Spatial Anisotropy in Intramodal and Cross-Modal Judgments of Stimulus Orientation: The Stability of the Oblique Effect

Visual and haptic judgments of stimulus orientation were examined intramodally and cross-modally by having subjects reproduce standard stimulus orientations simultaneously with their inspection or after a delay. For all conditions, an oblique effect was obtained, i.e. vertical and horizontal orientations were reproduced reliably more accurately than oblique orientations. Although intramodal differences were large, with haptic errors being greater than visual errors, cross-model differences were small. Furthermore, while for intramodal conditions simultaneous visual reproductions were reliably more accurate than delayed reproductions but haptic reproductions were more accurate when delayed, cross-modal errors were reliably greater with simultaneous reproductions, regardless of whether the standard orientation was visual or haptic. The modality differences reflect basic differences in stimulus information processing and the stability of the oblique effect across the experimental conditions suggests that perceptual spatial anisotropic effects are strongly influenced by experiential factors.