Article Analysis

Article analysis
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Institution affiliation

Hypothesis
The visually normal human beings have a higher chance of differentiating spacing variations in human and monkey faces as compared to those with dense bilateral congenital cataracts.
Rationale
The authors of this article ‘Deficit in Sensitivity to Spacing after Early Visual Deprivation in Humans’ (2010) conducted this research with the aim of evaluating the results of early visual deficiency among patients suffering from dense bilateral congenital cataracts. From their findings, they realized that patients with that condition have poor abilities differentiating spacing in features. They use two experiments in conducting their research. The first experiment involved distinguishing spacing in monkey and human faces. The second experiment involved the ability to differentiate feature spacing among houses.
Methods/Results
In this research, ten participants who were diagnosed with dense bilateral congenital cataracts were shown photographs of human and monkey faces. After that they were asked to differentiate feature spacing between the two and the results were compared to the findings recorded by ordinary people. The results from this experiment proved that visual deprivation destroys the ability to process human faces. From the test, Robbins.R et al. (2010) also realized that the patients had different experiences. For instance, some inaccurately interpreted the monkey face while others interpreted it well.
In the second experiment, the same participants were used.

The researchers used photographs of similar houses with a difference in the spacing in the features. Some of the homes had their windows placed upwards while others had them put downwards. The spaces between the windows also varied. The results of this experiment suggest that although the patients had a problem in differentiating the features of the houses each of the participants was at least 90% correct.
From the research, the researchers reached a statistical significance of their study. The importance of the statistics that were generated helped in maintaining accuracy during the entire research process. In both experiments, the researchers supported the same number of participants to avoid inaccuracy during their study. In the two experiments, all the participants had an equal viewing distance of 100cm. The researchers even went further and recorded the measurement of the images used. In maintaining a similar distance and corresponding size of images, the researchers were able to learn more about the differences in the patients’ angle of view.
The conclusion of the study
From the research findings, the researchers of the article Deficits in Sensitivity to Spacing after Early Visual Deprivation in Humans concluded that the patient with the condition experience more problems in interpreting human faces than shapes or houses. The researchers assumed that this problem is brought about by the deficiency of a patterned visual input instead of the absence of face input.
Significance of results
The results of this research are significant as they serve as a field through which the researchers can understand the psychology of people suffering from dense bilateral congenital cataracts. It is also important because through this study the researchers were able to gain knowledge on this condition, its possible causes, and the characteristics of the patients. The results of the survey are also remarkable because through understanding the psychology of these patients, the researcher could be able to develop a form of therapy that could help manage the condition.
Research questions
From the article, Deficits in Sensitivity to Spacing after Early Visual Deprivation in Humans, these are the questions that remained unanswered.
• What are the actual causes for dense bilateral congenital cataracts?
• What are the possible remedies for this condition?
• What are the prevention measures for this condition?
• Is there a specific age bracket that is at high risk of contracting this condition?

Reference
Robbins, R., A., Nishimura, M., Mondloch, C., J., Lewis, T., L. & Maurer, D. (2010). Deficit in Sensitivity to Spacing After Early Visual Deprivation in Humans: A comparison of Human Faces, Monkey Faces, and Houses. Development Psychobiology. Wiley Periodicals, Inc.