The Effects of Smoking on Peripheral Movement Detection.
Abstract
Twenty-five male subjects, 15 smokers and 10 nonsmokers, who were screened for visual and physical defects, were tested on an apparatus designed to determine their ability to detect movement in the visual periphery. Analysis of the data revealed no significant differences between smoking and smoking deprived subjects for either illumination condition in regard to the visual field measures. A comparison of smoking and nonsmoking subjects however, showed a significantly larger field for nonsmokers under the low illumination condition condition. For the movement detection task, smoking deprived subjects were significantly better than smoking subjects at detecting and responding to movement in the periphery, particularly when higher speeds of target movement were involved. Analysis of the data for the velocity estimation task revealed that subjects in the smoking deprived condition performed significantly better than subjects in the smoking condition under the low illumination condition. Based on the results of this investigation, it appears that smoking does have an effect on several critical peripheral functions. (Modified author abstract)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1973
- Accession Number
- AD0778928
Entities
People
- Craig R. Scoughton
- Norman W. Heimstra
Organizations
- University of South Dakota