Perceptual Assessment in Low Vision: Evidence for a Hierarchy of Skills?

Abstract

This study examines the possible existence of a perceptual hierarchy which is systematically affected by the onset of adventitious visual impairment. Eighty people with partial vision were tested prior to beginning a visual skills training program. Four perceptual categories were examined. These included COPY/DRAW, TARGET MATCH, FIGURE-GROUND, and READING tasks. The results indicate that there is a demarcation of difficulty between the simpler and more complex levels of the hierarchy. Additionally, this crossover takes place at the figure-ground level, with the strongest relationships occurring between reading-related tasks such as letter and word searching as well as the reading of text and the individual's performance on figure-ground discrimination. The implications of these results in light of previous work in this area are discussed.