Exercise I - Parafoveal Stimulation

The parafoveal stimulation is the first of the 11 exercises from PTS II I will describe.
The parafoveal stimulation exercise is designed to make you identify stimuli outside of the parafea (see posting on November 18, 2009).
The working position should be the Harmon distance (see posting November 25,2009). This sitting distance makes a world of difference.
The goal of this exercise is to get 70% to 100% right answers in order to move to the next level. The stimuli type are upper and lower case letters and numbers. The speed range from 15/60ths of a second, 10/60 of a second and 5/60 of a second.
The computer screen shows a small box with a dot inside. The dot will move in different combination from left to right. At random intervals, two letters or numbers will flash on the screen. One inside the box and one outside. With the keyboard arrows, you have to match the dots. You push the space bar only when the stimuli match.
This exercise requires VTP (see posting January 11, 2010), motor and eye hand movement coordination.
Everything happens very fast. So far (I am now on level 10) I have been doing very well. I will keep you informed on how future levels go.

Before I started on this program,I had hit a wall. Improvements on my sight-reading were happening very slowly if any. Practice alone had helped for the first 5 months only.
A month into this program, my tempo is faster and my playing is more accurate. While sight-reading Mozart violin sonatas, I was able to add ornaments, dynamics and articulations. I have been through 27 sections and several practice trials. There are 123 to go.