The effects of artificially induced anisometropia on stereomobilization

Abstract

Stereomobilization refers to the time required to activate stereopsis and perceive depth. Previous studies have examined the temporal effects of stereomobilization but very few have focused on the effects of unbalanced corrections, such as those seen with monovision contact lens fits. A color Macintosh computer was used to asses the effects of increasing anisometropia on stereomobilization in 37 subjects. For each increased anisometropic difference between the eyes, stereomobilization demonstrated a significant reduction in percent correct with shortened presentation times. It was also found that patients tested with larger amounts of induced anisometropia needed to view targets for significantly longer periods of time to gain the same stereoscopic information that a person with lower levels of anisometropia could achieve in a fraction of the time. Of the times tested that were similar to a previous study by Thompson and Yudcovitch (1996), there was no significant difference (p\u3e0.05) found between the two data sets, thus demonstrating the repeatability of their experiment