Over and above fine-spatial acuity, a substantial number of visual capabilities exist on which persons can be expected to differ reliably. One such capability which has received insufficient attention is temporal acuity, the capability to resolve stimuli which are presented over time. Results of the Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) study establish the technical basis for a new human performance measurement product that has as its purpose the measurement of visual temporal acuity with a battery of tests. The research objectives of the Phase II study focus on collecting data necessary to bring laboratory demonstrations of temporal phenomena in vision to a level useful outside the laboratory by moving the temporal acuity measures from the present battery to the new and faster computer hardware; developing and testing new candidate measures of temporal visual acuity; developing the synthetic performance task (a task with substantial visual components, requiring vigilance and quick response to fine visual detail embedded in a large and variable visual field); collecting data relating Temporal Acuity Battery (TAB) measures to performance on the synthetic task; developing reliability vs. time trade-off functions and establishing guidelines for practice until stability and long-term reliability; collecting data from other laboratory spatial and temporal visual tests (e.g., static and dynamic contrast sensitivity) to serve as correlates of the TAB; conducting studies assessing the effects of alcohol and aging on temporal acuity; pooling the data collected from all studies to perform Factor Analysis of the battery; and establishing the prototype battery. The project aims to produce an assessment system that provides test administrators with useful data interpretations and prediction on field studies and in the workplace. Such a system can contribute to our understanding of how to improve temporal visual acuity performance to the extent that such abilities are required for jobs, tasks, leisure activities and how to identify temporal aspects of visual displays so as to advance understanding in engineering design.
