The Psychophysical Measurement of Visual Function. Thomas T. Norton, David A. Corliss, James E. Bailey, eds. Burlington, MA: Butterworth–Heinemann, 2002. Pages: 362. Price: 59. 95. ISBN 0-7506-9935-3. It is said that many textbooks are born of a professor's dissatisfaction with the available books. The recent addition to the optometry bookshelf by Tom Norton and colleagues was prompted by this very reason. The authors state that The Psychophysical Measurement of Visual Function was written because no single text suited their needs for a course, or series of courses, that teaches student clinicians the fundamentals of monocular sensory processes. Many other instructors who teach this subject area cite the out-of-print Visual Perception by Tom Cornsweet as being the best fit for their needs. These individuals should welcome the birth of The Psychophysical Measurement of Visual Function and, I believe, will embrace the book as the new text of choice. Norton, Corliss, and Bailey have recruited an impressive group of colleagues to help them write the book. The result is a well-balanced series of chapters that teaches the fundamentals and, where possible, relates the material to clinical tests of visual function. Topics ranging from the classical experiment of Hecht and colleagues to short wavelength automated perimetry are covered in an accessible fashion. The book begins with chapters on psychophysical measurement, absolute thresholds, intensity discrimination, and light and dark adaptation. The book continues with comprehensive sections on spatial, temporal, and color vision and concludes with chapters covering vision development and the aging visual system. These final chapters will provide a useful foundation for students taking courses on infant vision and aging later in the optometry curriculum. There is also a useful appendix on measuring light and photometry. The book has a number of features that should make it popular with students. The subject headings within each chapter are summary statements or take-home messages. These are the kind of statements that students love to accent with yellow highlighters. I like the authors’ approach of prehighlighting these statements for the students by making them bold headings. In addition, the figures are all excellent and clear. Each chapter concludes with a study guide. The study guides are 20 or so questions that a student could use to test their knowledge or to create index cards or notes that summarize the salient points from each chapter. As would be expected given the credentials of the authors, the content of each chapter is excellent. The only minor indiscretion that I unearthed was in the chapter on spatial vision. The text does not describe the orderly change in contrast as one progresses down the Pelli-Robson chart, and the accompanying figure suggests a somewhat arbitrary progression. In summary, this is a book that Norton and his colleagues should be proud of. The book should find its way onto the required or recommended text list for most optometry students. There will be inevitable comparisons with Schwartz's Visual Perception. The choice of which text to use will ultimately fall to the individual course instructor, but students may find The Psychophysical Measurement of Visual Function an attractive new alternative.
Mark A. Bullimore (Sun,) studied this question.