The Impact of Cognitive Style on Visuo-Haptic Object Identification

Abstract

Haptic and visual object representations in memory rely on similar processes, equating to a multisensory memory trace that is accessible to both modalities. Past research examining the composition of this overlapping memory trace have found evidence for a visual as well as a verbal component. Lacey and Campbell (2006) reported that non-verbal visual distractors impacted the identification of known objects, suggesting a visual component to this shared representation. Contrarily, Desmarais et al. (2021) found that only verbal distractors negatively impact the identification of novel objects, suggesting that this shared memory trace is therefore verbal in composition. Therefore, the question remains: what is this shared memory trace between sight and touch composed of, and does this memory trace depend on the type of object encoded? The current study also examined whether this depends on individual differences in cognitive style, as one’s preferred method for obtaining and applying information could explain the conflicting findings of past research. Participants first completed a self-report measure of cognitive style, followed by an object identification task that required them to learn to identify either simple or complex objects, either by sight or by touch. Two-thirds of participants simultaneously completed either a verbal or visuospatial distractor task. Participants learning to recognize complex objects produced more errors and required more blocks to reach criterion compared to those learning simple objects. Participants who completed the task without distraction displayed superior identification performance compared to those who experienced a visuospatial distractor, especially when identifying complex objects. Finally, we demonstrated that the information that composes this overlapping memory representation can be associated with one’s cognitive style. However, the degree to which this occurs may depend on the types of objects being learned, as well as the modality in which encoding occurs.