In the late 17th century, a scientist named William Molyneux asked the famous ph

Question

In the late 17th century, a scientist named William Molyneux asked the famous philosopher John Locke a question relevant to modern studies of multisensory processing. The question was this: Imagine a person who has been blind since birth, and who is able, by virtue of the sense of touch, to identify three dimensional shapes such as spheres or pyramids.

Now imagine that this person suddenly receives the ability to see. Would the person, without using the sense of touch, be able to identify those same shapes visually?

Can modern research in multi-modal perception help answer this question? Why or why not?

How do the studies about crossmodal phenomena inform us about the answer to this question?

Explanation / Answer

Recent developments in this field have suggested that patients find it difficult to relate objects that they had always perceived through touch, suddenly now with vision. However, it has also been found that they learn it very quickly.

Multi modal perception is the research that studies the process by which perceptual system combines information arising from more than one modality. The McGurk effect is a multi modal perception which demonstrates an interaction between vision and hearing in speech perception. Here, the two nativist theories predict a negative response diverge in their predictions regarding the McGurk effect and multisensory processing strategy.

In crossmodal phenomena, information must be processed separately in parallel auditory and visual processing channels, strengthened through learning. They predict parallel rather than coactive processing.

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