Partial perceptual equivalence between vision and touch for texture information

The present study examined the extent to which vision and touch are perceptually equivalent for texture information in adults. Using Garbin’s method [Garbin, C. P. (1988). Visual–haptic perceptual non-equivalence for shape information and its impact upon cross-modal performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 14, 547–553], we selected two sets of textures having high versus low cross-modal dissimilarity values between vision and touch (Experiment 1). The two sets of textures were then used as material in a cross-modal matching task (Experiment 2). Results showed that asymmetries occurred in the performances when the stimuli had high cross-modal dissimilarity values, but not when the stimuli had low cross-modal dissimilarity values. These results extend Garbin’s findings on shape information to the texture domain and support the idea that partial perceptual equivalence exists between vision and touch.