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Haptic Compensation in Blind People's Conceptual Representations
Laura J Speed1,2, Eva D Poort1,2,3,4, Tanita P Duiker1,2,3,4
1Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Netherlands.
Open Mind : Discoveries in Cognitive Science
|November 17, 2025
Summary
Blind and sighted individuals show similar visual concept associations, suggesting indirect learning. However, blind individuals rely more on touch, indicating crossmodal compensation in conceptual representation.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Linguistics
Background:
- Vision often dominates human perception and conceptual representation.
- The influence of direct perceptual experience versus other learning inputs (e.g., language) on conceptual representation is debated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of direct perceptual experience in conceptual representation.
- To examine the sensory underpinnings of word meanings in blind and sighted individuals.
Main Methods:
- 17 early-blind and 17 sighted Dutch native speakers rated 100 Dutch nouns on sensory associations across six modalities (vision, audition, haptic, interoception, gustation, olfaction).
- Nouns covered five semantic categories: animals, instruments, tactile objects, food, and odor objects.
Main Results:
- No significant difference in visual association ratings between blind and sighted groups, suggesting indirect learning of visual concepts.
- Blind participants showed stronger haptic associations across most categories compared to sighted participants, except for animals.
- This supports crossmodal compensation in conceptual representation for blind individuals.
Conclusions:
- Conceptual representations are influenced by perceptual experience, but not solely dependent on direct input.
- Indirect learning mechanisms and crossmodal compensation play significant roles in semantic representation.
- Findings support hybrid models of semantic representation that integrate direct and indirect learning pathways.
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