Abstract
Previous research has shown that visual perception is affected by sensory information from other modalities. For example, sound can alter the visual intensity or the number of visual objects perceived. However, when touch and vision are combined, vision normally dominates—a phenomenon known asvisual capture. Here we report a cross-modal interaction between active touch and vision: The perceived number of brief visual events (flashes) is affected by the number of concurrently performed finger movements (keypresses). This sensorimotor illusion occurred despite little ambiguity in the visual stimuli themselves and depended on a close temporal proximity between movement execution and vision.
References
Blake, R., Sobel, K. V., &James, T. W. (2004). Neural synergy between kinetic vision and touch.Psychological Science,15, 397–402.
Cinel, C., Humphreys, G. W., &Poli, R. (2002). Cross-modal illusory conjunctions between vision and touch.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,28, 1243–1266.
Dell’Acqua, R., &Jolicoeur, P. (2000). Visual encoding of patterns is subject to dual-task interference.Memory & Cognition,28, 184–191.
Ernst, M. O., Banks, M. S., &Bülthoff, H. H. (2000). Touch can change visual slant perception.Nature Neuroscience,3, 69–73.
Gibson, J. J. (1962). Observations on active touch.Psychological Review,69, 477–491.
Guest, S., Catmur, C., Lloyd, D., &Spence, C. (2002). Audiotactile interactions in roughness perception.Experimental Brain Research,146, 161–171.
Hay, J. C., Pick, H. L., &Ikeda, K. (1965). Visual capture produced by prism spectacles.Psychonomic Science,2, 215–216.
Hommel, B., Müsseler, J., Aschersleben, G., &Prinz, W. (2001). The theory of event coding (TEC): A framework for perception and action planning.Behavioral & Brain Sciences,24, 849–878.
Hommel, B., &Schneider, W. X. (2002). Visual attention and manual response selection: Distinct mechanisms operating on the same codes.Visual Cognition,9, 392–420.
Hötting, K., &Röder, B. (2004). Hearing cheats touch, but less in congenitally blind than in sighted individuals.Psychological Science,15, 60–64.
James, W. (1981).The principles of psychology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Original edition published 1890)
Jousmäki, V., &Hari, R. (1998). Parchment-skin illusion: Soundbiased touch.Current Biology,8, R190.
Klatzky, R. L., Lederman, S. J., &Matula, D. (1993). Haptic exploration in the presence of vision.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,19, 726–743.
Kunde, W. (2001). Response-effect compatibility in manual choice reaction tasks.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,27, 387–394.
Kunde, W., &Weigelt, M. (2005). Goal congruency in bimanual object manipulation.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,31, 145–156.
Kunde, W., &Wühr, P. (2004). Actions blind to conceptually overlapping stimuli.Psychological Research,68, 199–207.
Lederman, S. J., &Abbott, S. G. (1981). Texture perception: Studies of intersensory organization using a discrepancy paradigm and visual versus tactual psychophysics.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,7, 902–915.
Lederman, S. J., Thorne, G., &Jones, B. (1986). Perception of texture by vision and touch: Multidimensionality and intersensory integration.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,12, 169–180.
Loomis, J. M., &Lederman, S. J. (1986). Tactual perception. In K. R. Boff, L. Kaufman, & J. P. Thomas (Eds.),Handbook of perception and human performance: Vol. 2. Cognitive processes and performance (pp. 31.1–31.41). New York: Wiley.
Müsseler, J., &Hommel, B. (1997). Blindness to response-compatible stimuli.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,23, 861–872.
Müsseler, J., Wühr, P., Danielmeier, C., &Zysset, S. (2005). Actioninduced blindness with lateralized stimuli and responses.Experimental Brain Research,160, 214–222.
Pavani, F., Spence, C., &Driver, J. (2000). Visual capture of touch: Out-of-the-body experiences with rubber gloves.Psychological Science,11, 353–359.
Rock, I., &Victor, J. (1964). Vision and touch: An experimentally created conflict between the two senses.Science,143, 594–596.
Shams, L., Kamitani, Y., &Shimojo, S. (2000). Illusions: What you see is what you hear.Nature,408, 788.
Shams, L., Kamitani, Y., &Shimojo, S. (2002). A visual illusion induced by sound.Cognitive Brain Research,14, 147–152.
Stein, B. E., London, N., Wilkinson, L. K., &Price, D. D. (1996). Enhancement of perceived visual intensity by auditory stimuli: A psychophysical analysis.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,8, 497–506.
Violentyev, A., Shimojo, S., &Shams, L. (2005). Touch-induced visual illusion.NeuroReport,16, 1107–1110.
Welch, R. B., &Warren, D. H. (1986). Intersensory interactions. In K. R. Boff, L. Kaufman, & J. P. Thomas (Eds.),Handbook of perception and human performance:Vol. 1. Sensory processes and perception (pp. 25.1–25.36). New York: Wiley.
Wohlschläger, A. (2000). Visual motion priming by invisible actions.Vision Research,40, 925–930.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG, Grants Ku 1964/1 and Ho 1301/6-3).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kunde, W., Kiesel, A. See what you’ve done! Active touch affects the number of perceived visual objects. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 13, 304–309 (2006). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193848
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193848