Why Cyclops could not compete with Ulysses: monocular vision and mental images

Abstract

The present research demonstrates that the limitations of congenitally blind people in tasks requiring the processing of mental images are specifically related to the absence of binocular vision and not to the absence of vision per se. We contrasted three different groups of participants: sighted; visually impaired, with reduced binocular vision; monocular, with a normal visual acuity although in one eye only. Visually impaired participants (i.e. blurred vision) show a pattern of performance comparable to that of the sighted. In contrast, monocular participants show a similar pattern of performance to congenitally blind individuals despite being able to see perfectly well. These results shed new light on the relationship between perception and imagery and on the characteristics of sequential and simultaneous processes in the human brain.

Blind individuals show pseudoneglect in bisecting numerical intervals

“…In light of this result, the findings of similar biases in both line and numerical bisection in blind and sighed individuals may be less surprising. Moreover, this adds to behavioural evidence suggesting that the complete lack of vision may be less detrimental for the development of specific representational mechanisms than is monocular blindness (see Cattaneo, Merabet, Bhatt, & Vecchi, 2008;Vecchi et al, 2006). …”

The Nature of Consciousness in the Visually Deprived Brain

“…For instance, we did not discuss the effects of congenital blindness versus blindness acquired at different ages, or the effects of monocular vision (Vecchi et al, 2006). Moreover, we have only briefly touched upon the “blind social brain,” not to mention emotional life and its disturbances.…”

Monitoring Eye Movements to Investigate the Picture Superiority Effect in Spatial Memory

“…In real life, people are used to simultaneous presentation of a lot of pictorial visual information, and many objects and details can be embraced in a single glance. Thus, the VSWM system is likely to have developed according to the necessity to cope with different visual information at the same time (Vecchi et al 2006). However, when people are visually presented with text, they tend to immediately re-code the visual language phonologically (and thus sequentially).…”