Question:
I am wondering how I should take the peripheral vision test.
For example, I "normally" slightly strain to see/perceive any
flash of light no matter how dim.
Should I just be "relaxed" & not strain to see any flash
at all even if some/many are missed?
I've been setup for my annual vision test in about 2 1/2 months
& wonder if I've been doing the vision test incorrectly as now
I think the real idea is how my vision is doing when not strainning
to see.
Answer:
Just relax. I've had many visual field tests and after you've had a
number of them, you realize that a lot of things can affect the test
and the doctor should know not to put that much faith into one single
test but should be looking at a series of them. It's normal for people
to want to "do well" at visual field tests and try to concentrate hard
on seeing every light, but I've had some in which my attention wandered
(or the tech distracted me) and I know I missed some lights, but it
didn't make any real difference in the outcome. The test will give a
reading as to the number of false negatives and false positives and if
these numbers are too high, the test is invalid--in which case the
doctor will have you repeat it at some other time. But even with a lot
of errors (not my fault--due to tech's mistakes) I've never had a test
with so many errors that it wasn't still within the valid range. Don't
worry too much about those tests.
