Vision Coach: Effects of Standing Versus Sitting on Visual Reaction Times

Abstract

Assessment and intervention tools for occupational therapy practice must be evidence-based for appropriate use and include normative data with healthy adults. The overall goal of this research was to collect normative data on healthy adults' visual reaction time when completing the full field 60 light task on a novel device, the Vision Coach. The specific research question in this study was to determine if a change in body positioning in regards to person's base of support will affect a person's reaction time. We hypothesized that reaction times would be significantly different in the positions of standing versus sitting. Reaction times from 121 healthy adults, ages ranging from 21-79 years, were collected. Participants completed eight trials total, four trials in a standing position, and four trials in a sitting position. There were no significant differences on the factors of body position, gender, height, and wingspan on the averaged visual reaction times. The implication is that clients can be standing or sitting for use of the tool and therapists have normative data available for usage. This research also provides foundational data for further studies on the Vision Coach apparatus as well baseline criteria for the process of standardization of the Vision Coach. Future studies will need to address the limitation of learning to determine the number of practice trials required in both positions.