title: Superior haptic perceptual selectivity in late-blind and very-low-vision subjects.
abstract: Blindfolded sighted, congenitally blind, late-blind, and very-low-vision subjects were tested on a tangible version of the embedded-figures test. The results of ANOVAs on accuracy measures yielded superior performance by the very-low-vision and late-blind subjects compared with the blindfolded sighted and congenitally blind participants. Accuracy of the congenitally blind subjects was similar to that of the blindfolded sighted participants. However, all groups of blind subjects were significantly faster than the blindfolded sighted subjects. It is suggested that experience with pictures combined with haptic skill aid perceptual selectivity in touch.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Eastern Illinois University, Physical Sciences Building, Charleston, IL 61920, USA. cfmah1@eiu.edu
authors.forename: Morton A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Heller
authors.forename: Kathy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Steffen
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yoneyama
authors.forename: Deneen D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Brackett
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001766:Blindness / Q000151:congenital / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*; D015354:Vision, Low / Q000503:physiopathology*