Gl. Pellecchia et Ge. Garrett, ASSESSING LUMBAR STABILIZATION FROM POINT-LIGHT AND NORMAL VIDEO DISPLAYS OF MANUAL LIFTING, Perceptual and motor skills, 85(3), 1997, pp. 931-937
Routinely, physical therapists use Visual observation to assess qualit
atively a patient's performance. The literature, however, indicates th
at assessments of gait and lumbar stabilization from visual observatio
n are at best only moderately reliable. Point-light video displays hav
e been used to study the visual perception of human motion. The presen
t purpose was to examine the reliability of assessments made by a phys
ical therapist when viewing point light and normal video displays of s
ubjects performing a lifting task. Three physical therapists assessed
lumbar stabilization by viewing normal and point-light displays of 25
subjects who lifted an 8-lb. milkcrate from floor to waist height. Gre
ater agreement of the therapists' ratings of lumbar stabilization was
achieved on assessments made from point-light displays than on those m
ade from normal displays. This finding suggests that the use of point-
light displays may improve the reliability of qualitative assessments
of performance on motor tasks.