title: Believing is seeing: using mindlessness (mindfully) to improve visual acuity.
abstract: These experiments show that vision can be improved by manipulating mind-sets. In Study 1, participants were primed with the mind-set that pilots have excellent vision. Vision improved for participants who experientially became pilots (by flying a realistic flight simulator) compared with control participants (who performed the same task in an ostensibly broken flight simulator). Participants in an eye-exercise condition (primed with the mind-set that improvement occurs with practice) and a motivation condition (primed with the mind-set "try and you will succeed") demonstrated visual improvement relative to the control group. In Study 2, participants were primed with the mind-set that athletes have better vision than nonathletes. Controlling for arousal, doing jumping jacks resulted in greater visual acuity than skipping (perceived to be a less athletic activity than jumping jacks). Study 3 took advantage of the mind-set primed by the traditional eye chart: Because letters get progressively smaller on successive lines, people expect that they will be able to read the first few lines only. When participants viewed a reversed chart and a shifted chart, they were able to see letters they could not see before. Thus, mind-set manipulation can counteract physiological limits imposed on vision.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, USA.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Langer
authors.forename: Maja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Djikic
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pirson
authors.forename: Arin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Madenci
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Donohue
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal; D001364:Awareness; D003463:Cues; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012718:Set, Psychology; D014787:Vision Tests; D014792:Visual Acuity; D055815:Young Adult