Modification of refractive error through conditioning: An exploratory study

To test the hypothesis that punishment for in-focus visual perception would temporarily increase refractive error in myopic subjects, 10 corrected myopes were given electric shock after the appearance of in-focus slides depicting anxiety-arousing material, but no shock when the slides were out of focus. Change in refractive error was compared with the corresponding change in 10 myopic control subjects who underwent physical relaxation for a comparable period, and with two similarly treated groups of normally sighted subjects. Although the groups did not differ significantly from each other in the changes made, a number of trends suggest potentially fruitful directions for further research.