Psychosomatic Medicine 28:364-374 (1966)
© 1966 American Psychosomatic Society

Visual Acuity and Excitement

¹ Veterans Administration Hospital, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Viewed within the framework of activation theory, individuals with low visual acuity might conceivably be seen as persons with low preferred levels of activation who seek to reduce stimulus input in order to maintain activation at their preferred level. It was hypothesized, therefore, that persons with low visual acuity would demonstrate less receptivity to environmental stimulation than high-acuity individuals. In support of this hypothesis, subjects with high visual acuity gave evidence of greater responsiveness to and desire for external stimulation on questionnaire measures of stimulus acceptance and reactivity. Conversely, persons with low visual acuity described themselves as calm and unexcitable, and manifested greater use of suppression as a defense. Two alternative interpretations are an attribution of acuity differences to antecedent differences in level of activation, and an assertion of the temporal priority of autochthonous differences in visual acuity.

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