A number of studies have demonstrated the effects of relaxation training on improvements in visual and auditory responses. Graham and Leibowitz (1972) examined the effects of direct hypnotic and posthypnotic suggestion on visual acuity. The suggestions given were to feel completely relaxed, refreshed, to concentrate on the muscles around and behind the eyes, and to notice them becoming as relaxed and weightless as the rest of the muscles in the body. It was explained that the degree of relaxation attained would affect the muscles which control the lens, thus changing the focus of the eye and permitting clearer vision. The experimenters also stressed that improvement was contingent upon the subject's ability to relax the eye muscles, and that hypnosis was simply a tool which enabled the subject to do this more effectively. Telles, Nagarathna, and Nagendra (1995) reported an improvement in visual perception following yoga training, consisting of physical postures, regulation of breathing, a visual focusing exercise, and meditation. Subjects receiving the training had significant improvements in detecting the flickering of a light of fixed luminance. Brown, Forte, and Dysart (1984) reported that advanced meditators were able to distinguish subtle differences in color and shade, and had on the whole more sensitive visual perception.Concerning the improvements in auditory perception, Anderson, Melin, Scott, and Lidberg (1995) treated elderly hearing-impaired subjects using a shortened version of applied relaxation (Öst, 1987). The purpose of the exercise was to enhance subjects' ability to concentrate on one person at a time without being tense or disturbed by background noise. The ability to
The lateral effects of Dohsa-method relaxation on visual and auditory responsesYOSHITAKA KONNO Faculty of Education, Bunkyo University, Minami-Ogishima, Koshigaya, Saitama 343-8511, Japan Abstract: The effects of relaxation training, using the Dohsa method, on visual and auditory responses were examined. Twelve college students underwent relaxation training either to the left shoulder, left side of the waist, and the left foot, or to the right side. The measures used in this study were weight-bearing, body perception and external perception, visual field, and visual and hearing acuity. Weight-bearing significantly increased for the foot undergoing relaxation training, compared with the untreated foot, indicating that the subjects stood more firmly on the ground on the relaxed foot. Subjects could also perceive positive changes in their "sense of standing firmly on the ground," "sense of activity in the body," "sense of muscular relaxation," and "sense of fullness in the abdomen" on the side of the body receiving relaxation training. There were positive changes in external perception such as "vividness of the external world," "breadth of the visual field," and "active impression of the external world" for subjects' vision on the side receiving relaxation training. Furthermore, visual and hearing acuity on the side on which relaxa...