ACTIVITY 3 . 1 0.

2 33

Activity 3 . 1 0 . 1

Responding t o changing light levels

We know from everyday experience that we cannot see clearly if the light is too
bright or too dim, for example if we move suddenly from bright sunlight to deep
shadow, or switch on a light in the middle of the night. On the other hand, we also
know that people with normal vision can see well under a very wide range of light
conditions. The connection between these two observations is the way in which the
eye responds to the brightness of the light falling on it.

Equipment: Room with curtains or blinds (complete blackout is not required); table lamp.
Draw the curtains or blinds so that the light in the room is dim, but you can still
see well.
Work with a partner, sitting at a table. Look at your partner's eyes. Notice the
'coloured' part of the eye ( iris) around a central black hole (pupil ) .
Place the lamp on the table t o face your partner, about 50cm away, a n d ask him
or her to look to one side of it. Go round to the other side of the table and, looking
at one of your partner's eyes all the time, switch the lamp on.
? How does the eye change as the lamp is switched on? (The pupil becomes smaller;
or, to be more accurate, the iris expands inwards leaving a smaller hole i n the
middle.)
I f the pupil is made smaller, what effect does this have on the amount of light
entering the eye ? ( It is reduced. )
When is it useful t o reduce the amount o f light entering the eye ? (When the light i s
very bright. If too much light is allowed i n , the eye will b e 'dazzled'.)

One example of this, relevant to road safety at night, is that drivers or cyclists should
not look directly at the headlights of oncoming vehicles, even if they are properly
dipped. Instead they should look at the nearside of the road or lane they are on, to
avoid being dazzled.
Still watching the eye, switch the lamp off again.
? How did the eye change? (The pupil gets bigger again; I.e. the iris contracts
outwards, leaving a larger hole in the middle.)
? If the pupil is made bigger, what difference will it make? ( More light will enter the
eye.)
? When would this be an advantage? (In dim light conditions: if too little light enters
the eye, we cannot see clearly.)
As these observations show, the iris expands and contracts in response to the stim
ulus of decreasing and increasing levels of light falling on the eye, which has obvious
survival value.

Activity 3 . 1 0.2

How much do we see clearly?

To most people it appears that they see the whole of what is in front of them clearly;
but this is not so. In fact we see clearly and in detail only what is in the middle of our
field of vision at any moment; in common language, the particular thing we are
34 HUMANS AS ORGANISMS

'looking at'. The simplest way of showing this depends on children's ability to
recognize words (or letters ).

A letter and word-window

Equipment: Books with large print (or letter-recognition or small print (or fluent readers; sheet o(
A4 white paper; scissors; pencil.
Fold the paper and cut a small rectangular 'window' about 1 x 2cm i n the centre.
Unfold the paper and put it over the open book; do not look at the 'window'.
Use the pencil as a pointer. Put it at one edge of the paper and, looking at its point
all the time, move it in towards the 'window'.
When can you recognize any letters or read any of the words in the 'window'?
( Only when the pencil-point, and so the centre of the reader's field of view, is at or
even over the edge of the 'window'.)
This test shows very clearly how little of our field of view at any moment is seen in
detail. How then do we see the whole of the scene in front of us? By making very
rapid scanning movements of the eyes and building up in the memory a mental
'picture' or map of what we are looking at. This can be observed very easily by
sitting in front of a person, giving them a large, interesting picture to look at and
watching how their eyes move as they explore it visually. The eye-movements char
acteristic of reading are a highly-specialized example of the same kind of scanning.

Activity 3 . 1 0.3

Judging distances
In common with those of other hunting mammals ( Activity 5 . 6 . 1 ) , the eyes of
humans are at the front of the head so that their fields of vision overlap to a great
extent, giving us what is known as binocular or stereoscopic vision. In practical
terms this means that we can j udge very accurately how far away from us an object is
in relation to other things around it.
EqUipment: Two pencils with sharp points.
Hold a pencil horizontally in each hand, points towards each other.
With arms half-bent and both eyes open, bring the pencil-points together and try
to make them touch. (Most people can do this easily.)
Stretch and bend your arms a few times, then try to make the pencil-points touch
with one eye shut.
Carry out the test with both eyes open and one eye shut, ten times. Compare your
success rates.
What is it that we can do with both eyes open that we cannot do with one eye
shut? (Tell accurately how far things are away from us in relation to one another. )
? In what kinds of situation is the ability to judge distances an advantage?

You might think of its advantages to stone-age man, modern man, and both.
Stone-age man: any kind of hunting or combat.
Modern man: riding a bicycle, driving a car, piloting an aeroplane, playing any kind
of ball game.