An approach to acquired visual loss in adults

This article has covered the fundamentals of evaluating visual loss. These include a careful history and attention to the "vital signs" of neuro-ophthalmology: visual acuities, visual field results, and pupillary reactions.     

Recognition potential: sensitivity to visual field stimulated

The recognition potential (RP) was distinguished from P3 and eye blink responses by its sensitivity to visual area stimulated. Images were flashed in upper and lower hemifields. Current source density profiles were computed, using 16 midline scalp electrodes. For P3 and eye blink profiles, the hemifield stimulated was not a significant factor. For the recognition potential, upper and lower field stimulation produced radically different profiles. An improved recognition potential signal was obtained by a new mathematical procedure. It used the difference in sensitivity to visual area stimulated to reject P3 and eye blink responses.     

Automated clinical visual acuity testing

We developed a method for testing visual acuity using a general-purpose microcomputer which displays visual acuity targets on a television monitor, controls a staircase psychophysical testing procedure, and provides a printed record of mean visual acuity and standard deviation. This automated procedure can be used to increase the precision of clinical visual acuity testing and to determine if changes in a patient's visual acuity are statistically significant.     

An invitation to visual thinking.

Presents commentary by Lauren S. Seifert, President of Division 10, regarding Rudolf Arnheim's contributions. The work of Gestalt psychologists, Arnheim's included, so permeates post-millennial thinking about visual abstraction that we, ironically, scarcely recognize their contributions, as such. Some contemporary psychologists might be under the impression that Gestalt psychology had a brief and limited effect on the field, which has now abated. Psychology in the 21st century might even suffer from source amnesia regarding key aspects of our thinking about: (1) how sensation becomes abstracted into perceptual categories, and (2) how perceptual categories or worked and reworked into representational concepts. Psychologists who study artists and their work understand how remarkable it is to observe evidence of this lurching forward from sensation, to perceptual abstractions (and their interplay with other abstractions), and then, onto beautiful representations. This issue of Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts embodies an expressive representation of Arnheim's contributions, which began long ago in Arnheim's own writings, moved forward as communications in aesthetics (by many scholars and including the symposium to honor him at the APA), and advanced to a truly beautiful, expressive representation of genuinely splendid ideas (e.g., in this issue). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An etiologic approach to obesity

Emotional or social barriers to a healthy diet and physical activity are typical in obese patients. Counseling can help identify the barriers and improve either the situation or patients' response to it. Long-term success most often occurs when there is a cognitive shift from focusing on weight to focusing on health. Drugs can be a useful adjunct but cannot substitute for lifestyle modification.     

Subjective and objective visual acuity testing techniques

The Catford apparatus for determining the objective visual acuity was elevated with 20 normal (20 eyes) and 40 abnormal (75 diseased eyes) patients. The vision of the normal individuals was fogged with neutral-density filters and convex lenses. Eyes with normal or near normal vision showed good correlation between optokinetic response and visual acuity, but no correlation was observed in eyes with poor vision. These findings, which vary from those of Catford, indicate that objective methods of visual acuity testing using a nystagmoid response do not appear useful for general clinical purposes.     

Interaction effects in the lateral visual field: an extension of Bouma's (1970) approach

The recognizability of a letter is impaired by the presence of additional letters. This phenomenon is called lateral masking. Proceeding on the assumption of Bouma (1970) lateral masking can be described in terms of retinal eccentricity of the target letter and the distance between target and flanking stimuli. In this paper, we will address to the question if these kinds of parameters are adequate for describing lateral masking effects. For this purpose, characteristics of the string like its length and its homogenity are varied. The subject's task is to identify the central letter of a tachistoscopically presented string. The targets in the string are flanked both by only x and by different randomly selected letters. Additionally, we varied the length of the string. The data show that these variations influence the strength of the masking effect. It is concluded that a pure sensorical approach is not sufficient for an explanation of lateral masking effects.     

Attention in schizophrenia: An analysis of selectivity in the functional visual field.

Presents a visual–spatial approach to the study of attention dysfunction. The hypotheses of broadened and narrowed attention were tested by comparing peripheral visual discrimination of 10 acute schizophrenic and 11 chronic schizophrenic inpatients and 16 normal Ss (hospital staff) within 2 regions of the functional visual field. Pairs of visual stimuli were presented at 4 display angles. Measures of response accuracy, response latency, and latency of eye movement of peripheral stimuli were obtained. Results indicate that acute schizophrenics generally discriminated peripheral signals more accurately than chronic schizophrenics or normals. Normals discriminated signals more accurately than chronic schizophrenics. Results suggest the differential use of selective strategies. Limitations in the use of peripheral information among chronic schizophrenics implies a reduction in the amount of information transmitted in a selective act and a reduction in the economy of selective activities. In contrast to normals, acute schizophrenics utilized more efficient selective strategies over a greater spatial area, implying greater transmission of information within discrete selective acts. Results also indicate that schizophrenics initiated eye movements earlier than normals and that response latency was greater for acute schizophrenics than for normals. Results are interpreted as providing partial support for P. H. Venable's (1964) theory of input dysfunction. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job samples: A better approach to selection testing?

Comments on L. R. O'Leary's (see record 1973-25947-001) article on the use of job sample tests as valid predictors of job performance. Problems with O'Leary's presentation involve (1) individual exceptions to probabilistic predictions, (2) his switching of criteria in an example, and (3) his statement that the use of job simulation tests reduces both Type I and Type II errors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intraocular pressure and visual field defects

During a five-year study period, therapeutic levels of intraocular pressure (IOP) and visual field defects were assessed in 108 patients with open-angle glaucoma. In a group of 53 glaucoma patients with non-progressive visual field changes (mean age 65.2 +/- 6.3 years), the IOP level was 15.8 +/- 2.6 mm Hg, whereas in a group of 58 patients with progressive visual field changes (mean age 68.7 +/- 8.3 years) the IOP level was 19.9 +/- 2.9 mm Hg. Study results suggested that preservation of the visual field in glaucoma patients requires therapeutic IOP levels of < 16 mm Hg.     

A synthetic validity approach to testing differential prediction hypotheses.

A new method is presented for conducting differential prediction analyses that makes it possible to test differential prediction hypotheses with adequate statistical power even when the sample size within a job or a job family is very small. This method, called synthetic differential prediction analysis, represents an application of the logic of synthetic validation to differential prediction analyses. The authors explain this new method and describe its application in a selection-system validation study conducted in a large organization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An approach to treatment planning.

A treatment-planning framework in described along 3 dimensions: patient characteristics, treatment techniques, and treatment goals. Patient characteristics are evaluated in terms of copings skills, social support network, and sources of self-esteem, as well as Axis I and II disorders and functioning on Axis V. Treatment techniques encompass a variety of modalities and are broadly classified as reality or insight oriented. Treatment goals are defined as very brief (less than 2 mo), short-term (2 to 12 mo), or long-term (more than 12 mo). Six basic forms of treatment and the conditions under which they are recommended are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)