Clinical Differentiation with the Spiral Aftereffect Technique
The spiral aftereffect (SAE) apparatus was administered to 100 Ss, 50 independently medically diagnosed organic patients and 50 normals matched in sex and age to the first group. Each S was given standard instructions for six trials of 30-sec. exposure time. Variables, such as rate and direction of rotation, lighting intensity, light adaptation, etc., were controlled for all Ss. Scores and percentage computations of Ss in the various diagnostic groups indicate that the spiral aftereffect test has significantly differentiated between cases of organic brain damage and those who are normal ( χ2 = 42.2, p < .01, df = 1). No differences were shown between infectious vs noninfectious organics and convulsive vs nonconvulsive organics. However, there was a significant difference between prenatal organics and postnatal organics (χ2 = 21.4, P < .01, df = 1). For the entire group there were 32% false negative classifications and 8% false positive classifications.