The impact of active research involvement of young children in the design of a new stereotest by Casanova T, Black C, Rafiq S, Hugill-Jones J, Read JCA, Vancleef K, CasanovaBlackRafiqHugillJonesReadVancleef2020.pdf (1.4 MiB) - Background: Although considered important, the direct involvement of young children in research design is scarce and to our knowledge its impact has never been measured. We aim to demonstrate impact of young children’s involvement in improving the understanding of a new 3D eye test or stereotest.
Methods: After a pre-measure of understanding was taken, we explored issues with the test instructions in patient and public involvement (PPI) sessions where children acted as advisers in the test design. Feedback was collected via observations, rating scales and verbal comments. An interdisciplinary panel reviewed the feedback, discussed potential changes to the test design, and decided on the implementation. Subsequently, a post-measure of understanding (Study 1–2) and engagement (Study 3) was collected in a pre-post study design. Six hundred fifty children (2–11.8 years old) took part in the pre-measure, 111 children (1–12 years old) in the subsequent PPI sessions, and 52 children (4–6 years old) in the first post-measure. One hundred twenty-two children (1–12 years old) and unrelated adults took then part in a second series of PPI sessions, and 53 people (2–39 years old) in the final post-measure. Adults were involved to obtain verbal descriptions of the target that could be used to explain the task to children.
Results: Following feedback in Study 1, we added a frame cue and included a shuffle animation. This increased the percentage of correct practice trials from 76 to 97% (t (231) = 14.29, p < .001), but more encouragements like ‘Keep going!’ were needed (t (64) = 8.25, p < .001). After adding a cardboard demo in Study 2, the percentage of correct trials remained stable but the number of additional instructions given decreased (t (103) = 3.72, p < .001) as did the number of encouragements (t (103) = 8.32, p < .001). Therefore, changes in test design following children’s feedback significantly improved task understanding.
Conclusions: Our study demonstrates measurable impact of involvement of very young children in research design through accessible activities. The changes implemented following their feedback significantly improved the understanding of our test. Our approach can inform researchers on how to involve young children in research design and can contribute to developing guidelines for involvement of young children in research.
Blog Archives
Analysis of Soft Data for Mass Provision of Stereoacuity Testing Through a Serious Game for Health
Analysis of Soft Data for Mass Provision of Stereoacuity Testing Through a Serious Game for Health by Ushaw G, Sharp S, Hugill J, Rafiq S, Black C, Casanova T, Vancleef K, Read JCA, Morgan G, UshawSharpHugillRafiqBlackCasanovaVancleefReadMorgan2017.pdf (1.7 MiB) - Mass provision of healthcare through a digital medium can be greatly enhanced by the use of serious games. The accessibility and engagement provided by a serious game to the subject can significantly increase participation. The commercial games industry employs numerous techniques to analyse soft data collected from early users of an application to evolve the application itself and improve the experience of playing it. A game for mass stereoacuity testing of young children is used as a case study in this paper, to illustrate how soft feedback can be used to improve the effectiveness of a clinical trial. The key to the approach is identified as rapid incremental evolution of the application and trial protocol in a manner which increases the amount and usefulness of soft data collected, and reacts to issues identified in the soft data in a timely fashion. It is hoped that the approach can be adopted for a wide range of digital applications for mass health provision.
Blindness to background: an inbuilt bias for visual objects
Blindness to background: an inbuilt bias for visual objects by O'Hanlon, CG and Read JCA, OHanlonRead2016.pdf (1.6 MiB) - Sixty-eight 2- to 12-year-olds and 30 adults were shown colorful displays on a touchscreen monitor and trained to point to the location of a named color. Participants located targets near-perfectly when presented with four abutting colored patches. When presented with three colored patches on a colored background, toddlers failed to locate targets in the background. Eye tracking demonstrated that the effect was partially mediated by a tendency not to fixate the background. However, the effect was
abolished when the targets were named as nouns, whilst the change to nouns had little impact on eye movement patterns. Our results imply a powerful, inbuilt tendency to attend to objects, which may slow the development of color concepts and acquisition of color words.
abolished when the targets were named as nouns, whilst the change to nouns had little impact on eye movement patterns. Our results imply a powerful, inbuilt tendency to attend to objects, which may slow the development of color concepts and acquisition of color words.
