1994 volume 23(7) pages 849 – 856
doi:10.1068/p230849

Cite as:
Coyle K, 1994, "The relationship between time of arrival of nontargets and their spatial location: evidence for asymmetries in visual attentional processing" Perception 23(7) 849 – 856
Download citation data in RIS format

The relationship between time of arrival of nontargets and their spatial location: evidence for asymmetries in visual attentional processing

Kieran Coyle

Received 15 September 1993, in received form 17 March 1994

Abstract. Development of the haptic system was evaluated by examining object exploration and recognition in sighted children between the ages of 3 and 8 years To determine the importance of visual experience for those abilities, the performances of seven congenitally blind children was compared with that of sighted peers matched for age and gender. Performance was evaluated in terms of the speed and correctness of object identification, thoroughness of exploration of object parts, representation of the global form versus local parts of objects, and the possible role of critical parts in object identification. Four types of common objects were presented: normal-sized, miniaturized small, miniaturized large, and oversized objects. All subjects were required so manipulate and identify these object haptically, without the aid of vision. Results revealed the emergence of a developmental pattern in all performance measures for sighted children. Older sighted children were not only able to recognize more objects and so do so more quickly, but also were more thorough in their exploration patterns. With increasing age, children appear to change their representation of objects from one based predominantly on global shape to one that incorporates a balance of global shape and specific local parts. In agreement with this, critical parts also played a role in object identification, particularly in older children. Blind and sighted children did not differ in any performance measures, which suggests that previous visual experiences do not determine tactile exploration strategies and are not essential for haptic object recognition.

Restricted material:

PDF Full-text PDF size: 1109 Kb

Your computer (IP address: 107.22.127.92) has not been recognised as being on a network authorised to view the full text or references of this article. This content is part of our deep back archive. If you are a member of a university library that has a subscription to the journal, please contact your serials librarian (subscriptions information).