The purpose of the present research is to develop a visual-spatial ability test (VSAT) for primary school children. Visual-spatial abilities allow processing of information about an object in terms of shape, colour, texture, perspective, and rotation. The visual-spatial test includes items-tasks for the participants to process information about…

The Parsons Visual Acuity Test (PVAT) described in the article has been developed for use with difficult-to-test individuals previously labeled untestable. The studies reported support use of the PVAT as an alternative screening procedure for identifying difficult-to-test persons who are in need of a professional eye examination. (Author/CL)

Intellectual ability is assessed with the Spot-the-Word (STW) test (A. Baddeley, H. Emslie, & I. Nimmo Smith, 1993) by asking respondents to identify a word in a word-nonword item pair. Results in moderate-sized samples suggest this ability is resistant to decline due to dementia. The authors used a 3-parameter item response theory model to…

No significant decline in performance occurred before age 50. Decline in Memory-For-Designs Test performance after age 60 is sufficient to suggest caution in the use of the test for evaluation of brain damage in the older patient. (Author)

As follow up to a study which compared forced-choice preferential looking (FPL) with pattern visual evoked potential (VEP), this study increased the VEP success rate and improved agreement between the FPL and VEP acuity estimates by using horizontal bar stimuli for young preverbal children (n=17) with nystagmus. (Author/DB)

A vision screening program established at a facility for 271 individuals with severe or profound mental retardation used the acuity card procedure as its measure. The procedure was found to be a valid and reliable screening tool for this population. A few residents had good visual acuities, whereas the acuities of others were poor. (JDD)