Reference systems and the perception of tactual and haptic orientation

Abstract

Adult subjects learned to identify bars differing in orientation. The bars were presented either tactually or haptically. In the first experiment, learning was followed by a transfer test with body posture changed by 90 deg. That is, if subjects originally learned with body upright, the transfer test was carried out with body reclined. Results of the transfer test indicated original learning of the tactually presented bars was done with respect to a body reference system and original learning of the haptically presented bars was done with respect to an environmental or gravity based reference system. In the second experiment, learning was followed by a transfer test using both a change of body posture and a change of stimulus modality from tactual to haptic or vice versa. Performance in this transfer test is interpreted in terms of a conceptual mediation hypothesis. © 1976 Psychonomic Society, Inc.