The stereoscopic anisotropy develops during childhood.
The stereoscopic anisotropy develops during childhood. by Serrano-Pedraza I, Herbert W, Villa-Laso L, Widdall M, Vancleef K, Read JCA, SerranoPedrazaHerbertVillaLasoWiddallVancleefRead2016.pdf (1.5 MiB) - PURPOSE:
Human vision has a puzzling stereoscopic anisotropy: horizontal depth corrugations are easier to detect than vertical depth corrugations. To date, little is known about the function or the underlying mechanism responsible for this anisotropy. Here, we aim to find out whether this anisotropy is independent of age. To answer this, we compare detection thresholds for horizontal and vertical depth corrugations as a function of age.
METHODS:
The depth corrugations were defined solely by the horizontal disparity of random dot patterns. The disparities depicted a horizontal or vertical sinusoidal depth corrugation of spatial frequency 0.1 cyc/deg. Detection thresholds were obtained using Bayesian adaptive staircases from a total of 159 subjects aged from 3 to 73 years. For each participant we computed the anisotropy index, defined as the log10-ratio of the detection threshold for vertical corrugations divided by that for horizontal.
RESULTS:
Anisotropy index was highly variable between individuals but was positive in 87% of the participants. There was a significant correlation between anisotropy index and log-age (r = 0.21, P = 0.008) mainly driven by a significant difference between children and adults. In 67 children aged 3 to 13 years, the mean anisotropy index was 0.34 ± 0.38 (mean ± SD, meaning that vertical thresholds were on average 2.2 times the horizontal ones), compared with 0.59 ± 0.55 in 84 adults aged 18 to 73 years (vertical 3.9 times horizontal). This was mainly driven by a decline in the sensitivity to vertical corrugations. Children had poorer stereoacuity than adults, but had similar sensitivity to adults for horizontal corrugations and were actually more sensitive than adults to vertical corrugations.
CONCLUSIONS:
The fact that adults show stronger stereo anisotropy than children raises the possibility that visual experience plays a critical role in developing and strengthening the stereo anisotropy.
Human vision has a puzzling stereoscopic anisotropy: horizontal depth corrugations are easier to detect than vertical depth corrugations. To date, little is known about the function or the underlying mechanism responsible for this anisotropy. Here, we aim to find out whether this anisotropy is independent of age. To answer this, we compare detection thresholds for horizontal and vertical depth corrugations as a function of age.
METHODS:
The depth corrugations were defined solely by the horizontal disparity of random dot patterns. The disparities depicted a horizontal or vertical sinusoidal depth corrugation of spatial frequency 0.1 cyc/deg. Detection thresholds were obtained using Bayesian adaptive staircases from a total of 159 subjects aged from 3 to 73 years. For each participant we computed the anisotropy index, defined as the log10-ratio of the detection threshold for vertical corrugations divided by that for horizontal.
RESULTS:
Anisotropy index was highly variable between individuals but was positive in 87% of the participants. There was a significant correlation between anisotropy index and log-age (r = 0.21, P = 0.008) mainly driven by a significant difference between children and adults. In 67 children aged 3 to 13 years, the mean anisotropy index was 0.34 ± 0.38 (mean ± SD, meaning that vertical thresholds were on average 2.2 times the horizontal ones), compared with 0.59 ± 0.55 in 84 adults aged 18 to 73 years (vertical 3.9 times horizontal). This was mainly driven by a decline in the sensitivity to vertical corrugations. Children had poorer stereoacuity than adults, but had similar sensitivity to adults for horizontal corrugations and were actually more sensitive than adults to vertical corrugations.
CONCLUSIONS:
The fact that adults show stronger stereo anisotropy than children raises the possibility that visual experience plays a critical role in developing and strengthening the stereo anisotropy.