Abstract
In this study, we evaluated observers’ ability to compare naturally shaped three-dimensional (3-D) objects, using their senses of vision and touch. In one experiment, the observers haptically manipulated 1 object and then indicated which of 12 visible objects possessed the same shape. In the second experiment, pairs of objects were presented, and the observers indicated whether their 3-D shape was thesame ordifferent. The 2 objects were presented either unimodally (vision-vision or haptic-haptic) or cross-modally (vision-haptic or haptic-vision). In both experiments, the observers were able to compare 3-D shape across modalities with reasonably high levels of accuracy. In Experiment 1, for example, the observers’ matching performance rose to 72% correct (chance performance was 8.3%) after five experimental sessions. In Experiment 2, small (but significant) differences in performance were obtained between the unimodal vision-vision condition and the two cross-modal conditions. Taken together, the results suggest that vision and touch have functionally overlapping, but not necessarily equivalent, representations of 3-D shape.
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Note—This article was accepted by the previous editorial team, headed by Neil Macmillan.
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Norman, J.F., Norman, H.F., Clayton, A.M. et al. The visual and haptic perception of natural object shape. Perception & Psychophysics 66, 342–351 (2004). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194883
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194883