Haptic Influence on Visual Search

Information from different sensory modalities influences perception and attention in tasks such as visual search. We have previously reported identity-based crossmodal influences of audition on visual search (Iordanescu, Guzman-Martinez, Grabowecky, & Suzuki, 2008; Iordanescu, Grabowecky, Franconeri, Theeuwes, and Suzuki, 2010; Iordanescu, Grabowecky and Suzuki, 2011). Here, we extend those results and demonstrate a novel crossmodal interaction between haptic shape information and visual attention. Manually-explored, but unseen, shapes facilitated visual search for similarly-shaped objects. This effect manifests as a reduction in both overall search times and initial saccade latencies when the haptic shape (eg, a sphere) is consistent with a visual target (eg, an orange) compared to when it is inconsistent with a visual target (eg, a hockey puck)]. This haptic-visual interaction occurred even though the manually held shapes were not predictive of the visual target's shape or location, suggesting that the interaction occurs automatically. Furthermore, when the haptic shape was consistent with a distracter in the visual search array (instead of with the target), initial saccades toward the target were disrupted. Together, these results demonstrate a robust shape-specific haptic influence on visual search