Number
five of “The Ten Commandments of Situational Awareness©”, HERE,
states to always be AWARE of your surroundings, and to do that you need to use all
your senses, but 80% of the information that your brain processes in any fast
paced situation is received by your eyes and most of that is from your
peripheral vision, so the eyes have it!
Your
field of vision is the area you can see when looking forward without moving
your head. The human field of vision is
determined by the shape of our skulls, the placement of our eyes on the front
of our skulls, and the structure of our eyes.
Your
peripheral vision, or as it sometimes called “peripheral awareness”, is less
focused than your central vision, and because of this it is weak at
distinguishing detail, color, and shape, but it is extremely strong at
detecting movement and light. The visual
information picked up in your mid and far peripheral fields, actually travels
25% faster to your brain than information coming from your central vision. Your peripheral vision is also used to help you
stay upright; in fact, your brain uses 20% of its visual capacity just to keep you
standing!
Directly
ahead of you at “12” on the clock, in the central vision cone, is where you can
see the best, with the most detail. And
in the very center of your central vision cone is the foveal cone, and this is
where your vision is the sharpest. The
foveal cone is only about 1o wide, and outside of this cone your
visual acuity drops off rapidly. Outside
of the 10o degree cone, surrounding the foveal cone, you can only
see about one-tenth of what you can see within the foveal field. That is why you must “put your head on a
swivel” and actively scan your surroundings.
By scanning your surroundings, turning your head to the right and left and using your peripheral vision, you are able increase your visual field by 60o on each side, or to “5” on the clock dial, and all the way around to “7” o’clock.
So,
actively scan your surroundings, by turning your head from either your left or
right to your center over a count of one second, or “one-mississippi”, then
scanning your forward area for one second, or “two-mississippi”,
before moving your head to the other side over a count of “three-mississippi”.
Keep your head on a swivel and stay aware and stay safe.
Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Strengthening the Eyes©”,
where we will talk about strengthening your peripheral vision and how this will
help you.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE,
and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free
to leave a comment on either site. I
announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at
bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Sources
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Institute; “Pilot Vision”, FAA Aviation News:
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accessed February 7, 2025
George, Fred; “Can You
See In Time To Avoid”, Flying Magazine, April 1991, pages 81 to 84, https://books.google.com/books?id=l29cHVBNFhMC&pg=PA81&dq=%22field+of+vision%22+aviation&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwivmoLFhbOLAxVCD1kFHSWUNSs4KBDoAXoECAUQAw#v=onepage&q=%22field%20of%20vision%22%20aviation&f=false,
accessed February 7, 2025
Grand Developmental
Vision Institute; “2 Ways Strong Peripheral Vision Can Help You Avoid Sports
Injuries”, January 12, 2021, https://www.grandvisioninstitute.com/2-ways-strong-peripheral-vision-can-help-you-avoid-sports-injuries/,
accessed February 8, 2025
Langewiesche, William;
“The Eyes Have It”, Flying Magazine November 1978, page 116, https://books.google.com/books?id=S8rkR5Hozv8C&pg=PA116&dq=%22field+of+vision%22+aviation&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj738f6hrOLAxVCMlkFHVyVEso4PBDoAXoECAsQAw#v=onepage&q=%22field%20of%20vision%22%20aviation&f=false,
accessed February 7, 2025
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accessed February 8, 2025
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[Smart Optometry Ltd. ©], accessed February 8, 2025
Reflexion Admin; “How To
Improve Peripheral Vision With Simple Exercises”, June 1, 2020, [© 2023
Reflexion Interactive Technologies, Inc.], https://reflexion.co/blog/how-to-improve-peripheral-vision/,
accessed February 8, 2025
Sports Vision Training;
“What Are the Best Exercises to Train Peripheral Vision?”, https://sportsvisiontrainingmn.com/what-are-the-best-exercises-to-train-peripheral-vision/,
accessed February 8, 2025
Wikimedia, “Field of view
for both eye - human binocular vision”, November 9, 2014, by Zyxwv99, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FOV_both_eyes.svg,
accessed February 8, 2025
Wikimedia, “Vertical
field of view of the human eye”, November 2, 2014, by Zyxwv99, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vertical_FOV.svg,
accessed February 8, 2025
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