If you look at an item that is far away, vs a smaller version of the same item up close, such that both objects take up the exact same degrees of arc in your field of view, what do your eyes do differently to focus on that item? I know that your brain may interpret the information differently, but do your eyes themselves actually do anything different?
Edit: What I've looked at so far: I have already learned about the basics of how the eye uses ciliary muscles to bend the lens to look at up close objects, and then relaxes in order to look at far away objects.
What I do not understand is how, or even whether, the eye behaves differently when dealing with size. For example, what is the difference between reducing the font size on your computer monitor vs simply moving your computer monitor further away? You can reduce the seconds of arc taken up by the text by either method, and decrease the angle of the light hitting your retina by the same amount.
I have read many articles and watched videos about how the eye works, but all of these materials have focused on distance of viewed objects from the observer, without regard to size. My question here has to do with how or whether changes in size of an observed object elicts a different physiological response than moving that object closer and further away.
