Haptic Recognition of Non-figurative Tactile Pictures in the Blind: Does Life-Time Proportion without Visual Experience Matter?

The present study tests whether age at onset of total blindness and the proportion of life-time without visual experience affect the haptic processing and recognition of tactile pictures in a sample of 20 totally blind adults. We also examine the type of mental strategy (visual, non-visual) used to perform the haptic recognition task. The results indicate that haptic processing of nonfigurative tactile pictures may be efficiently achieved with different levels of visual experience and different strategies in totally blind adults. Interestingly, they also reveal interplays between strategy and the proportion of life-time without visual experience.