Recognizing tactile representations of familiar objects: the influence of pre-cuing when touch replaces vision as the dominant sense modality

Abstract

The present study investigated whether newly blinded individuals show improved proficiency, i.e., accuracy and exploration time, in recognizing tactile representations of familiar objects when they are (1) visually and (2) tactually pre-cued. Experiment 1 examined 32 newly blinded (i.e., blindfolded-sighted) individuals, half of whom were visually pre-cued. The results suggested that visual pre-cuing improved accuracy, both in categorizing and in naming, and exploration time. Experiment 2 examined 16 newly blinded (i.e., blindfolded-sighted) individuals before and after tactual pre-cuing. The results suggested that tactual pre-cuing improved accuracy in categorizing, but not in naming, and exploration time.