The effect of normal aging and age-related macular degeneration on perceptual learning.

ABSTRACT: We investigated whether perceptual learning could be used to improve peripheral word identification speed. The relationship between the magnitude of learning and age was established in normal participants to determine whether perceptual learning effects are age invariant. We then investigated whether training could lead to improvements in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Twenty-eight participants with normal vision and five participants with AMD trained on a word identification task. They were required to identify three-letter words, presented 10° from fixation. To standardize crowding across each of the letters that made up the word, words were flanked laterally by randomly chosen letters. Word identification performance was measured psychophysically using a staircase

SUBMITTER: Astle AT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4669204 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature