Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
ISBN-13: 978-84-692-4349-7
TRAINING ACTIVITIES FOR VISUAL-FORM CONSTANCY
The term visual perception makes reference to the capacity that brain has to
understand and to interpret that eyes see (Gardner, 1986; Scheiman, 1997). Along
with the basic visual functions and motor skills, visual perceptual skills allow us to carry
out many activities of daily life (Chaikin and Downing-Baum, 1997; Erhardt and
Duckman, 2005; Van Waelvelde, De Weerdt, De Cock and Smits-Engelsman, 2004),
and guide our actions (Goodale and Milner, 2009; Jeannerod, 2006).
In our daily lives we do not perceive a world composed of isolated visual stimuli
(edges, lines and points), but for complex scenes and structured stimuli (numbers,
letters, figures and objects, faces, landscapes, etc.) that sometimes are presented in
dynamic conditions. These visual stimuli can be characterized by its attributes, such as
colour, size, contrast, orientation or motion. However, most visual stimuli are
recognized by one essential attribute: the form (Ullman, 1995).
The ability to discriminate forms is an important skill for the person to succeed in
their interaction with the environment, and thus plays an important role in human visual
perception (Bryan, 2004; Ullman, 1995), because it allows the person conducting the
visual recognition of objects, figures, faces, etc. (Jolicoeur, Ullman and Mackay, 1986).
Also, it has been suggested that form perception is carried out, to a greater
extent, by the accumulation of past experiences, rather than (as was thought), by
analyzing the pattern of visual stimulation (Purves, 2009).
Visual perceptual skills of children are not at the same level as for the adult, but
their perception of the world is also good (Arterberry, 2008). It has been estimated that
1
the form-constancy skills improve rapidly between 6 and 7 years of age, and stabilizes
between 8 and 9 years (Atkinson and Braddick, 1989; Williams, 1983).
However, any factor that interferes with the exploration of the environment may
interfere with visual perceptual learning process (Tsai, Wilson and Wu, 2008),
adversely affecting the ability to perform activities of daily live, such as games or
recreational activities, school work or other development tasks related to their age,
especially in school-age children (AOTA, 1991; Dankert, Davies and Gavin, 2003;
Kovacs, 2000; Loikith, 2005).
When a subject have deficiencies in this visual perception skill, may have
difficulties paying attention to subtle variations of certain forms, which could eventually
cause inability to recognize common objects (Zoltan, 2007). For example, he o she
might have trouble finding differences between a square, a rhombus and a rectangle.
Moreover, this difficulty to discriminate shapes can also affect the performance of
reading and writing, for example, finding no differences between letters like "s" and "z"
or words like "ride" and "side".
Some studies have encountered difficulties in this ability in patients with lesions in
the temporal and parietal lobe (Gulyas et al. 1994; Kosslyn, Chabis, Marsolek and
Koening, 1992), with refractive errors around 1.5 diopters (Leibowitz, Wilcox and Post,
1978), with dysfunction in sensory integration (Allison, Gabriel, Schlange and
Fredrickson, 2007), with deficits in the development of the coordination DCD (Hulme,
Biggerstaff, Moran and McKinlay, 1982; Hulme, Smart and Moran, 1982; Lord and
Hulme, 1987 and 1988; Schoemaker et al., 2001, Tsai et al., 2008) and in children with
low birth weight (Davis, Burns, Wilkerson and Steichen, 2005).
Some authors have shown that some children with amblyopia have difficulty in
the performance of discrimination tasks with shapes and texture-defined motion (Wang,
Ho and Giaschi, 2007), attributing these visual perceptual deficits to defects in the
processes of segregation of figure- ground.
Tseng and Chow (2000) have shown that children with low achievement in writing
speed have lowest scores on tasks of form-constancy.
Often, occupational therapists and other health professionals assess and treat
problems of visual perception that occur in school-age children (Kalb and Warshowsky,
1991; Todd, 1993; Wright, Bowen and Zecker, 2000) or in people of other ages, in
order to assess the presence and impact of the visual perceptual dysfunction in these
patients (Brown, 2008).
2
In another report, Tsai et al. (2008) have considered the assessment of visual
perceptual skills in children with deficits in development of motor coordination has great
significance for the processing and implementation of strategies for better performance
on tasks of daily life.
This ability can be assessed by some tests that assess different visual perceptual
skills, including the form-constancy:
Once one or more of these tests was used, it is possible to determine if this visual
perceptual ability have or not the level of expected performance for the chronological
age of the subject. In cases where the results were below the expected values for age,
it is possible to train this skill with visual perceptual exercises.
Tsai et al. (2008) have reported that learning of visual perceptual skills can be
improved through practical experience in the same way the children learn to extract
relevant information from their environment in certain activities.
