[Nfbk] FW: blindness and 3-D shape perception

[Cathy]

-----Original Message-----
From: Farley Norman [mailto:Farley.Norman at wku.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 1:55 PM
To: cathyj at iglou.com
Cc: Farley Norman; Ashley Bartholomew (Student)
Subject: blindness and 3-D shape perception


Dear Ms. Jackson,

I am a Psychology Professor at Western Kentucky University.  Nancy
Tooley at the Kentucky Office for the Blind suggested that I contact
you.

I have studied human visual perception for 25 years.  About eight years
ago, I also started to investigate the sense of touch.  The research
that I do with my undergraduate and graduate students has fortunately
gone well, and we have made significant contributions to the scientific
understanding of both visual and tactile perception.  My students and I
have so far published 63 articles in the best international scientific
journals.

The reason I am contacting you is that my students and I need some help.

It is clear from some of the latest scientific literature that people
who are blind possess heightened auditory and olfactory perceptual
abilities. The blind perform significantly better than otherwise
similar adults on a variety of auditory and olfactory tasks.  At the
moment, however, there is little consensus in the literature regarding
blindness and the sense of touch.  For the most part, the existing
studies have only examined whether blindness leads to heightened
tactile acuity.  Some of those studies have revealed that people who
are blind possess better tactile acuity, while other studies have found
no differences between the tactile abilities of the blind and
non-blind.

My research over the past 25 years has focused primarily upon the
perception of 3-D shape.  That is, how do human adults (both younger
and older) visually and tactually perceive the 3-dimensional shape of
objects?

Given that the blind rely on their sense of touch to accomplish so many
of their daily activities, I think that it is very important to do
research that documents and evaluates their tactile abilities.  For
example, do people with blindness have a heightened or superior ability
to tactually perceive the 3-D shapes of objects?  At the moment, there
is little evidence regarding blindness and 3-D shape perception.  I
only know of one relevant study that was published in 1974.  To my
knowledge, there has been very little systematic research concerning
blindness and tactile 3-D shape perception within the past 36 years.

My students and I would like to fill this void and extend our research
on 3-D shape perception to include people with blindness.  We would
like to begin by evaluating those people who are completely blind (that
is, they cannot read or see visual patterns even at high
magnifications).

My graduate student Ashley Bartholomew and I have received permission
from the Western Kentucky University Human Subjects Review Board
(approval HS10-231) to begin experiments that evaluate blindness and
3-D shape perception.  We also plan to examine tactile acuity as well.

Our current difficulty is straightforward.  My student Ashley and I do
not ourselves have any way to locate those people with blindness who
would be willing to help us by participating in our experiment.  We
anticipate that the experiment will take only about 1.5 hours for each
participant, and we can offer $20 to each participant for their
generous donation of time.  I am not sure at the moment how many blind
participants we will need to complete the experiment, but 10-12 will
probably be sufficient.

I have been in contact with Ron Milliman here in Bowling Green, and
have attended a meeting of his South Central Kentucky Council of the
Blind.  Most of the members of his local organization possess various
degrees of low vision, and for our first experiment, we need volunteers
who are completely blind.  Ron has been helpful so far, but he will be
away from Bowling Green for most of the summer.

For the blind who happen to live close to Bowling Green, we can
certainly evaluate their tactile abilities in our laboratory on the WKU
campus.  However, this would not be convenient for most participants.
We have permission from the WKU Human Subjects Review Board to collect
data in other locations.  We (my graduate student Ashley Bartholomew)
and I would be happy to drive almost anywhere (Louisville, Owensboro,
Glasgow, Nashville, Evansville, etc.) so that we can learn about
tactile abilities and blindness.  We can do the experiment at any
location that would be convenient for the blind participants (for
example, at their home).

We would be most grateful if you could help us in any way, so that we
can learn and study the tactile abilities of those people who are
completely blind.  How can those who might be willing to participate in
our experiment learn about it?  I am sure that there are willing blind
participants who would be interested in our study, but I don't know of
any way of making contact with them.

You can learn more about my laboratory and see a list of our scientific
publications by going to our laboratory's web pages.  The links are
here:

http://edtech.wku.edu/~psych/research/perception/

http://edtech.wku.edu/~psych/research/perception/publications.htm

I hope that you will have a wonderful summer.  Please do not hesitate
to contact me in any way; I am happy to answer any questions that you
may have for us.

Farley
---------------------------
J. Farley Norman, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Psychology
Western Kentucky University
1906 College Heights Blvd #21030
Bowling Green, KY, 42101-1030

office: (270) 745-2094
lab: (270) 745-6930
lab web page:  http://edtech.wku.edu/~psych/research/perception/