Uses and Abuses of Assessing Contrast Threshold Functions for Anomalous Vision

The contrast sensitivity approach has enjoyed much success in its recent applications to anomalous vision. The uses, abuses, limitations and extensions of this approach are detailed using examples of amblyopias from acquired (organic) as well as developmental (functional) origin. This approach is seen to extend our assessment of visual function and to have greater sensitivity than acuity. We are. however, severely limited in what we can say of the perceptual consequences using this approach for two reasons. First, sensory thresholds are rather special points on our sensory scale and second, they monitor a rather peripheral aspect of visual function.