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Washington, D.C. 1985
Committee on Vision
National Research Council
NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Emergent Techniques for
Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
Assessment of Visual Performance
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ii
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National
Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the
National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for
the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a
Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy
of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was established by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate
the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and of
advising the federal government. The Council operates in accordance with general policies determined by the
Academy under the authority of its congressional charter of 1863, which establishes the Academy as a private,
nonprofit, self-governing membership corporation. The Council has become the principal operating agency of
both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in the conduct of their
services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. It is administered jointly
by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. The National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of
Medicine were established in 1964 and 1970, respectively, under the charter of the National Academy of
Sciences.
This work relates to Department of the Navy contract N00014-80-C-0159 issued by the Office of Naval
Research under Contract Authority NR 201-124. However, the content does not necessarily reflect the position
or the policy of the government, and no official endorsement should be inferred.
The United States government has at least a royalty-free, nonexclusive, and irrevocable license throughout
the world for government purposes to publish, translate, reproduce, deliver, perform, dispose of, and to authorize
others to do, all or any portion of this work.
Available from: Committee on Vision, National Research Council, 2101 Constitution Avenue, Washington,
D.C. 20418.
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iii
WORKING GROUP ON EMERGENT TECHNIQUES FOR ASSESSMENT OF
VISUAL PERFORMANCE
IVAN BODIS-WOLLNER (Cochair), Department of Neurology, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York
(M.D., neurology)
LEWIS O. HARVEY (Cochair), Department of Psychology, University of Colorado (Ph.D., psychology)
JAMES P. COMERFORD, New England College of Optometry, Boston (O.D., Ph.D., optometry, psychophysics)
ANN B. FULTON, Department of Ophthalmology, Children's Hospital, Boston (M.D., ophthalmology)
ARTHUR P. GINSBURG, Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio
(Ph.D., psychophysics, engineering)
JAMES E. GOODSON, Naval Aerospace Medical Institute, Pensacola, Florida (Ph.D., physiological psychology)
FREDERICK KITTERLE, Department of Psychology, University of Toledo (Ph.D., psychology)
HERSCHEL W. LEIBOWITZ, Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University (Ph.D., psychology)
D. ALFRED OWENS, Department of Psychology, Franklin and Marshall College (Ph.D., psychology)
RANDOLPH BLAKE, Consultant
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iv
COMMITTEE ON VISION
ROBERT SEKULER (Chair), Departments of Psychology, Ophthalmology, and Neurobiology/Physiology,
Northwestern University
ANTHONY J. ADAMS, School of Optometry, University of California, Berkeley
IRVING BIEDERMAN, Board of Studies in Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz
RONALD E. CARR, New York University Medical Center
NIGEL DAW, Departments of Physiology and Biophysics, Washington University, St. Louis
SHELDON EBENHOLTZ, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin
DONALD A. FOX, College of Optometry, University of Houston
LLOYD KAUFMAN, Department of Psychology, New York University
JO ANN KINNEY, Surrey, Maine
DONALD G. PITTS, College of Optometry, University of Houston
WAYNE SHEBILSKE, Study Director
LLYN M. ELLISON, Administrative Secretary
GORA P. LERMA, Administrative Secretary
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PREFACE v
PREFACE
The Committee on Vision is a standing committee of the National Research Council's Commission on
Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. The committee provides analysis and advice on scientific issues
and applied problems involving vision. It also attempts to stimulate the development of visual science and to
provide a forum in which basic and applied scientists, engineers, and clinicians can interact. Working groups of
the committee study questions that may involve engineering and equipment, physiological and physical optics,
neurophysiology, psychophysics, perception, environmental effects on vision, and treatment of visual disorders.
In the past several years, the Committee on Vision has formed a number of working groups and sponsored
symposia to consider guidelines for specifying the measurement of vision. The working groups have made
recommendations on the testing of color vision, visual fields, and visual acuity; a recent symposium sponsored
by the committee concentrated on clinical applications of visual psychophysics (Proenza et al., 1981). In contrast
to these studies of accepted practices, this report focuses on emerging techniques that could help determine
whether people have the vision necessary to do their jobs. Its purpose is to examine some of these emerging
techniques, to point out their usefulness in predicting performance on other visual and visual-motor tasks, and to
make recommendations for future research.
The members of the working group were chosen for their expertise in vision research, and the report reflects
their evaluation of which techniques are important and worthy of wider appreciation and application in the
screening of vision and visual performance. They did not consider the appropriateness of these new methods for
medical diagnosis or for clinical evaluation.
Funds for this study were provided from the general budget of the Committee on Vision, which is
sponsored by the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force, the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of
Handicapped Research, the National Science Foundation, the Office of Special Education, the Veterans
Administration, and from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Optometric Association.
The committee gratefully acknowledges the efforts of those who worked on the report. Randolph Blake, of
Northwestern University, made a major contribution to this study by reviewing all the materials that had been
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staff.
PREFACE
Committee on Vision
Robert Sekuler, Chair
the study. Production of the report was effectively assisted by Llyn Ellison and Gora Lerma of the committee
vi
prepared and writing a paper that provided a framework for the report. The final report was prepared by Lewis
Harvey and Ivan Bodis-Wollner. Key Dismukes played an important role as study director in the early stages of
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CONTENTS vii
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
CONTRAST SENSITIVITY FUNCTION 2
Background 2
Relationship Between Acuity and Contrast Sensitivity 4
Visual Acuity and Contrast Sensitivity Function in Normal Vision 9
Contrast Sensitivity Function and Visual Performance 10
Suprathreshold Contrast Functions 13
Sensitivity to Phase 13
Conclusions and Recommendations 14
DARK-FOCUS: ANOMALOUS REFRACTIVE ERRORS AND ACCOMMODATION 14
Background 14
Low Visibility Conditions 16
Optical Corrections 17
The Mandelbaum Effect and Dirty Windscreens 18
Space Perception and Interactions With Binocular Vergence 18
Implications 19
Recommendations 19
Population Norms 20
Stability and Variation of the Dark-Focus 20
Clinical Measurement of the Dark-Focus 21
The Relationship Between Dark-Focus and Pilot Performance 21
DYNAMIC MEASURES 22
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Dynamic Visual Acuity 22
Background 22
Implications 23
Recommendations 24
Dynamic Depth Tracking 24
Background 24
Conclusions and Recommendations 25
TWO MODES OF VISUAL PROCESSING 25
Background 25
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CONTENTS viii
Implications 26
Spatial Disorientation and Motion Sickness 27
Vehicle Guidance and Night Driving 27
Visual Narrowing Under Stress and Cortical Brain Damage 27
Aircraft Instrumentation 28
Gaze Stability 28
Interaction Between Focal and Ambient Vision 28
Recommendations 29
SUMMARY RECOMMENDATIONS 29
APPENDIX A: BASIC FACTORS IN SPATIAL CONTRAST SENSITIVITY 31
Mean Luminance 31
Retinal Locus 31
Field Size 32
Temporal Characteristics 32
Orientation 34
APPENDIX B: DETECTION SENSITIVITY AND RESPONSE BIAS 37
High Threshold Model of Detection 38
Signal Detection Theory 38
Summary 43
APPENDIX C: BASIC CONCEPTS IN FOURIER ANALYSIS 44
Stimulus Specification 44
Linear Systems Analysis 46
Gabor Functions 47
APPENDIX D: THE USE OF TESTS FOR SCREENING AND SELECTION 49
Reliability 49
Accuracy 49
Validity 50
Screening and Selection 50
Summary 52
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REFERENCES 53