The efficacy of vestibular stimulation as a form of specific sensory enrichment. Quantitative review of the literature.

The application of recently developed, quantitative literature reviewing methods (meta-analysis), detailed in the companion article in this issue, is illustrated by examining the results of studies that explored the effectiveness of vestibular stimulation as a form of sensory stimulation. Sixty-seven studies were located that employed some form of vestibular stimulation as the independent variable. Fourteen of these studies met criteria consistent with traditionally accepted standards of empirical inquiry in the behavioral and biomedical sciences and were included in the review. The 14 studies contained 31 hypothesis tests that evaluated the efficacy of vestibular stimulation as a form of sensory enrichment designed to facilitate various developmental parameters. An analysis of the results of these tests, using quantitative reviewing methods, revealed that subjects receiving vestibular stimulation performed significantly better than members of control or comparison groups who did not receive such stimulation. We can begin to answer questions of efficacy using research reports which currently exist when that research is properly synthesized by the quantitative review method. The use of quantitative reviewing procedures is recommended to help establish a consensus when synthesizing conflicting research literature in the behavioral and biomedical sciences.