Effect of Eye Illumination on Pupillary Response

Results:

When the unobserved eye was illuminated, the pupil diameter in the observed eye had become smaller in response in comparison to when both eyes were in the ambient condition. The pupil diameter of the observed eye was smaller when both eyes were illuminated in comparison to the diameter it had when only the unobserved eye was illuminated. As seen in Figure 1, the diameter of the pupils was the greatest when the eyes were in the ambient condition, or Treatment 1. The figure also shows that the data yielded the smallest diameter of the pupils when both eyes were illuminated under Treatment 2. The increase in diameter of the pupil suggests dilation, while a decrease in diameter suggests contraction of the pupil.

Figure 1. Effect of Eye Illumination on Pupil Diameter.
The figure represents the data collected in an experiment that was conducted to determine if …show more content…
The graph shows the average diameter of the pupil among all the participants for each Treatment. Treatment 1 involved the ambient position, or having both eyes not illuminated; the average was 0.576 cm with a standard deviation of 0.06 cm. Treatment 2 involved having both eyes illuminated; the average was 0.298 cm with a standard deviation of 0.045 cm. Treatment 3 involved only having the unobserved eye illuminated; the average was 0.442 cm with a standard deviation of 0.036 cm. The error bars in this case represent the positive and negative standard deviation from the mean.

Discussion:

The results found all for the independence hypothesis to be rejected due to the fact that the data collected refute the idea of the pupillary