Psychology of Touch and Blindness by Heller Morton A. Gentaz Edouard

Author:Heller, Morton A.,Gentaz, Edouard.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781134521661
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

Linear Perspectives and Viewpoint

Many of us have assumed that pictures for the eyes are accurate representations of the world. A common misconception is that pictures are veridical and provide a literal representation of reality. Unfortunately, photographs are not precisely like the objects that they depict. Photographs can include variations in perspective as a function of the distance of the camera lens from an object when the picture is taken. If one is too close to another individual when taking a portrait, the face will be seriously distorted. The size of the nose will be exaggerated. If very far away when a photograph is taken with a telephoto lens, ear size is magnified and the nose may appear too short. Of course, digital image manipulations can remove skin blemishes, wrinkles, and can even alter face shape and color. Note that it is variations in distance that can lead to alterations in the perspective in photographic representations. Lighting can alter color in photographs, as can the physical characteristics of lenses. The point of all of this is that visual photographs are not perfect representations of reality. Line drawings, whether they occur in vision or in touch, are artificial devices for representing reality. Note that perspective and viewpoint are intimately linked. Changing the elevation of a view obviously induces changes in the nature of the perspective depiction of an object or scene.

Just as photographs are not precisely like the subject of the photographer, vision systematically distorts reality when we look at geometric forms. Thus we experience foreshortening when a rectangle is tilted, and the sides of the form appear to converge. The height of the rectangle seems to diminish as a function of tilt. This perspective distortion is omnipresent in vision, but most researchers have doubted whether it is characteristic of touch.

Kennedy has argued that linear perspective is accessible to touch (Kennedy, 1993; Kennedy & Juricevik, 2006a, 2006b). He noted that when one points to a wall at a near and a far distance, the angles of the arms will have to be different. The angles will, of necessity, have to differ when pointing to a wall that is closer, rather than further away. Perspective is the science of directions and angles, and is available to touch, just as in vision. In an interesting descriptive report, Kennedy and Juricevik (2006b) recounted detailed information about Esref A., a painter who has been blind from very early in life. Many of Esref's paintings and drawings show evidence of the use of perspective cues in the depiction of roads and houses. The roofs of the houses he painted included foreshortening and the use of receding lines in the distance. His paintings of roads incorporated diminishing size as a function of distance. This seemingly is a proof of concept of the idea that perspective exists in haptics and in the EB. Amedi et al. (2008) did an MRI study of Esref, and found that a number of cortical areas associated with vision were active in Esref while he made drawings.

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