PSYCHOSOCIAL INFLUENCES ON CENTRAL AND PERIPHERAL-VISION AND REACTION-TIME DURING DEMANDING TASKS

We examined perceptual deficits hypothesized in a model of stress and injury relationships. An ophthalmologic perimeter was used to measure peripheral and central vision during baseline and demanding task situa tions for 201 intercollegiate athletes from 10 sports. We conducted an alyses of covariance with the stress measures as dependent variables a nd their appropriate baseline measures as covariates. Performance unde r demanding tasks deteriorated significantly on all the perceptual var iables. Individuals with high negative life events scores experienced greater peripheral narrowing and slower central vision reaction time d uring stress than did those with life events scores that were low. Men with low social support had more failures to detect cues, and men wit h high negative life events, low social support, anti low coping skill s had the lowest perceptual sensitivity. Women with high negative life events and low coping skills had more failures to detect cues. We dis cuss the findings in terms of how stress responsivity may influence in jury risk through changes in perception and attention.