摘要：  PURPOSE: How we recognize a three-dimension real object by touching two-dimension tangible images of the object is still an open question. It is unclear whether visual experience plays a role in haptic recognition of two-dimension images based on visual depth information. Previous research showed that sighted people did not perform better than blind people, which indicated that visual experience was not helpful in haptic recognition(Heller, 2002). However, the results might be a ceiling effect caused by the easy task in which subjects were asked to selected a target from three object pictures. The present study addressed the role of prior visual experience in haptic recognition of raised-line pictures of real objects by a naming task.
METHODS: In the present study, 10 blindfold sighted and 10 blind participants were asked to name 242 raised-lined object pictures by touching them, or to categorize the pictures that they failed to name within 30 seconds for each picture. The raised-lined pictures were printed by a Braille printer based on normalized line-drawing pictures of three-dimension real objects.
RESULTS: The results showed that the naming accuracy of blind subjects was significant higher than that of sighted subjects. Moreover, superior performance of blind subjects was only found in the pictures with high recognition rate. Besides, categorization accuracy of blind subjects was also significant higher than that of sighted subjects, regardless of the recognition difficulty. The results suggested that the ability of haptic recognition of blind people was better than sighted people. In addition, sighted people’s visual experience of objects do not improve, even impair the haptic recognition of tangible raised-line pictures, and the tactile mechanism of two-dimension object picture recognition may be different from visual modality, which should be taken account when designing haptic products for blind people.
CONCLUSIONS: Prior visual experience do not facilitate, but impair the haptic recognition of two-dimension raised-line pictures.

关键词:  , visual experience, haptic recognition, cross-modality, the blind

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