Abstract
The haptic horizontal-vertical illusion was studied in two experiments. In Experiment 1, the illusion was relatively weak in sighted subjects and depended on stimulus size and the nature of the figure, that is, whether the pattern was an inverted-T or L shape. Experiment 2 compared early blind and late blind subjects. The illusion was present for an inverted-T figure but absent for an L figure in late blind subjects. However, the early blind subjects treated both the L and T figures as similar and showed the illusion to both. These results support the idea that visual experience may alter haptic judgments in sighted and late blind subjects.
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Preparation of this report and some of the research were supported by NIH MBRS Grant 2 S06 RR-08040. Faith Heller, Christopher W. Tyler, and three anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript.
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Heller, M.A., Joyner, T.D. Mechanisms in the haptic horizontal-vertical illusion: Evidence from sighted and blind subjects. Perception & Psychophysics 53, 422–428 (1993). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206785
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206785