Visuo-haptic object representation is viewpoint-independent

摘要: Previous research (Newell et al., Psychological Science 12: 37-42, 2001) suggests that visual and haptic object recognition is viewpoint-dependent both within-and cross-modally. The objects in this study were presented fixed along their extended y-axis. Thus haptic exploration favoured the back surface, and vision, the front surface. When objects were rotated, subsequent recognition showed an effect of viewpoint but only when the axis of rotation was such that the front and back surfaces were exchanged. In the present study, we removed this front/back advantage by presenting similar objects along their extended z-axis. Participants performed an object discrimination task in the two within-modal and the two cross-modal conditions with the objects presented in both unrotated and rotated (180 degrees) orientations. Subsequent recognition was reduced when objects were rotated compared to unrotated but the …