How come we can focus on our peripheral vision without moving our pupil? (For example, during visual exams at the doctor or cheating on a written exam without getting caught)

Question

How come we can focus on our peripheral vision without moving our pupil? (For example, during visual exams at the doctor or cheating on a written exam without getting caught)

In: 7

Answer 1

We can’t. We can pay attention to it with a little concentration (pilots are trained to do this while flying at night to detect other aircraft), but the structure of the eye makes it so that we literally cannot focus on the periphery. Outside of the fovea (the clear, focused, central part of your visual field), the eye can only really detect motion (probably for threat detection purposes) and well-known structures and forms.