Motor-sensory feedback and geometry of visual space: an attempted replication

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Abstract
This study involved a partial replication of an experiment performed by Held & Rekosh (1963) on the relation between prism-induced changes in visuomotor feedback and shifts in the perception of straightness. The Held & Rekosh study is important because its methodology makes it possible to clearly separate changes in perception due to visuomotor feedback from those due to other perceptual factors. Thus it bears unambiguously on the hypothesis that the neurological processing of sensory input is dependent on the organization of motor activity. The present paper consists of a brief review of theory and experiment on sensorimotor phenomena in perception, followed by a detailed consideration of the Held & Rekosh study and the present replication. For greater effectiveness, Held & Rekosh should have used base-up and base-down prism orientations rather than the base-left and base-right orientations that they employed, but in any case our replication yielded negative results for both base-up and base-right. It is concluded that, given the minimally effective prism orientation and the attentional loads characterizing the Held & Rekosh study, there is need for further experimentation with these two variables. A more drastic suggestion is that there may be a need to confront anew the evidence for sensorimotor processes in perception.