Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Touch can change visual slant perception

Nature Neuroscience volume 3, pages 69–73 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

The visual system uses several signals to deduce the three-dimensional structure of the environment, including binocular disparity, texture gradients, shading and motion parallax. Although each of these sources of information is independently insufficient to yield reliable three-dimensional structure from everyday scenes, the visual system combines them by weighting the available information; altering the weights would therefore change the perceived structure. We report that haptic feedback (active touch) increases the weight of a consistent surface-slant signal relative to inconsistent signals. Thus, appearance of a subsequently viewed surface is changed: the surface appears slanted in the direction specified by the haptically reinforced signal.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Two examples of the cue-conflict stimuli.
Figure 2: .
Figure 3: Experimental setup.
Figure 4: Results for the haptic-feedback and control conditions.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Backus, B. T., Banks, M. S., van Ee, R. & Crowell, J. A. Horizontal and vertical disparity, eye position, and stereoscopic slant perception. Vision Res. 39, 1143–1170 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Blake, A., Bülthoff, H. H. & Sheinberg, D. Shape from texture: ideal observer and human psychophysics. Vision Res. 33, 1723 –1737 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Buckley, D. & Frisby, J. P. Interaction of stereo, texture and outline cues in the shape perception of three-dimensional rigids. Vision Res. 33, 919–933 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Johnston, E. B., Cumming, B. G. & Parker A. J. Integration of depth modules: Stereopsis and texture. Vision Res. 33, 813–826 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Landy, M. S., Maloney, L. T., Johnston, E. B. & Young, M. Measurement and modeling of depth cue combination: in defense of weak fusion. Vision Res. 35, 389–412 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Clark, J. J. & Yuille, A. L. Data Fusion for Sensory Information Processing Systems (Kluwer, Boston, 1990).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  7. Bülthoff, H. H. & Yuille, A. L. in Attention Performance XVI: Information Integration in Perception and Communication (eds. McClelland, J. & Inui, T.) 3 49–70 (MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1996).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Knill, D. C. Discrimination of planar surface slant from texture: human and ideal observers compared. Vision Res. 38, 1683– 1697 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. van Ee, R., Banks, M. S. & Backus, B. T. An analysis of binocular slant contrast. Perception 28, 1121–1145 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Rogers, B. J. & Bradshaw, M. F. Disparity scaling and the perception of frontoparallel surfaces. Perception 24, 155–179 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Bradshaw, M. F., Glennerster, A. & Rogers, B. J. The effect of display size on disparity scaling from differential perspective and vergence cues. Vision Res. 36, 1255–1264 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Backus, B. T. & Banks, M. S. Estimator reliability and distance scaling in stereoscopic slant perception. Perception 28, 217–242 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Rock, I. & Victor, J. Vision and touch: An experimentally created conflict the two senses. Science 143, 595–569 (1964).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Gibson, J. J. Adaptation, after-effect, and contrast in the perception of curved lines. J. Exp. Psychol. 16, 1– 31 (1933).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Rock, I. The Nature of Perceptual Adaptation (Basic Books, New York, 1966).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Festinger, L., Burnham, C. A., Ono, H. & Bamber, D. in Journal of Experimental Psychology Monograph Vol. 74, No. 4 (American Psychological Association, Washington., 1967).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Welch, R. B. & Warren, D. H. in Handbook of Perception and Human Performance (eds. Boff, K. R., Kaufman, L. & Thomas, J. P.) 25.1–25.36 (Wiley, New York, 1986).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Lederman, S. J. & Abbott, S. G. Texture perception: studies of intersensory organization using a discrepancy paradigm, and visual versus tactual psychophysics. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 7, 902–915 ( 1981).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Harris, C. S. Perceptual adaptation to inverted, reversed, and displaced vision. Psychol. Rev. 72, 419–444 (1965).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Welch R. B. Perceptual Modification: Adapting to Altered Sensory Environments (Academic, New York, 1978).

    Google Scholar 

  21. Stratton, G. M. Vision without inversion of the retinal image. Psychol. Rev. 4, 341–360, 463–481 (1897).

  22. von Helmholtz, H. Handbuch der Physiologischen Optik Vol. III (Leopold Voss, Leipzig, 1867).

  23. Walk, R. D. Intersensory perception and sensory integration. (Plenum, New York, 1981).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  24. Massie T. & Salisbury, J. K. in Dynamic Systems and Control 1994 Vol. 55 (ed. Radcliffe, Clark J.) 295– 301 (American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York, 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Gillam, B. Stereoscopic slant reversals: a new kind of 'induced' effect. Perception 22, 1025–1026 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by NSF grant (DBS-9309820) and AFOSR grant (93NL366) to M.S.B. and by the Max-Planck Society. The authors thank Robert Cooper and Mike Landy for comments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Spemannstr. 38, Tübingen, D-72076, Germany

    Marc O. Ernst & Heinrich H. Bülthoff

  2. Vision Science Program & School of Optometry, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-2020, California, USA

    Martin S. Banks

Authors
  1. Marc O. Ernst
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Martin S. Banks
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Heinrich H. Bülthoff
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marc O. Ernst.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ernst, M., Banks, M. & Bülthoff, H. Touch can change visual slant perception. Nat Neurosci 3, 69–73 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/71140

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/71140

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing