VisionAndPsychosis.Net©
In Montgomery Alabama
Response to question I asked in 2002
Copyright 2003
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This response is typical of the problems you will encounter while investigating this phenomenon. Designers treat the phenomenon as proprietary information. They will deny the problem exists, change the subject, or evade your question. They seem to believe that this information would spark countless nuisance lawsuits if it were known by the general public.
A Design student from Australia eventually emailed me for permission to use this site in her thesis on Subliminal Distraction. That is the name of the problem outside the United States.
Here, subliminal distraction in psychology means sound you subliminally perceive while concentrating to work in a busy crowded office. It is evaluated as a fatiguing factor. In five years of searching I have not found anyone in psychology or mental health services aware that this problem exists or that visual subliminal distraction is possible.
L K Tucker on December 19, 2002 at 21:17:22:Posted by
Can you forward this question to someone who could help solve this problem. If you are involved in open space office design you should understand this phenomena.
/// I am attempting to solve a puzzle. I am searching for the name or proper term for a psychiatric work place injury discovered by civil engineers, about fifty years ago. This was in the early days of office space design. (The date is a guess.) This problem produces a psychotic episode, with no other risk factors or medical conditions, if certain critical elements come together in faulty design. Workers appeared to become psychotic just sitting at their desks working.
I believe the design or redesign of the Cubicle was the solution to the problem back then.
This site describes the problem.....involving subliminal peripheral vision....
I have Email addresses and guest book on site. Use any address at any location.
What term or name is used for the reason modern cubicles have privacy screens which block peripheral vision?
Posted by Brian Kennedy on December 20, 2002 at 08:23:56:
In Reply to: A question to Architecture Professionals and Students posted by L K Tucker on December 19, 2002 at 21:17:22:
Could the problem be that you are trying to prepare a lawsuit but that your willingness to be an asshole outstrips your vocabulary?
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Links
I recommend this site. But you will have to browse several pages.
"Early in evolution, human ancestors had only peripheral vision. The role of this early vision system (still preserved in our eyes) was to detect motion and set off protective reflexes."
http://www.wayfinding.net/vsionsys.htm
Peripheral vision Lego tester
Adobe file with tester construction and data results sample
http://www.edex.com.au/lego/support/activities/032_peripheral_vision.pdf
Nightwalking
"In The Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi, the legendary swordsman of 16th century Japan, implies that he fought his greatest duels with his eyes crossed, and goes into considerable detail about developing and using this strange abitlity."
The method suggested to engage peripheral vision is to suspend an object from the bill of a baseball cap and practice staring at it rather than looking straight ahead as we all normally do.
The site has a page on the physiology of the eye and sight. It describes the normal field of vision.
http://www.navaching.com/hawkeen/nwalk.html#Anchor-The-59125
Institute for Innovative Blind Navigation
Don't let the site name put you off. This site has several pages which explain sight and how the brain deals with two vision systems.
http://www.wayfinding.net/index.htm
This page has the vision material. http://www.wayfinding.net/vsionsys.htm#four
Speed Reading (peripheral vision)
http://www.ababasoft.com/wider_eye_span/
Vision, is a set of brain level subsystems
This page explains the M & P pathways and vision processing.
http://www.wayfinding.net/visanal.htm
The Red Myth
Color in Vision
http://stlplaces.com/night_vision.html
University of Missouri
The first paragraph on this page refers to psychological factors effecting pupil dilation.
"Interestingly, the pupil/iris combination also changes in response to psychological factors. One sign of activation of the sympathetic nervous system, which is a system important in arousal, fight, and flight, is dilated pupils. For example, sexual interest results in pupil dilation. (This piece of information may come in handy some time.)"
http://web.umr.edu/~psyworld/eye.htm
University of Utah
John Moran Eye Center -- Anatomy
http://webvision.med.utah.edu/
Kimball's Biology Pages
A simple explanation of the eye and sight.
http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/V/Vision.html
Understanding Human Vision
This site deals with color.
http://www.pitir.com/pentile/Human_Vision.html
Vision and the Brain
Block diagrams of vision paths through the brain explain the M and P channels.
http://www.thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_02/i_02_cr/i_02_cr_vis/i_02_cr_vis.html#2
Study Notes Vision
http://www.utmed.com/studynotes/neuro/VisualProcessing.pdf
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Prevention:
This section is now repeated at the bottom of most pages.
The rare occurrence of the
injury establishes that is difficult to create enough exposure to cause an
injury. But when it does happen the consequences are serious, possibly fatal.
Our personal experience was
intermittent human traffic during eight-hour workdays for thirty calendar days.
If you have a tower CPU mount
it under your desk. That's the way they position it in a cubicle. The hard drive
busy light is about the height of your low peripheral vision if you put the
tower on the desk. Desktop reading of text or writing notes beside the keyboard
on the side of the monitor away from the tower makes the blinking hard drive
busy light appear to approach from behind when you turn to view the screen
again.
If you have a computer work
station/desk in which you turn ninety degrees to write or do other non computer
work, turn off the monitor when you turn aside. Remove screen savers in this
instance. The movement, animation for example, in your screensaver,
two-dimensional movement, might well be detected by your peripheral vision at
close range. Alternately cover the monitor screen.
All home, apartment, or
dorm computer workstations are in unprotected workspace.
To change that put the computer in a quiet room with no possible movement. If
that is not possible in a dorm or apartment position the computer so that your
peripheral vision can see only stationary walls as you use the computer in a
busy room. In Cubicles and 'Systems Furniture' these protective features are
achieved with peripheral vision blocking panels and corner seating positions. It
is called 'Cubicle Level Protection.'
If you use computer or CD-ROM
games for many hours day after day, the game playing position should follow the
same rules as the computer workstation. Battery operated games will not run long
enough on a single rechargeable battery to cause a risk for SPVP.
Although a laptop does not
have a visible blinking light in peripheral vision the same rules apply to your
work position. There should not be human traffic moving to you from behind.
There should be nothing behind you, which could enter your subliminal peripheral
vision field as you turn your head while working at the laptop and be mistaken
for threat movement.
Only movement coming from
behind you into your Subliminal Peripheral Vision can cause a peripheral vision
reflex. If the movement source approaches you from ahead then enters your
Subliminal Peripheral Vision from conscious sight there can be no peripheral
vision reflex.
Repeated for Emphasis:
A single session or rare
sessions will not cause this problem.
It is the same day after day
long hours of play or computer use with detectable movement in ‘Subliminal
Peripheral Vision,’ which would form the basis of a risk for SPVP injury.
Exposure can be cumulative
The brain’s detection system only evaluates movement. There is little recognition of the nature of the object in peripheral vision. If you have several hours exposure from human traffic at the library, while reading at an open table or seated in a reading room chair, followed by long hours watching TV with a critically misplaced ceiling fan sweeping detectable shadows around the room, the combination of those two behaviors might cause the problem. The suggestion is that either activity alone would not consume enough exposure time even if the critical movement is present.
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