Assessment of spatial reasoning in blind individuals using a haptic version of the Kohs Block Design Test

Bertonati, Giorgia; Tonelli, Alessia; Cuturi, Luigi F.; Setti, Walter; Gori, Monica

doi:10.1016/j.crbeha.2020.100004

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…In these terms, the closereaching task presented here has an active component in which reaching must be performed. Nonetheless, the task is much simpler than some of the spatial memory tasks presented previously such as matching the locations of paired spatial sounds [22], or an audio version of the Kohs Block Design test [24] or an audio version of the Corsi-Block test [23]. The results of this study did not show statistically significant differences between blind and sighted participants.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 49%

Acoustic touch: An auditory sensing paradigm to support close reaching for people who are blind

Jin¹,

Bell²,

Deverell³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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This work explores an auditory sensory augmentation paradigm we call acoustic touch, to assist people who are blind with reaching for close objects. The sensory augmentation system is constructed based on the Nreal augmented-reality glasses using a custom application running on an android phone. The system recognizes and localizes objects visually using cameras in the glasses, then renders objects as sound within a limited field-of-view, so we shall refer to the glasses as a foveated audio device. The repetition of the sound varies depending on the location of the object within the field of view of the foveated audio device. Psychophysical tests of the spatial perception of multiple objects are conducted comparing the acoustic touch paradigm with two other conditions: (1) a verbal clock face description of object locations and (2) a sequential audio presentation of the objects using Bluetooth speakers located with the objects. We report on the results of the psychophysical study with blind and blindfolded sighted participants.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 49%

Acoustic touch: An auditory sensing paradigm to support close reaching for people who are blind

Jin¹,

Bell²,

Deverell³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…Finally, the ACOP was more pronounced in blind people compared to sighted individuals, suggesting that this contralateral positive potential is not intrinsically visual in nature (Amadeo, Störmer, et al, 2019 ). Despite this evidence, other studies reported that visual impairment negatively affects blind individuals in performing more elaborate auditory and tactile spatial tasks (Bertonati et al, 2020 ; Gori et al, 2014 ; Setti et al, 2018 , 2022 ). For example, congenitally blind people showed strong deficits in performing an acoustic spatial bisection task, but not a minimal audible angle task (Gori et al, 2014 ), associated with a reduced occipital response (Amadeo, Störmer, et al, 2019 ; Campus et al, 2019 ; Gori et al, 2020a ; Tonelli et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…For example, congenitally blind people showed strong deficits in performing an acoustic spatial bisection task, but not a minimal audible angle task (Gori et al, 2014 ), associated with a reduced occipital response (Amadeo, Störmer, et al, 2019 ; Campus et al, 2019 ; Gori et al, 2020a ; Tonelli et al, 2020 ). Overall, findings on the spatial abilities and correlates of visually impaired individuals may seem contradictory as they imply, on the one hand, that lack of vision does not significantly affect the development of some spatial skills (Battal et al, 2020 ; Fieger et al, 2006 ; Röder et al, 1999 ), but, on the other hand, that the visual experience is crucial in shaping finer spatial abilities in the auditory and tactile modalities (Bertonati et al, 2020 ; Gori et al, 2014 ). Nonetheless, these controversial results may also simply indicate that the effect of visual deprivation on the space perception is not uniform but depends on the task and the context to which the spatial information belongs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Task‐dependent spatial processing in the visual cortex

Bertonati,

Amadeo,

Campus

et al. 2023

Human Brain Mapping

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To solve spatial tasks, the human brain asks for support from the visual cortices. Nonetheless, representing spatial information is not fixed but depends on the reference frames in which the spatial inputs are involved. The present study investigates how the kind of spatial representations influences the recruitment of visual areas during multisensory spatial tasks. Our study tested participants in an electroencephalography experiment involving two audio–visual (AV) spatial tasks: a spatial bisection, in which participants estimated the relative position in space of an AV stimulus in relation to the position of two other stimuli, and a spatial localization, in which participants localized one AV stimulus in relation to themselves. Results revealed that spatial tasks specifically modulated the occipital event‐related potentials (ERPs) after the onset of the stimuli. We observed a greater contralateral early occipital component (50–90 ms) when participants solved the spatial bisection, and a more robust later occipital response (110–160 ms) when they processed the spatial localization. This observation suggests that different spatial representations elicited by multisensory stimuli are sustained by separate neurophysiological mechanisms.

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“…Due to the low-incidence of the BLV population, which number less than 0.5% of student population in K-12, and is even a lower incidence population in college-level chemistry due to the BLV students steering away from STEM courses, group-based research studies for establishing the promise of outcomes for a learning tool with BLV students are not feasible. Even within this low-incidence population, there are significant differences in spatial perception between individuals with low-vision, or those whose blindness is either congenital or happened later in life . Single case design (SCD) methods, where BLV individuals serve as their own controls and the introduction of an intervention (the learning tool) is staggered across a small sample of participants, are the most common method for building the evidence base to demonstrate the effectiveness of a learning intervention with this population. − Two SCD studies are planned with K-12 BLV students using accessible interfaces.…”

Section: Future Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Lewis Structure Explorer: Accessible by Design

Wegwerth,

Urrea,

Nischik

et al. 2024

J. Chem. Educ.

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Successfully learning principles from drawing Lewis Structures sets the foundation for understanding more complex representations of structural concepts in chemistry. As these visual-based concepts are core competencies in chemical pedagogies, it is incumbent and required for educational institutions and faculty to provide usable accommodations for all students, including those with blindness and lowvision (BLV). The shift to visually based interactive digital media increases the technical challenge for addressing accessibility for BLV students and makes creating these accommodations by faculty even more difficult. This technology report presents research and development for providing a digital learning system for Lewis Structures designed to be independently accessible by BLV students and other screen reader users. This Lewis Structure explorer can be used by all students and includes a form-driven keyboard accessible control panel. The alternative (alt) text for the structural representations is generated dynamically with user input. Presented in this report are the findings from a survey of chemistry faculty and two usability studies, one with over 300 sighted college students and the other with four BLV adults who depend on alt text for nontext information.

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Assessment of spatial reasoning in blind individuals using a haptic version of the Kohs Block Design Test

Cited by 5 publications

References 37 publications

Acoustic touch: An auditory sensing paradigm to support close reaching for people who are blind

Acoustic touch: An auditory sensing paradigm to support close reaching for people who are blind

Task‐dependent spatial processing in the visual cortex

The Lewis Structure Explorer: Accessible by Design

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