Background
Arnold Jonathan Wilkins was born on January 25, 1946 in London. Son of Leslie Thomas and Barbara Lucy (Swinstead) Wilkins.
(The use of coloured overlays on text can improve reading ...)
The use of coloured overlays on text can improve reading in certain individuals, including children. They have been shown to reduce fatigue and increase fluency and can be used with both dyslexic and non-dyslexic children and adults. Reading with Colour provides a review and interpretation of the scientific evidence, gathered over the last decade, along with very practical guidance for teachers and parents about how to use the overlays, who will benefit from their use and how to assess their effectiveness. * Unique - nothing else on this topic * Comprehensive - includes both the scientific evidence in lay terms as well as practical "how to" information * Very practical - includes information on classroom management and the design of typefaces for children
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470851163/?tag=2022091-20
(This book provides the first general and unified theory o...)
This book provides the first general and unified theory of visual discomfort. Based on the author's observation that people find certain visual stimuli uncomfortable--and that these same stimuli induce seizures in patients with photosensitive epilepsy--the book offers fascinating insights into a variety of visual stresses that arise from design, reading, lighting, television, and VDU terminals. A range of techniques for preventing and treating visual discomfort--from color therapy to precision tinting of spectacle lenses--are described in detail. Students and researchers in perceptual psychology, visual science, neurology, and optometry will want to read this pioneering new work.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/019852174X/?tag=2022091-20
educator neuropsychologist scientist
Arnold Jonathan Wilkins was born on January 25, 1946 in London. Son of Leslie Thomas and Barbara Lucy (Swinstead) Wilkins.
Wilkins graduated from the University of Exeter as a Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 1968.
He obtained Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Sussex 5 years later.
Arnold J. Wilkins has had a long and fruitful career with his native country’s Medical Research Council in Cambridge. Prior to that, he spent two years as a research fellow at the Montreal Neurological Institute in Quebec, Canada. He has been instrumental in the development of many breakthroughs in the areas of epilepsy, migraine, and vision, including a reading mask, tinted lenses, reading tests, and color filters for classroom use.
A recognized expert in several fields, Wilkins has discussed his findings on many radio and television programs in Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and the United States, including Beyond 2000, NBC News, and Nova. He has written numerous articles on the subjects of headaches, epilepsy, reading, typography, and vision for scientific journals and has contributed chapters on these and similar topics to many books edited by others. Wilkins’s own first book, Visual Stress, was published by Oxford University Press in 1995.
In Visual Stress, Wilkins proposes the first general unified theory of visual stress. The book examines and discusses the ways in which our workplaces, and other public environments such as malls and superstores, are damaging to our visual, mental, and physical health. People who are light-sensitive, for instance, find the lighted, shiny striped metal of the escalator steps in the London subway stations extremely disorienting and even nauseating. Epileptic fits and migraine headaches can be brought on by certain patterns of light, and the fluorescent lighting used in many offices are bad for workers’ health. Also potentially visually disturbing are herringbone patterns in brick walkways used as ornamentation by modern urban planners.
Wilkins also provides a way for the light-sensitive to ease their discomforts while using the offending escalators—one may simply cover one eye while going down them. Other highlights of Visual Stress include the author’s citation of a 1971 art exhibit by an artist whose paintings included several strong, striped patterns. Several curators of the exhibit reported an unusual number of headaches and symptoms of dizziness.
He has taught courses at Cambridge University, has served as a consultant to various ophthalmic concerns.
(The use of coloured overlays on text can improve reading ...)
(This book provides the first general and unified theory o...)
Quotations:
“Writing about how one writes is disturbingly recursive. The task engenders an introspection which prejudices the whole enterprise! For me, the process of writing is more a process of reading. I write and read, write and read, over and over again. With each reading I attempt to purge the draft of unnecessary verbiage without compromising clarity: a reflection of the obsessional nature of a scientist. To do this effectively requires a long enough period between each reading for my memory of the previous readings to have evaporated. The process is time-consuming and it is for this reason, among many others, that my book took ten years to write, and why I have only written one. Clearly, obsessionality of this kind is not a good model for an aspiring writer!"
“As one ages, the memory declines, and one comes afresh to something one has written only days before. As a consequence, the process of revision is speeded. Aging has another beneficial effect. One becomes less and less concerned about making a fool of oneself in print, as it dawns on one that all fools are in good company. Therefore, I look forward to writing many books to come, produced at an ever-increasing rate, but perhaps ultimately with fewer and fewer people willing to read them!”
Wilkins is a member of the International League against Epilepsy, the British Psychology Society, the Experimental Psychology Society, the Electroencephalographic Society, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the Applied Vision Association and Color Group.
Wilkins married Elizabeth Jacob on January 4, 1975. They have 2 children - Martha and Jonathan.