Date of Award

2010

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Program

Neuroscience

Supervisor

Dr. Jody Culham

Second Advisor

Dr. Melvyn Goodale

Third Advisor

Dr. Paul Gribble

Abstract

We compared the contribution of the visual and haptic modalities in action and perception tasks. We also investigated whether or not the dissociation between action and perception found in vision can be duplicated in haptics. For both a grasping and perceptual estimation task, performance based on haptics alone showed greater uncertainty than vision alone. When congruent information from both senses was available simultaneously, performance was no different than with vision alone. When conflict was introduced between the senses, however, an influence of haptic cues emerged. Investigation of Weber’s law in haptics revealed that, like vision, the law was upheld in the perceptual task, but violated in the action task. An experiment utilizing a haptic version of a visual illusion also provided evidence for an action-perception dissociation. Taken together, this work suggests that although there are significant differences between vision and haptics, the action-perception distinction may be common to both modalities.

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