The influence of intersensory discrepancy on visuo-haptic integration is similar in 6-year-old children and adults

When participants are given the opportunity to simultaneously feel an object and see it through a magnifying or reducing lens, adults estimate object size to be in-between visual and haptic size. Studies with young children, however, seem to demonstrate that their estimates are dominated by a single...

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Main Authors: Bianca eJovanovic, Knut eDrewing
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-01-01
Series:Frontiers in Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00057/full
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author Bianca eJovanovic
Knut eDrewing
author_facet Bianca eJovanovic
Knut eDrewing
author_sort Bianca eJovanovic
collection DOAJ
description When participants are given the opportunity to simultaneously feel an object and see it through a magnifying or reducing lens, adults estimate object size to be in-between visual and haptic size. Studies with young children, however, seem to demonstrate that their estimates are dominated by a single sense. In the present study, we examined whether this age difference observed in previous studies, can be accounted for by the large discrepancy between felt and seen size in the stimuli used in those studies. In addition, we studied the processes involved in combining the visual and haptic inputs. Adults and 6-year old children judged objects that were presented to vision, haptics or simultaneously to both senses. The seen object length was reduced or magnified by different lenses. In the condition inducing large intersensory discrepancies, children’s judgments in visuo-haptic conditions were almost dominated by vision, whereas adults weighted vision just by 40%. Neither the adults’ nor the children’s discrimination thresholds were predicted by models of visuo-haptic integration. With smaller discrepancies, the children’s visual weight approximated that of the adults and both the children’s and adults' discrimination thresholds were well predicted by an integration model, which assumes that both visual and haptic inputs contribute to each single judgment. We conclude that children integrate seemingly corresponding multisensory information in similar ways as adults do, but focus on a single sense, when information from different senses is strongly discrepant.
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spelling doaj.art-b1ffccb6af6c444ab622e7a34fd70d352022-12-22T01:47:45ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782014-01-01510.3389/fpsyg.2014.0005773254The influence of intersensory discrepancy on visuo-haptic integration is similar in 6-year-old children and adultsBianca eJovanovic0Knut eDrewing1Giessen UniversityGiessen UniversityWhen participants are given the opportunity to simultaneously feel an object and see it through a magnifying or reducing lens, adults estimate object size to be in-between visual and haptic size. Studies with young children, however, seem to demonstrate that their estimates are dominated by a single sense. In the present study, we examined whether this age difference observed in previous studies, can be accounted for by the large discrepancy between felt and seen size in the stimuli used in those studies. In addition, we studied the processes involved in combining the visual and haptic inputs. Adults and 6-year old children judged objects that were presented to vision, haptics or simultaneously to both senses. The seen object length was reduced or magnified by different lenses. In the condition inducing large intersensory discrepancies, children’s judgments in visuo-haptic conditions were almost dominated by vision, whereas adults weighted vision just by 40%. Neither the adults’ nor the children’s discrimination thresholds were predicted by models of visuo-haptic integration. With smaller discrepancies, the children’s visual weight approximated that of the adults and both the children’s and adults' discrimination thresholds were well predicted by an integration model, which assumes that both visual and haptic inputs contribute to each single judgment. We conclude that children integrate seemingly corresponding multisensory information in similar ways as adults do, but focus on a single sense, when information from different senses is strongly discrepant.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00057/fullChild Developmentintegrationmultisensoryintersensory integrationvisuo-haptic display
spellingShingle Bianca eJovanovic
Knut eDrewing
The influence of intersensory discrepancy on visuo-haptic integration is similar in 6-year-old children and adults
Frontiers in Psychology
Child Development
integration
multisensory
intersensory integration
visuo-haptic display
title The influence of intersensory discrepancy on visuo-haptic integration is similar in 6-year-old children and adults
title_full The influence of intersensory discrepancy on visuo-haptic integration is similar in 6-year-old children and adults
title_fullStr The influence of intersensory discrepancy on visuo-haptic integration is similar in 6-year-old children and adults
title_full_unstemmed The influence of intersensory discrepancy on visuo-haptic integration is similar in 6-year-old children and adults
title_short The influence of intersensory discrepancy on visuo-haptic integration is similar in 6-year-old children and adults
title_sort influence of intersensory discrepancy on visuo haptic integration is similar in 6 year old children and adults
topic Child Development
integration
multisensory
intersensory integration
visuo-haptic display
url http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00057/full
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