This book consists of 200 plates containing different figures. In each of the plates
appears one picture in the upper half of the page that will serve as a reference
stimulus, and that person must observe in order to identify a single stimulus with a
shape exactly the same (although their size or orientation can be different than the
reference stimulus) within the possible answers given in the bottom half of the page.
The figures will rise in level of difficulty as you progress in the task.
3
4
ACTIVIDADES DE ENTRENAMIENTO DE LA CONSTANCIA VISUAL DE LA FORMA
5
respuestas varan a travs de la experiencia o del aprendizaje, por lo que la
percepcin de formas y objetos est ligada a la memoria visual asociativa.
Las habilidades viso-perceptivas del nio no estn en el mismo nivel que las del
adulto, pero su percepcin del mundo sigue siendo buena (Arterberry, 2008). Se ha
estimado que las habilidades para perciber la constancia de formas mejora
rpidamente entre los 6 y 7 aos de edad, y se estabiliza entre los 8 y 9 aos
(Atkinson y Braddick, 1989; Williams, 1983).
Algunos autores han revelado que algunos nios con ambliopa tienen
dificultades en el rendimiento de tareas de discriminacin de formas con textura y
movimiento definido (Wang, Ho y Giaschi, 2007), atribuyendo estos dficits viso-
perceptivos a defectos en los procesos de segregacin de la figura-fondo.
Tseng y Chow (2000) han visto que los nios con bajo rendimiento en la
velocidad de escritura tienen resultados ms bajos en tareas de constancia de forma.
6
Ruf-Bchtiger (1989) ha sugerido la enorme importancia que tiene la evaluacin
de algunas habilidades viso-perceptivas, para entender mejor a los nios con
trastornos de percepcin visual y poder desarrollar de manera ms eficaz los mtodos
de tratamiento. Davis y cols. (2005), tambin han considerado que el examen viso-
perceptivo debe ser una parte imprescindible de la evaluacin rutinaria en nios de
edad preescolar nacidos prematuramente, ya que la identificacin temprana de los
dficits viso-perceptivos podran facilitar su tratamiento, logrando una mejora en las
habilidades o dominios viso-perceptivos en estos nios con alto riesgo.
En otro informe, Tsai y cols. (2008) han considerado que la valoracin del
rendimiento viso-perceptivo en nios con dficits en el desarrollo de la coordinacin
motora DCD, tiene una gran importancia de cara al tratamiento y a la aplicacin de
estrategias para un mejor rendimiento en las tareas de su vida diaria.
Una vez que se haya administrado una o varias de estas pruebas, se puede
determinar si esta habilidad viso-perceptiva se corresponde o no con el nivel de
rendimiento esperado para la edad cronolgica del sujeto. En aquellos casos en los
que los resultados obtenidos estuvieran por debajo de los valores esperados para su
edad, es posible entrenar esta habilidad viso-perceptiva mediante ejercicios como los
que aparecen en el presente cuaderno de actividades.
Tsai y cols. (2008) han informado de que el aprendizaje de las habilidades viso-
perceptivas puede mejorarse mediante la experiencia prctica, de la misma manera
que un nio aprende a extraer la informacin relevante de su entorno en determinadas
actividades cotidianas.
7
Este cuaderno est compuesto por 200 lminas que contienen distintas figuras.
En cada una de las lminas aparece una figura en la parte superior que servir de
estmulo de referencia, y que la persona debe observar para poder identificar un nico
estmulo con una forma exactamente igual (aunque su tamao o su orientacin vare
respecto al estmulo de referencia) dentro de las posibles respuestas dadas en la parte
inferior de la lmina. Las figuras van subiendo en nivel de dificultad conforme se
avanza en la tarea.
8
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ADMINISTRATION
NORMAS DE APLICACIN
In the following pages in the upper half of each plate a figure is presented. You
must to find the IDENTICAL figure in form or shape (although its size and/or its
orientation is different) among the responses that are displayed on the bottom
half. Please, do the same in other plates. There is only one correct answer in
each plate.
1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3 4
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1 2 3 4
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1 2 3 4
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1 2 3 4
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3
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1 2 3 4
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1 2 3 4
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1 2 3 4
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1 2 3 4
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1 2 3 4
TABLE OF ANSWERS PLANTILLA DE RESPUESTAS
The correct answers are shown below. If the correct answer is the first figure of the plate, the number 1 is shown; if the
correct answer is the second figure, a number 2 will be shown, and so on.
A continuacin se muestra la plantilla de correccin, que contiene el nmero de cada una de las lminas y la respuesta correcta
para cada una de ellas. Si la respuesta correcta es la primera figura de la lmina el nmero mostrado es un 1; si la respuesta
correcta corresponde con la segunda figura aparece un 2, y as sucesivamente.