Abstract
Critical flicker fusion thresholds (CFFTs) describe when quick amplitude modulations of a light source become undetectable as the frequency of the modulation increases and are thought to underlie a number of visual processing skills, including reading. Here, we compare the impact of two vision-training approaches, one involving contrast sensitivity training and the other directional dot-motion training, compared to an active control group trained on Sudoku. The three training paradigms were compared on their effectiveness for altering CFFT. Directional dot-motion and contrast sensitivity training resulted in significant improvement in CFFT, while the Sudoku group did not yield significant improvement. This finding indicates that dot-motion and contrast sensitivity training similarly transfer to effect changes in CFFT. The results, combined with prior research linking CFFT to high-order cognitive processes such as reading ability, and studies showing positive impact of both dot-motion and contrast sensitivity training in reading, provide a possible mechanistic link of how these different training approaches impact reading abilities.
Highlights
The notion that perception is trainable has existed for over a century, and is supported by many "real life" instances, e.g., learning features that distinguish one object or set of objects from another (Gibson, 1953)
In accordance with our hypotheses, a paired t-test analysis for within group Critical flicker fusion thresholds (CFFTs) performance differences showed that the ULTIMEYES post-test score (M = 21.20 Hz and SD = 1.73) was significantly greater than pre-test (M = 19.85 Hz and SD = 1.08) [t(9) = 2.38, p = 0.02, and r2 = 0.39] and likewise CFFT increased for the dot-motion training group; pre-test (M = 18.86 Hz and SD = 1.56) to post-test (M = 19.60 Hz and SD = 2.24) [t(9) = 2.16, p = 0.03, and r2 = 0.34]
Our results show that training on both the dot-motion and contrast sensitivity paradigms resulted in significant increase in CFFT
Summary
The notion that perception is trainable has existed for over a century, and is supported by many "real life" instances, e.g., learning features that distinguish one object or set of objects from another (Gibson, 1953). A key conceptual issue related to perceptual learning serving as a rehabilitative approach is that training fundamental visual processes can lead to broad based changes to vision in general (Deveau et al, 2014). We examine this idea by examining two different visual training approaches; random dot-motion (Gori et al, 2015) and contrast sensitivity training (Deveau et al, 2014) that have been shown to transfer to reading performance. These results are compared to an active control group in which participants were exposed to Sudoku, a video game consisting of a cognitive confliction task that has been claimed to improve players’ problem solving ability (Nombela et al, 2011)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
