TEXTURE-PERCEPTION VIA ACTIVE TOUCH

The importance of movement in texture perception by touch has long been appreciated, but problematic issues related to the utilization of information during active touch persist. How is the repeated demonstration of active-passive equivalence in perceptual sensitivity to felt texture to be interpreted? What does such equivalence imply about the source(s) of information used to make perceptual judgments of texture? What sort of perceptual subsystem is organized to recover texture by touch? What is the role played by the action system in this recovery? The seminal observations of David Katz and J.J. Gibson are recounted and contemporary research is described. Several unresolved issues are outlined, as are several approaches by which the availability and utilization of information within this particular perceptual-action subsystem can be empirically studied.