We examined the developmental differences in motor control and learning of a two-segment movement. One hundred and five participants (53 female) were divided into three age groups (7-8 years, 9-10 years and 19-27 years). They performed a two-segment movement task in four conditions (full vision, fully disturbed vision, disturbed vision in the…

Purpose: The role of vision in speech representation was investigated in congenitally blind speakers and sighted speakers by studying the correlates of contrastive focus, a prosodic condition in which phonemic contrasts are enhanced. It has been reported that the lips (visible articulators) are less involved in implementing the rounding feature…

A retinally stabilized object readily undergoes perceptual fading and disappears from consciousness. This startling phenomenon is commonly believed to arise from local bottom-up sensory adaptation to edge information that occurs early in the visual pathway, such as in the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus or retinal ganglion cells. Here…

Adults with visual impairments experience a loss of balance and mobility, which presents a barrier to independence and is associated with the fear of falling. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which visual status, age, gender, body mass index (BMI), and the strength of quadriceps and hamstrings contribute to compromised…

We frequently encounter groups of similar objects in our visual environment: a bed of flowers, a basket of oranges, a crowd of people. How does the visual system process such redundancy? Research shows that rather than code every element in a texture, the visual system favors a summary statistical representation of all the elements. The authors…

Prolonged visual deprivation from early childhood to maturity is believed to cause permanent visual impairment. However, there have been case reports of substantial improvement of binocular vision in human adults following lifelong visual impairment or deprivation. These observations, together with recent findings of adult ocular dominance…

This study assesses the validity of an interview questionnaire designed to predict performance by low-vision adults (N=41) on tasks of finding, detecting, scanning, and tracking. Subjects' ratings of difficulty with these tasks were compared to ratings of trained professionals. Results indicate self-report may be of some value in predicting…

To investigate whether screen color is an important variable in the prescription of closed circuit television (CCTV) systems, 16 adults with low vision were assessed on reading performance on white, green, and amber screens. When the screen luminance and contrast were equated for each CCTV, subjects' reading performance was unaffected by screen…

This study examined the hypothesis that the effective visual field of 5-year-old children is smaller than that of 8-year-old children and adults. In addition, an effort was made to determine whether task demands affect the size of the effective visual field and if so, whether the effects on performance are different for children and adults. A…

Threshold luminance necessary to evoke an eye movement was evaluated as a function of age (6-21 years) and visual angle (6-42 degrees from the fovea). (BRT)

The role of occlusion configurations in binocular vision was studied in 4 experiments with 10 adult observers. Results reveal that occlusion relationships are sensed during the earliest stages of binocular processing. A simple theoretical framework that unifies fusion, stereopsis, and occlusion is advanced. (SLD)

The study assessed transfer of visual training for myopia using two different training stimuli and a single subject A-B-C-A design with a male student volunteer. A procedure including stimulus fading and reinforcement (positive verbal feedback) was used to effectively improve performance on both behavioral acuity tests during the training phases…

Children and adults were tested on their beliefs about whether visual processes involved intromissions (visual input) or extramissions (visual output) across a variety of situations. Results were inconsistent with the idea that simple experiences increase or reinforce a coherent theory of vision and have implications for understanding the nature…

The effects of perceptual and cognitive factors on information processing in visual periphery were studied in 5- and 8-year-old children and in adults. Subjects judged either the similarity (Study 1) or identity (Study 2) of geometric forms. (Author/SB)