Eye Dominance Test
AKA: Behavioural Laterality Battery, Ocular Dominance Test, Miles Test, Porac Test
Background
Eye dominance tests are measures of ocular dominance. The Miles Test and the Porta Test are two quick examples of such tests that rely on self-observations. The Miles Test was introduced by Walter Richard Miles in 1929 to objectively measure eye preference without the participant's conscious bias or hand preference interfering with the results. The Porta Test goes back even further. It was first described by Italian physician Giambattista della Porta in 1593.
Both tests are included in the Behavioural Laterality Battery (BLB), a free online test battery published by Adam J. Parker and colleagues in 2020 - this test battery is also provided in the Millisecond Library (Inquisit BLB).
The Millisecond implemented procedures of both tests are based on the ones used by the BLB.
Miles Test: Task Procedure
The basic Miles Test procedure asks a participant to hold both arms straight out in front and bring both hands together, overlapping fingers and thumbs to create a small triangular opening or hole. With both eyes open, participants are asked to look through the hole and focus on a small, distant object across the room. Then they are asked to close the left eye. If the object stays in the center, the right eye is declared to be the dominant one. If the object 'disappears', the left eye is the dominant one.
The Millisecond Miles test provides an example picture of the hand constellation needed to perform the test and describes the procedure to the participants. Once participants have self-determined their eye dominance, they are asked to submit their ocular dominance finding.
Porta Test: Task Procedure
The basic Porta Test procedure asks participants to pick a target such as a small object across the room and point with the index fingerof an extended arm at it while keeping both eyes open. Then participants are instructed to close their left eye. If the object 'jumps', the right eye is determined to be the dominant eye. If the object stays in place, the left eye is the dominant eye.
The Millisecond Porta test provides an example picture of the finger constellation needed to perform the test and describes the procedure to the participants. Once participants have self-determined their eye dominance, they are asked to submit their ocular dominance finding.
What it Measures
The Miles/Porta Test determines eye dominance.
Psychological domains
- Brain Lateralization: The principle that specific cognitive functions are dominant in either the left or right hemisphere of the brain
- Visual Lateralization: The functional specialization of the brain’s left and right hemispheres for processing different types of visual information
Main Performance Metrics
- Ocular Dominance Response: the simple self-assessed right/left/don't know visual dominance response
Psychiatric Conditions
The Miles Test/Porta Test is used with patients suffering from
- Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
- Strokes
- Schizophrenia
- Major Depressive Disorder
Test Variations
A measure of left or right occular dominance originally created by Miles (1929) and adapted by (Parker et al, 2020) for use in the Behavioral Laterality Battery.
A measure of left or right occular dominance originally created by Porac & Coren (1976) and adapted by (Parker et al, 2020) for use in the Behavioral Laterality Battery.
References
Search Google Scholar for peer-reviewed, published research using the Inquisit Eye Dominance Test.
Miles, W. R. (1929). Ocular dominance demonstrated by unconscious sighting. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 12(2), 113–126.
Porac, C., & Coren, S. (1976). Psychological bulletin, 83, 880.
Parker, Adam J, Woodhead, Zoe V. J, Thompson, Paul A, & Bishop, Dorothy V. M. (n.d.). Assessing the reliability of an online behavioural laterality battery: A pre-registered study. Laterality (Hove), Ahead-of-print(Ahead-of-print), 1-39.