Mental imagery and sensory experience in congenital blindness

Abstract

Imagery of congenitally blind and normally sighted subjects was compared in two experiments. In the first, subjects were asked to estimate how far away objects appeared in images. The results showed that blind subjects imaged objects "within arms' reach", and with only a slight tendency to image larger objects farther from them. In contrast, sighted subjects tended to image larger objects as if they were farther away. In addition, unlike the sighted, blind subjects' images also failed to overflow an "image space" of fixed size. Finally, blind subjects were, with one exception, unable to mimic successfully the responses of a sighted person, when explicitly asked to do so. In the second experiment, subjects pointed to the left and right sides of three objects imaged at three distances. Sighted and blind groups both showed a decrease in pointing span with the size of the object, but only the sighted subjects showed a decrease with increased image distance, in accordance with the laws of perspective.