Ravensbergen Henrike Rianne Joanna Cornelie, van Bree Belle I N A, Broekens Douwe M, Mann David Lindsay
Optom Vis Sci. 2018 Jun;95(6):536-544. doi: 10.1097/OPX.0000000000001227.
In certain scenarios, it is advantageous to misrepresent one's ability and "cheat" on vision tests. Our findings suggest that increased variability when testing visual acuity holds promise as a novel means to help detect this cheating and may generalize to other subjective tests of visual function.
People who cheat on vision tests generally do so to make their vision appear better than it actually is (e.g., for occupational or driving purposes). However, there are particular settings in which it is advantageous for their vision to appear to be worse than is the case (e.g., to qualify for benefits available to people with low vision). Therefore, a method to help detect cheating in these scenarios is desirable. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the intentional underrepresentation of vision could be detected when testing visual acuity.
We tested the visual acuity of 13 participants with simulated vision impairment using the Berkeley Rudimentary Vision Test. Participants were tested in an honest condition when providing their best effort and in a cheating condition when attempting to make their visual acuity appear to be markedly worse. We also tested visual acuity of 17 participants with a wide range of vision impairments.
Participants were successfully able to "cheat" on the tests; however, their responses were significantly more variable when cheating (P < .001). Although the variability in visual acuity was larger in individuals with actual vision impairment compared with those providing honest answers with simulated impairment (P < .01), their responses remained significantly less variable than those for individuals in the cheating condition (P = .01).
The variability in the estimations of vision provides a promising novel means of detecting the intentional underrepresentation of vision and could help to minimize the chance of successfully cheating on tests of vision.
在某些情况下，在视力测试中夸大自己的能力并“作弊”是有利的。我们的研究结果表明，在测试视力时增加的变异性有望成为一种帮助检测这种作弊行为的新方法，并且可能推广到其他视觉功能的主观测试中。
在视力测试中作弊的人通常这样做是为了让自己的视力看起来比实际更好（例如，出于职业或驾驶目的）。然而，在某些特定情况下，让他们的视力看起来比实际情况更差是有利的（例如，为了符合视力低下者可享受的福利条件）。因此，需要一种方法来帮助检测这些情况下的作弊行为。本研究的目的是调查在测试视力时是否能够检测到故意低报视力的情况。
我们使用伯克利基本视力测试对13名模拟视力受损的参与者进行了视力测试。参与者在尽力提供真实情况时处于诚实状态下接受测试，并在试图使他们的视力看起来明显更差时处于作弊状态下接受测试。我们还对17名视力障碍程度各异的参与者进行了视力测试。
参与者能够在测试中成功“作弊”；然而，他们在作弊时的反应变异性显著更大（P <.001）。尽管与那些模拟视力受损并诚实地回答问题的人相比，实际视力受损者的视力变异性更大（P <.01），但他们的反应变异性仍然明显小于作弊状态下的人的反应变异性（P =.01）。
视力估计中的变异性为检测故意低报视力提供了一种有前景的新方法，并有助于将视力测试中成功作弊的可能性降至最低。
