Sensory Information Processing with Low Vision

描述（由申请人提供）：过马路是一项复杂，高风险的日常生活活动。在决定何时安全通过时，行人必须判断车辆交通中的间隙是否有足够的时间让他们到达街道的另一边或分流岛。行人通过处理从环境中获得的复杂感官信息来识别可跨越的间隙。毫无疑问，视觉感官信息在检测可跨越间隙的准确性和效率方面起着不可或缺的作用。然而，很少有人知道，当视觉信息减少时，其他感官信息来源的相对重要性。在视觉信息退化的情况下，听觉感觉信息在过街中可能发挥重要作用，因为盲人可以安全和独立地过街。要确定是否听觉感官信息增强视觉感官信息在过街视障行人，一个可靠的，经验的评估方法必须首先建立。该研究的目的是验证使用受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线来评估视觉和听觉信息处理的人与低视力过马路。使用5分评定量表，在视力正常、视力受损和失明受试者中测量不同持续时间的可跨越间隙的安全性评级。对于视力正常和视力受损的受试者，将在3种感官测试条件下收集安全性评级：（i）视觉和听觉信息;（ii）仅视觉信息;和（iii）仅听觉信息。盲态受试者的安全性评级仅来自听觉信息。构建ROC曲线的正常偏离（z分数）坐标将测试是否ROC曲线应用在拟议的研究是一个有效的指标，用于评估感觉信息处理的过街低视力。比较测试条件和受试者组之间的不同间隙持续时间的可辨别性（d '）将建立度量可以测量听觉效果以及视觉感觉通道中的表现变化的范围。鉴于行人安全已被公认为一个主要的公共卫生问题，拟议的研究将提供数据，形成一个客观的基础，旨在帮助视障行人过马路的培训计划，移动设备和环境变化的发展。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Crossing a street is a complicated, high-risk activity of daily living. In making an appropriate decision of when it is safe to cross, pedestrians must judge gaps in vehicular traffic that is of sufficient duration to allow them to reach the other side of the street or a splitter island. Pedestrians identify crossable gaps by processing complex sensory information acquired from the environment. Undoubtedly, visual sensory information plays an integral role in the accuracy and efficiency of detecting crossable gaps. Little is known however, about the relative importance of other sources of sensory information when visual information is reduced. Auditory sensory information may play an important role in street crossing when visual information is degraded since blind people can successfully cross a street safely and independently. To determine if auditory sensory information augments visual sensory information in street crossing for visually impaired pedestrians, a reliable, empirical method of assessment must first be established. The proposed research has the goal of validating the use of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves to assess visual and auditory information processing for street crossing in people with low vision. Using a 5 point rating scale, safety ratings for crossable gaps of different durations will be measured in normally sighted, visually impaired and blind subjects. For the normally sighted and visually impaired subjects, safety ratings will be collected under 3 sensory test conditions: (i) visual and auditory information; (ii) visual information only; and (iii) auditory information only. The safety ratings of blind subjects will be from auditory information only. Constructing ROC curves on normal-deviate (z-score) coordinates will test whether or not ROC curves as applied in the proposed study is a valid metric for assessing sensory information processing for street crossing in low vision. Comparing the discriminability (d') of different gap durations between test conditions and subject groups will establish the range over which the metric can measure an auditory effect as well as changes in performance in the visual sensory channel. Given that pedestrian safety has been recognized as a major public health concern, the proposed research will provide data to form an objective base for the development of training programs, mobility devices and environmental changes designed to assist visually impaired pedestrians cross a street.