The enhanced representation of surface texture consequent on the loss of sight

The unitisation effect in probed feature-recall was exploited to reveal changes in the representation of objects consequent on the loss of sight. Blind and sighted adults were given verbal descriptions of simple objects and later recalled the colour and surface texture of each object. While the blind and sighted were equally capable of recalling an object's colour, the blind were more capable than the sighted at recalling its surface texture. The superior recall of surface texture by the blind emerged very gradually as an increasing percentage of their lifetime was spent without sight. It is concluded that features salient for the haptic sense are increasingly likely to be incorporated in the blind person's representation of objects.