Stereo vision enhances the learning of a catching skill

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the contribution of stereo vision to the acquisition of a natural interception task. Poor catchers with good (N = 8; Stereo+) and weak (N = 6; Stereo¡) stereo vision participated in an intensive training program spread over 2 weeks, during which they caught over 1,400 tennis balls in a pre-postretention design. While the Stereo+ group improved from a catching percentage of 18% to 59%, catchers in the Stereo¡ group did not signiWcantly improve (from 10 to 31%), this progress being indiVerent from a control group (N = 9) that did not practice at all. These results indicate that the development and use of of compensatory cues for depth perception in people with weak stereopsis is insuYcient to successfully deal with interceptions under high temporal constraints, and that this disadvantage cannot be fully attenuated by speciWc and intensive training.

Stereoacuity and intraocular surgical skill: Effect of stereoacuity level on virtual reality intraocular surgical performance

“…Initial learning occurred with 20 minutes of training; however, the performance gap remained constant between these students and those with normal depth perception. Mazyn et al 17 found that a group with a significant lack of stereopsis did not improve with training during a catching task. However, catching a ball is not comparable to performing cataract surgery, and stereoacuity is only 1 factor that determines surgical skills.…”

Performance of strabismic subjects using a validated surgical training module: A pilot study

“…24 Several additional studies of adults have examined the effects of poor stereopsis on fine motor skills. Subjects with poor stereopsis were found to have greater difficulty than controls in catching a tennis ball 25,26 and in performing a manipulation involving a wire loop and peg insertion. 27 Monocular occlusion of otherwise normal subjects has also been shown to have a detrimental effect on fine motor skills.…”

Old age and the functional consequences of amblyopia

“…For instance, amblyopia has been found to significantly reduce speed and dexterity of prehension ( particularly in children with a history of strabismus), 3 without diminishing accuracy and control. [3][4][5] Evidence also has come to light that amblyopic subjects' binocular reading speed is significantly slower than that of normal subjects, despite the amblyopic subjects having the same levels of binocular visual acuity and reading acuity as the normal subjects, 6 and also that amblyopic individuals have poorer depth discrimination from motion parallax than normal subjects. 7 However, it seems useful to consider possible reasons for the 2 cohort study findings.…”