D.Phil. (Optometry) / Vision is a learned skill that implies an appropriate interpretation of what is seen and interpreted (Abel, 1999). Neural pathways are established as a result of learning, strengthened by achieving a task goal and grow stronger as practice progresses (Edelman, 1992). According to Davis, Kimmet and Auty (1990) it takes 500 hours of practice to change a skill and use that skill competently during competitions. Therefore, training sessions should be structured around learning the perceptual and cognitive skills needed for successful decisions in different environments (Vickers, 2007). Four elements - skill execution, concentration, response time and decision-making - were identified and are known to have a great effect on overall sports performance (Coffey and Reichow, 1995; Erickson, 2007 & Vickers, 2007). A reliable model that could be used to evaluate performance levels by applying these four cardinal elements of performance has been developed through this study. Twenty five rugby players participated in the study which was conducted over a period of three years. The sample was divided into four groups of which three were experimental and one was a control group. Two of the three experimental groups, who came from different regional teams, had specific visual training in the national side. The third experimental group had off-season visual training only and the control group had no visual training at all. Two methods were used to evaluate performance: in the first method three independent top class raters conducted the performance evaluation and the second was based on data collection. Both methods involved the Verusco© system. The results indicated a poor correlation among the raters: two of the three raters agreed that Group 4 (Regional team B, that played for the national side and had specific visual training) performed significantly better than Group 3 (Regional team B that had no visual training) in decision-making during season 1 and Group 1 (Regional team A) showed a significant improvement in skill execution from season 1 to season 2. Group 1 (Regional team A) had non–specific off-season visual training. Groups 2 (Regional team A, that played for the national side) and 4 (Regional team B, that played for the national side) received specific visual training and Group 3 (Regional team B) had no visual training at all.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Education, August 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--York University, 2007. Graduate Programme in Computer Science and Engineering. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-154). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR38754

M.Phil. / This study consists of three separate publications. The first article attempts to evaluate the difference in the visual skill level of professional versus non-professional rugby players. The software visual skills, involving skills such as eye-hand coordination, eye-body coordination, central-peripheral awareness, and reaction time, were examined. The results indicate that the professional players did out perform the non-professional players on all these skills except for visual concentration. Not all the results were however statistically significant. The importance of the above skills in the game of rugby is discussed and recommendations as to the implementation of vision enhancement programmes are made. The second study explores the importance of the ‘hardware’ factors of the visual system in the game of rugby. A group of professional and club rugby players were tested and the results compared. The results were also compared with the established norms for elite athletes. The findings indicate no significant difference in hardware skills between professional and club players. Compared with the norms for elite athletes, performance of most of the rugby players were average or even worse. This suggests that in the game of rugby the hardware skills may be of lesser importance and that visual enhancement programmes should focus more on improving the players’ software skills. The hardware visual skills should not be neglected though because these provide a base from where the software skills can develop. Thirdly we wanted to determine whether there are a statistically significantly difference between the visual skill levels of forward and back line players in rugby and whether they performed visually according to the norms established for elite athletes. The results indicates that there is much room for improvement for both forward and back line players in eye-hand coordination, visual concentration and central-peripheral awareness because these skills, play an important role in a sport like rugby and because the players under performed according to the established norms. Thus attention should be given to develop the hardware visual skills like accommodation and fusion to an average level of performance, to eliminate any potential limits on the software visual skills. Consistent, position specific visual training should be incorporated in the daily training routine of these players to develop the software visual skills to their full potential. / Prof. Jannie Ferreira

Thesis (M.S. in Psych.)--School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004. Directed by Terry Maple. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-69).

D.Phil. / Efficient ocular saccadics with a clear visual memory are essential functions in reading fluently. A child needs to sequence the eyes in a controlled jump called a saccade in order to form a picture in the mind of what is being read. The child is therefore primarily aware of a story rather than individual words. This sequential visual input of the written text contributes to efficient reading skills. The letter sequencing therapy used in this research is designed to improve the ocular saccadics and also to simultaneously develop an efficient visual memory. This improves the reading skills and creates good comprehension. The above exercise program illustrated that visual therapy, in general, done not only as a physical exercise but by improving the visual memory, will integrate very quickly into a child's perceptual development. Visual therapy can therefore improve the learning skills in an effective and efficient manner. The development of learning skills can be expanded to benefit children that have poor reading skills as a result of cultural deprivation. Until recently, due to apartheid and cultural differences at the pre school level disadvantaged children were deprived of the same standard of education as advantaged children. This research compared the average visual skills in reading of educationally advantaged children to educationally disadvantaged children. This illustrated the gap created by apartheid, differences in culture and preschool stimulation in the two levels of education. 167 children with no particular learning or visual problems were randomly selected from a group of pupils at an average middle class educationally advantaged white school and an average middle class disadvantaged black school. 100 of the children came from two standard 2 and two standard 3 classes of the educationally advantaged school while 67 of the children came from one standard 2 and one standard 3 class of the educationally disadvantaged school. All the children were evaluated before the therapy program began with respect to ocular fixations, ocular regressions, reading rate, directional attack, span of recognition and relative efficiency. All the children were given letter sequencing therapy under supervision of the class teacher. Strict controls were applied.

M.Phil. (Optometry) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

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L’apprentissage chez l’enfant avec autisme est une question qui est souvent abordéedans le cadre des interventions et des prises en charge. Les recherches qui tententd’apprécier l’efficacité de ces interventions ont des résultats contradictoires .Dans notrerecherche nous allons nous intéresser à l’apprentissage par observation chez l’enfant avecautisme. Nous allons appliquer le protocole utilisé par jacqueline Nadel,un protocolequi s’étale sur 9 jours. Après avoir décrit les caractéristiques de notre échantillon etl’intervention. Nous allons comparer les performances des enfants dans ce type d’apprentissageavec les enfants neurotypiques. Par la suite nous allons tester l’efficacité d’un entrainementvisuel sur les performances des enfants avec autisme. Enfin nous allons évaluer l’efficacitéde cette intervention sur le développement moteur des enfants avec autisme et les caractéristiquesqui peuvent influencer l’amélioration de la motricité. Nos résultats ont montré que lesenfants avec autisme peuvent apprendre en observant mais leurs performances moinsbonnes que ceux des enfants neurotypiques . L’entrainement visuel n’a pasamélioré lesperformances des enfants avec autisme car ils ont besoin d’un feedback proprioceptifpendant l’apprentissage. Enfin cette intervention a amélioré le développement moteur desenfants avec autisme mais cette amélioration semble liée à l’intensité de l’autisme / Learning in children with autism is a question that is often addressed through interventionsand load tap. Researches who try to evaluate the effectiveness of these actions havecontradictory results. In our research we will be interested in observational learning inchildren with autism. We will apply the protocol used by Jacqueline Nadel which lasts 9days After describing the characteristics of our sample and intervention.We will comparechildren’s performance in this type of learning with neurotypical children. Then we willtest the effectiveness of a visual training on the performance of children with autism.Then we will evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention on the motor development ofchildren with autism, and characteristics that may influence the improvement of motricityOur results showed that children with autism can learn by watching but not as good astheir neurotypical children performance visual training did not improve the performanceof children with autism because they need proprioceptive feedback during learning.Finally this intervention improved motor development of children with autism but theimprovement seems to be related to the intensity of autism

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