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Why do the psychophysical functions for line length (linear) and area (compressive) differ and do they differ for both the tactile and visual modalities? Experiments 1A and B examined the effects of a twodimensional perception on psychophysical functions for visual perception. Participants used magnitude estimation to judge the diameter, area, and circumference of a set of 14 circles. The psychophysical functions for diameter was approximately 1.0, for area was approximately .60, and for circumference was above 1.0, indicating that two-dimensional perception, per se, does not cause the compressive function for area. Obtaining spatial information without vision can be important for people with demanding graphically based decision-making tasks and people with visual impairments. Tactile interfaces provide an alternative way to display and obtain information. Do the tactile and visual modalities process spatial information in similar ways? Experiment 2 examined the correspondence between visual and tactile perception. Participants touched, but did not see, a series of circles. For each circle they judged diameter, area, and circumference. Psychophysical functions for diameter length, circumference length, and area of a circle estimated by tactile perception in Experiment 2 were comparable to those for visual perception.

Displaying motion information is useful in dynamic tasks, such as tracking or predicting the course of moving objects or systems (e.g., unmanned ground or air vehicles, troops, or weather). Static representations of object motion may be useful when technological limitations prevent use of dynamic displays. The present experiment examined people's interpretations of a variety of static cues to represent object motion. Participants viewed and rated two static types of representation of object motion – motion lines and arrows. The features of object motion that participants rated were distance traveled, direction, path, speed, and acceleration. The results show that observers reliably interpret certain static cues to represent features of object motion, especially distance, direction, path and speed; the cues examined were not interpreted as representing acceleration. The results are interpreted as guidelines for design of displays that include object motion information.

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