June 1988

Orthoptics for Convergence Insufficiency—Cooper 457

an experiment to determine if orthoptics/vision

training was successful in treating convergence

insufficiencies and reducing asthenopia. They

again used an A-B-A crossover design to control

for experimental bias, placebo effects, and order

effects. It was found that convergence training

resulted in an improvement in convergence

ranges, which only minimally transferred to

other testing conditions, e.g., positive relative

convergence as measured with prisms or vecto-

grams. On the other hand, transfer of vergence

abilities from one task to another had been

FIG. 1. Young patient makes a reaching response which breaks an infrared beam. Correct response results In

presentation of a cartoon reinforcement. (Repnnted from J Am Optom Assoc 1980;51 :768.)

Fuo. 2. RDS presentation with fading in of both the S+ (monocular cue) and the S- (flat fusion dot pattern).

Patient responds to Si- by a reaching response portrayed in Fig. 1. (Reprinted from J Am Optom Assoc

1980:51 :769.)