Proprioceptive reversible objects
Poster Presentation

Nicola Bruno
Dipartimento di psicologia, Università di Trieste

Alessandra Jacomuzzi
Dipartimento di psicologia, Università di Trieste

     Abstract ID Number: 50
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: March 16, 2005
     Presentation date: 06/07/2005 3:00 PM in MART Auditorium
     (View Schedule)

Abstract
Some objects reverse in depth during sustained visual observation. But suppose you were watching one while holding it in your hands. Will you experience reversals despite veridical information from touch and proprioception? We report two series of experiments aimed at answering this question and at exploring its implications for multisensory integration. The first series of experiments used a hand-held reproduction of Ames’ window. It is known that during monocular observation while holding the window, bimodal judgments of slant are biased by vision despite unambiguous proprioception (Bruno, Dell’Anna and Jacomuzzi, Perception, in press). However, our data indicate that the bias is rather less than the apparent slant of the window when this is not held. The second line of experiments used a hand-held model of the Necker cube. It is known that experts can reverse the cube despite contrary information from touch (Shopland & Gregory, Q. J. of Exp. Psych., 1964). However, our data indicate that reversal rates are affected by the way one holds the cube. These findings argue against a “visual capture” account, support an explanation in terms of bimodal integrative processes, and underscore the importance of supplementing phenomenological observation with objective measures.