The relative importance placed on visual rather than tactual or kinesthetic cues was investigated under water. In matching disks of various sizes to common coins from memory, Ss consistently chose disks much smaller than the actual size of the coins and more closely approximating their optical size in the water, even when permitted to see their own hands. In a second experiment, the performance of a motor task, learned to criterion while blindfolded, was significantly more disrupted under water than in air when Ss were permitted to look. Both sets of results demonstrate the dominance of vision over the other two senses. The importance of the underwater environment as a naturally distorted one, requiring no lenses or prisms to produce optical distortions, is emphasized.
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