Aging and the Visual, Haptic, and Cross-Modal Perception of Natural Object Shape

• Published in: Perception (London) Vol. 35; no. 10; pp. 1383 - 1395
• Main Authors: Norman, J Farley, Crabtree, Charles E, Norman, Hideko F, Moncrief, Brandon K, Herrmann, Molly, Kapley, Noah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.01.2006; Pion
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging - physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Capsicum; Choice Behavior; Discrimination (Psychology) - physiology; Female; Form Perception - physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Male; Multimodal perception; Perception; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychophysics; Stereognosis - physiology; Tactile perception; Time Factors; Vision; Vision, Binocular; Human; Stimulus shape; Tactile sensitivity; Senescence; Vision; Young adult; Object; Experimental study; Intermodal perception; Elderly
• ISSN: 0301-0066; 1468-4233
• DOI: 10.1068/p5504

One hundred observers participated in two experiments designed to investigate aging and the perception of natural object shape. In the experiments, younger and older observers performed either a same/different shape discrimination task (experiment 1) or a cross-modal matching task (experiment 2). Quantitative effects of age were found in both experiments. The effect of age in experiment 1 was limited to cross-modal shape discrimination: there was no effect of age upon unimodal (ie within a single perceptual modality) shape discrimination. The effect of age in experiment 2 was eliminated when the older observers were either given an unlimited amount of time to perform the task or when the number of response alternatives was decreased. Overall, the results of the experiments reveal that older observers can effectively perceive 3-D shape from both vision and haptics.