[visionlist] Davida Teller

[Larry Baitch]

[PLEASE EXCUSE MULTIPLE POSTINGS - I HAVE BEEN ASKED TO POST THIS ON A 
NUMBER OF LISTSERVS]

If I may make some personal comments about the loss of Davida:

In the early 1980's Davida was walking on the beach at ARVO in Sarasota 
with the late Mert Flom. They were pondering/debating why it takes so 
many trials in a forced-choice preferential-looking procedure to 
determine an infant visual acuity when an optometrist or ophthalmologist 
can make quick and accurate determinations by incorporating clinical 
judgment, without the use of prolonged psychophysical methods. Could FPL 
be streamlined for clinical infant vision assessment by incorporating 
clinical judgment, experience and the general gut feelings of the examiner?

According to Davida and Mert, this prompted the birth of the Teller 
Acuity Card concept. At the UWash Infant Vision Lab- Davida, the late 
Velma Dobson, Denise Varner, MaryAnn McDonald and Lawson Sebris 
experimented with acuity cards with a single grating, looking for the 
infant's VOR to "lock" onto the grating if it was seen. Then they 
compared those results with two-grating cards, which were more like the 
original FPL stimuli.

About this time, I was well on my own way to burning-out academically. I 
had arrived at the University of Houston PhD program fresh after four 
years of Optometry school, national board examinations and state board 
examinations, and was having trouble focusing on the early didactic work 
in the PhD program in Physiological Optics.  I went to Mert Flom, then 
the Dean of our program, and told him that I needed to take a respite 
from academics and would probably leave the program for a year or so.

Mert suggested that instead, I should spend the summer at Davida 
Teller's lab in Seattle, working on a project that she was very 
passionate about- acuity cards. While Davida had many brilliant 
investigators in her lab, she wanted a trained clinician to work with 
them in order to develop the card technique and to incorporate clinical 
judgment.

So I spent the Summer of '83 with Davida, Velma and the others, and 
Davida was kind enough to let me live in her home for the summer. She 
was tremendously kind, very engaging and had a wonderful (and somewhat 
bent) sense of humor. Every night we would talk until the late hours 
about science, vision, family and relationships.

Mert was right- I came back to Houston energized and excited after my 
time in Seattle. Moreover, my summer with Davida left a very strong 
impression, and though my contacts with Davida were limited to phone 
calls, emails and vision meetings since then, she always had a big smile 
and time to talk. I understand that Davida's hospitality was not limited 
to me, as many people over the years have been privileged to work in the 
Teller Lab and stay with her in her home.

I am honored to have been on that first Teller Acuity Card paper with 
Davida, Velma and the others, and I will always treasure that Summer of '83.

I've attached a photo I took of Davida and her cat, Ann, on the patio 
outside her house overlooking Lake Union. If it does not make it through 
the listserv and you wish to see it, please write to me and I'll be 
happy to send it to you. _
_
- Larry Baitch_
_
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