement with hand movement, and the processing of visual input to guide reaching and grasping along with the use of proprioception of the hands to guide the eyes. In simple terms, eye-hand coordination involves the coordinated vision and...
  
  
• Eye movement in language reading
  Eye movement in language reading
  Eye movement in reading involves visual processing of words. This was first described by the French ophthalmologist Louis Émile Javal in the late 19th century. He reported that eyes do not move continuously along a line of text, but make short rapid movements intermingled with short stops...
  
  
• Eye movement in music reading
  Eye movement in music reading
  Eye movement in music reading is the scanning of a musical score by a musician's eyes. This usually occurs as the music is read during performance, although musicians sometimes scan music silently to study it, and sometimes perform from memory without score. The phenomenon has been studied by...