VISION AND TOUCH: AN EXPERIMENTALLY CREATED CONFLICT BETWEEN THE TWO SENSES

Abstract

Observers were presented with an object whose visual shape, because of optical distortion, differed considerably from its tactual shape. After simultaneously grasping and viewing the object, the observers were required to indicate their impression of it by drawing it or by matching another object to it. The results reveal that vision is strongly dominant, often without the observer's being aware of a conflict.