Improving Vision Among Older Adults: Behavioral Training to Improve Sight

• Published in: Psychological science 2015-04, Vol.26 (4), p.456-466
• Main Authors: DeLoss, Denton J., Watanabe, Takeo, Andersen, George J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accidental Falls - prevention & control; Accidents, Traffic - prevention & control; Age; Age differences; Aged; Ageing; Aging; Aging - physiology; Automobiles; Behavior modification; Cognitive Therapy - methods; Contrast Sensitivity; Discrimination; Eyes & eyesight; Falls; Female; Geriatrics; Humans; Learning; Male; Noise; Older people; Perception; Performance evaluation; Psychological factors; Sensitivity; Sensory perception; Stimulus; Vision Disorders - psychology; Vision Disorders - rehabilitation; Visual acuity; Visual Acuity - physiology; Visual perception; Visual task performance; Young Adult; Youth
• ISSN: 0956-7976; 1467-9280
• DOI: 10.1177/0956797614567510

A major problem for the rapidly growing population of older adults (age 65 and over) is age-related declines in vision, which have been associated with increased risk of falls and vehicle crashes. Research suggests that this increased risk is associated with declines in contrast sensitivity and visual acuity. We examined whether a perceptual-learning task could be used to improve age-related declines in contrast sensitivity. Older and younger adults were trained over 7 days using a forced-choice orientation-discrimination task with stimuli that varied in contrast with multiple levels of additive noise. Older adults performed as well after training as did college-age younger adults prior to training. Improvements transferred to performance for an untrained stimulus orientation and were not associated with changes in retinal illuminance. Improvements in far acuity in younger adults and in near acuity in older adults were also found. These findings indicate that behavioral interventions can greatly improve visual performance for older adults.