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Updated: Apr 28, 2026
06:46
Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity
Published on: March 18, 2019
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Haptic guidance of overt visual attention.
Alexandra List1, Lucica Iordanescu, Marcia Grabowecky
1Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA, alist@hamilton.edu.
Attention, Perception & Psychophysics
|June 18, 2014
Summary
Touch influences sight: holding a shape guides visual attention to targets of the same shape. This automatic crossmodal effect enhances visual search speed, demonstrating how tactile information can shape visual perception.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Sensory Integration
Background:
- Crossmodal influences between sensory modalities are well-documented.
- Information from one sense can affect perception and attention in another.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the novel crossmodal influence of haptic-shape information on visual attention.
- To determine if tactile shape perception can automatically guide overt visual attention.
Main Methods:
- Participants performed a visual search task for a target object.
- While searching, participants held an object of a specific shape, out of sight.
- Eye movements were tracked to measure visual attention (time to fixate target).
Main Results:
- Visual search time was reduced when the held shape matched the visual target shape.
- This facilitation occurred even when shapes were not predictive, suggesting automaticity.
- Haptic shape information significantly guided overt visual attention.
Conclusions:
- Haptic shape perception can automatically facilitate visual attention.
- This study demonstrates a novel pathway for crossmodal influence from touch to vision.
- Findings suggest shape-specific haptic guidance of visual attention.
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