Visuo-Haptic Exploration for Multimodal Memory

When faced with a novel object, we explore it to understand its shape. This way we combine information coming from different senses, as touch, proprioception and vision, together with the motor information embedded in our motor execution plan. The exploration process provides a structure and constrains this rich flow of inputs, supporting the formation of a unified percept and the memorization of the object features. However, how the exploration strategies are planned is still an open question. In particular, is the exploration strategy used to memorize an object different from the exploration strategy adopted in a recall task? To address this question we used iCube, a sensorized cube which measures its orientation in space and the location of the contacts on its faces. Participants were required to explore the cube faces where little pins were positioned in varying number. Participants had to explore the cube twice and individuate potential differences between the two presentations, which could be performed either haptically alone, or with also vision available. The haptic and visuo-haptic (VH) exploratory strategies changed significantly when finalized to memorize the structure of the object with respect to when the same object was explored to recall and compare it with its memorized instance. These findings indicate that exploratory strategies are adapted not only to the property of the object to be analyzed but also to the prospective use of the resulting representation, be it memorization or recall. The results are discussed in light of the possibility of a systematic modeling of natural VH exploration strategies.