Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1980. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-121).

When wearing prism goggles that displace vision laterally, the initial pointing errors are rapidly corrected. When the goggles are removed after a sufficient period of prism adaptation (PA), there is an aftereffect in spatial responding in the opposite direction of the original displacement. In this study 24 participants were tested using a computerized PA procedure to explore the effects of displacement direction (left/right), type of feedback during adaptation (hand/indirect), and type of target (fixed/non-fixed) on pointing error during 180 PA trials and the time-course of the aftereffect when measured in two ways: Subjective Straight Ahead (SSA) pointing (proprioceptive guidance towards perceived straight-ahead) and Visual Open Loop (VOL) pointing (visual and proprioceptive performance when pointing toward a straight-ahead target). During the initial stage of adaptation, all groups adjusted pointing in the opposite direction of prismatic displacement. Pointing error was similar for left and right goggle groups, but was more accurate and faster to stabilize with hand than indirect feedback. After pointing stabilized, the left-goggle/hand feedback group reached beyond targets (‘over-corrected’ pointing error), while other conditions failed to fully adjust pointing and remained ‘under-corrected’. In all groups, SSA aftereffects were weak or absent, while VOL aftereffects endured for at least 40-minutes. VOL aftereffects were larger following hand-feedback at all post-PA latencies, and for left-goggle groups at early post-PA latencies. Target-type affected performance during the stabilized-phase of adaptation, but did not influence SSA or VOL aftereffects. These results suggest that computerized PA had induced changes in vision but not proprioception, and provide novel evidence that the technology induced reliable aftereffects following both hand and indirect feedback PA. The results, when considered together with the study’s strengths and weaknesses, provide insight into how future studies might assess computerized-PA can be used to explore more complex attention and space representation process in healthy-normal and patients suffering from unilateral neglect.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1971. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [38]-43).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1980. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-48).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1971. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 49-53).

An analysis of the literature showed that many conclusions about the relationship between perceptual skills and reading were based on either the measurement of certain reading skills which did not depend upon the perceptual skills tested, or training programs which were not matched with the perceptual skills being studied. This, together with the fact that research in the field of mathematics has found that many computational mistakes are made because of mistaken symbols, led the author to define a perceptual skill, the search mechanism, which was specifically determined by the method of working algorithms. A pilot study was performed to establish testing procedures. The results of this study indicated that there was a relationship between the search mechanism and arithmetic computation. The experiment consisted of a treatment group and a control.group. All subjects were given pre- and post-tests on each of four measures; the search mechanism, vertical span, horizontal span and arithmetic computation. The treatment group was given training in the search mechanism. The following statistical results were established: there was a significant difference between the control and experimental groups on a measure of change of search ability; there were no significant differences between the control and experimental groups on measures of vertical span, horizontal span and arithmetic computation. Using the post-test on the control group only, it was established that: search ability was correlated with vertical span; search ability was not correlated with horizontal span; vertical span was correlated with horizontal span; search mechanism, with the effects of vertical span and horizontal span removed, was correlated with arithmetic computation. This latter finding means that the variance in arithmetic scores accounted for by search mechanism, vertical span, and horizontal span was significantly different from that accounted for by vertical span and horizontal span alone. Two possible conclusions were suggested. The first was that the training period was too short for transfer from the search skill to algorithmic performance to take place. The second was that the increase in the search procedure test could be explained by vertical span being used with increasing efficiency within the new context of search procedure testing. Because a low correlation was obtained between arithmetic and vertical span the achieved stability of the arithmetic scores was to be expected. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate