LABELS: Laboratoř behaviorálních a lingvistických studií

The Laboratory of Behavioural and Linguistic Studies is a joint project of the Institute of Psychology of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Faculty of Arts of Charles University. Currently, our laboratory is mainly concerned with vision science, language and speech acquisition in children, language processing in adults and cognition in children and adults in general, but it is also open to to other types of projects.

Introduction

This edited volume invites transdisciplinary scholars to re-vision science education in the era of the Anthropocene. The collection encompasses the works of educators from many walks of life and areas of practice together to help reorient science education toward the problems and peculiarities associated with the geologic times many call the Anthropocene.

Perspective on Vision Science-Informed Interventions for Central Vision Loss

Pathologies affecting central vision, and macular degeneration (MD) in particular, represent a growing health concern worldwide, and the leading cause of blindness in the Western World. To cope with the loss of central vision, MD patients often develop compensatory strategies, such as the adoption of a Preferred Retinal Locus (PRL), which they use as a substitute fovea. However, visual acuity and fixation stability in the visual periphery are poorer, leaving many MD patients struggling with tasks such as reading and recognizing faces. Current non-invasive rehabilitative interventions are usually of two types: oculomotor, aiming at training eye movements or teaching patients to use or develop a PRL, or perceptual, with the goal of improving visual abilities in the PRL. These training protocols are usually tested over a series of outcome assessments mainly measuring low-level visual abilities (visual acuity, contrast sensitivity) and reading. However, extant approaches lead to mixed success, and in general have exhibited large individual differences. Recent breakthroughs in vision science have shown that loss of central vision affects not only low-level visual abilities and oculomotor mechanisms, but also higher-level attentional and cognitive processes. We suggest that effective interventions for rehabilitation after central vision loss should then not only integrate low-level vision and oculomotor training, but also take into account higher level attentional and cognitive mechanisms.

Test-retest reliability for common tasks in vision science

Research in perception and attention has typically sought to evaluate cognitive mechanisms according to the average response to a manipulation. Recently, there has been a shift toward appreciating the value of individual differences and the insight gained by exploring the impacts of between-participant variation on human cognition. However, a recent study suggests that many robust, well-established cognitive control tasks suffer from surprisingly low levels of test-retest reliability (Hedge et al., 2018b). We tested a large sample of undergraduate students (n = 160) in two sessions (separated by 1–3 weeks) on four commonly used tasks in vision science. We implemented measures that spanned the range of visual processing, including motion coherence (MoCo), useful field of view (UFOV), multiple-object tracking (MOT), and visual working memory (VWM). Intraclass correlations ranged from excellent to poor suggesting that some task measures are more suitable for assessing individual differences than others. VWM capacity (ICC = 0.89), MoCo threshold (ICC = 0.60), UFOV middle accuracy (ICC = 0.60) and UFOV outer accuracy (ICC = 0.74) showed good-to-excellent reliability. Other measures, namely the maximum number of items tracked in MOT (ICC = 0.41) and UFOV number accuracy (ICC = 0.48), showed moderate reliability; the MOT threshold (ICC = 0.36) and UFOV inner accuracy (ICC = 0.30) showed poor reliability. In this paper, we present these results alongside a summary of reliabilities estimated previously for other vision science tasks. We then offer useful recommendations for evaluating test-retest reliability when considering a task for use in evaluating individual differences.

How Contact Lenses Have Influenced Research Developments in Optics and Vision Science

Initially, contact lenses were developed as the only viable option to provide improved vision for patients suffering from conditions which distortedthe corneal surface in an irregular fashion, rendering spectacle correction an unsatisfactory option. Developments in materials, fitting methods andmanufacturing technologies soon made contact lenses an appealing option for all spectacle wearers, particularly with the development of toricand multifocal lens options. Although the optical challenges of contact lenses appeared to be relatively straightforward in their early years, thedevelopment of improved in-vivo diagnostic and in-vitro metrology instrumentation led to a significantly greater understanding of the nature of theoptical errors (e.g. higher order wavefront aberrations) of the eye and contact lenses and the interactions between them when worn. The featuresof contact lenses having extremely steep curvatures and being aligned closely to the eye’s visual axis in all positions of gaze provide both uniquechallenges and opportunities for improving the visual performance of both physiological and pathological eyes, and have guided the efforts ofsignificant vison science research in more recent times.

Developing a low-cost method to measure and calibrate luminance and color: validation and tutorial

Materials in research studies are often presented on digital screens to participants across many subfields of psychology, including clinical, developmental, and social/personality psychology. What is often neglected in the current practice is the reporting of critical visual properties, such as luminance, color, contrast, and gamma, which can dramatically affect the appearance of visual materials. Conventional luminance measurement equipment in vision science is both expensive and onerous to operate for novices. A pressing need—if we are to improve current research practice and education in psychology—is to develop affordable and user-friendly tools to measure and calibrate luminance/color. Here we have developed a software package—PsyCalibrator—that takes advantage of low-cost hardware (SpyderX) and makes luminance and color measurement and calibration accessible and user-friendly. Validation of luminance measurement shows that, in addition to excellent accuracy in linear correction, SpyderX performs at the same level compared with professional, high-cost photometers (MKII and PR-670) in measurement accuracy. SpyderX also has very low measurement variances for practical purposes. A tutorial is provided on how to use PsyCalibrator to measure luminance and color and to calibrate displays. Finally, gamma calibration based on visual methods (without photometers) is discussed, together with its own validation and tutorial.

O ensino de ciências para alunos com deficiência visual: identificando limites e possibilidades por meio de uma revisão sistemática da literatura

Resumo: Este trabalho tem o objetivo de caracterizar as pesquisas em ensino de Ciências referentes aos alunos com deficiência visual. Trata-se de uma pesquisa com abordagem qualitativa, através de uma revisão sistemática de trabalhos publicados em eventos nacionais e periódicos da área de ensino de Ciências com Qualis Capes A1/A2. O instrumento de análise dos dados foi a Análise Textual Discursiva (ATD). Os resultados foram divididos em duas partes. A primeira buscou caracterizar o levantamento bibliográfico dos trabalhos publicados em ensino de Ciências sobre alunos com deficiências visuais. A segunda parte caracteriza os limites e possibilidades sobre esta temática, através de quatro categorias emergentes: 1) Inclusão e o ensino de Ciências; 2) Formação de professores de Ciências e deficiência visual; 3) Construção, uso ou análise de materiais didáticos adaptados para alunos com deficiência visual no ensino de Ciências; e 4) Reflexões epistêmicas no ensino de Ciências para alunos com deficiência visual.Palavras-chave: Deficiência Visual; Baixa Visão; Ensino de Ciências; Educação Inclusiva. Science education for students with visual impairment: identifying limits and possibilities through a systematic literature reviewAbstract: This work aims to characterize research in science education related to students with visual impairment. This is a research with a qualitative approach, through a systematic review of works published in national events and journals in the field of science teaching with Qualis Capes A1/A2. The data analysis instrument was the Textual Discursive Analysis (TDA). The results were divided into two parts. The first sought to characterize the bibliographic survey of works published in science teaching about students with visual impairments. The second part characterizes the limits and possibilities on this theme, through four emerging categories: 1) Inclusion and the science teaching; 2) Training of science teachers and visual impairment; 3) Construction, use or analysis of didactic materials adapted for students with visual impairments in science teaching; and 4) Epistemic reflections on science teaching for visually impaired students.Keywords: Visual impairment; Low vision; Science education; Inclusive education.