Haptic dominance in form perception: vision versus proprioception.

An experiment placed vision and touch in conflict by the use of a mirror placed perpendicular to a letter display. The mirror induced a discrepancy in direction and form. Subjects touched the embossed tangible letters p, q, b, d, W, and M, while looking at them in a mirror, and were asked to identify the letters. The upright mirror produced a vertical inversion of the letters, and visual inversion of the direction of finger movement. Thus, subjects touched the letter p, but saw themselves touching the letter b in the mirror. There were large individual differences in reliance on the senses. The majority of the subjects depended on touch, and only one showed visual dominance. Others showed a compromise between the senses. The results were consistent with an attentional explanation of intersensory dominance.