Crossmodal and Intersensory Perception and the Blind

Performance by the blind has been of interest in understanding cross-modal recognition since Molyneux asked his celebrated question whether a blind man, made to see, would recognize by sight alone an object that he had hitherto perceived only through touch. Von Senden (1960) suggested that there is little transfer. But for complete restoration of sight some preoperative residual vision is necessary (Rapin, 1979; Riesen, 1975). Gregory and Wallace’s (1963) patient had light perception preoperatively. After the corneal graft that restored his sight, he recognized uppercase letters that he had previously learned only through touch. But, despite an interest in tools, he could not easily identify relatively unfamiliar tools until after he had explored them by touch. Gregory (1974, p. 106) suggests that although his patient “came to use vision his ideas of the world arose from touch.”