The Sensory Station
The Sensory Station was created by Nike Inc. as a key assessment tool in the Sensory Performance Methodology. This device measures sports-relevant visual and visual-motor abilities through a battery of 9 computerized tasks that are uniformly administered by certified trainers under standardized testing conditions. In about 25 minutes a holistic “performance profile” can be generated for each individual that compares their skills to a peer group of athletes in the same sport and level (e.g. high school, college, or pro). This tool therefore provides a quantitative assessment of an individual's 'sensorimotor skills' that can be used in conjunction with vision training programs to improve applied sports or military outcomes. See below for more information on the specific tasks, or follow the links here, or on the navigation bar, to learn more about the research, users, and to find an interactive forum.
Sensory Station Tasks
During the Sensory Station assessment individuals first register a demographic profile that includes information about themselves (gender, age, height), their sporting activities (primary/secondary sport, position, level), as well as their vision correction and concussion history. This is followed by a battery of 9 behavioral tasks that assess sensorimotor abilities. This battery is individualized for each participant such that stimuli presented in later tasks are scaled according to sensitivity measurements recorded earlier in the battery. This assessment therefore provides a wealth of quantitative information about an individual and his or her sensorimotor abilities. These tasks are described and illustrated below, and more information about the reliability and utility of these measures can be found on the research page.
9 Psychometric Tasks
- Visual Clarity (Static Visual Acuity): Measures acuity for fine details at distance.
- Contrast Sensitivity: Measures the minimum resolvable difference in contrast at distance.
- Depth Perception: Measures how quickly and accurately one can detect differences in depth at distance.
- Near-Far Quickness: Measures the number of near and far target can be correctly reported in 30 seconds.
- Target Capture (Dynamic Visual Acuity): Measures the speed at which one can shift attention and recognize peripheral targets.
- Perception Span: Measures the capacity of spatial working memory.
- Eye-Hand Coordination: Measures the speed at which one can make visually-guided hand responses to rapidly changing targets.
- Go/No-Go: Measures the ability to execute and inhibit visually-guided hand responses in the presence of 'go' and 'no-go' stimuli.
- Hand Response Time: Measures how quickly one can react and respond to a simple visual stimulus.
# indicates that these tasks measure sensitivity thresholds using a staircase procedure