Visual-Tactual Dominance Relationship as a Function of Accuracy of Tactual Judgment

Abstract

The question of dominance of either the visual or tactual modalities when information to the two is simultaneous and disparate but not conflicting was investigated. 36 Ss viewed one object while exploring another of different size using active touch, and then matched the “seen” and “felt” objects from an array of 10 such objects. Across the three conditions of tactual accuracy that were used, the average visual match was in the direction of the tactual object's correct match and the average tactual match was in the direction of the visual object's correct match. An average tactual error significantly larger than the average visual error indicated a residual dominance of vision over touch. A further hypothesis, that as degree of tactual accuracy decreased the amount of visual dominance would increase, was not confirmed.