Touch and Sight

Of the five human senses, sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing, I have learned that some of these senses are influenced by each other. While studying taste, I learned that smell actually greatly influences taste. One’s sense of taste can only “identify four basic taste sensations: sweet, sour, bitter, and salty” (“Smell & Taste”). The only reason we can sense anything more than that is because of our sense of smell. Another unique sense relation is touch and sight.

The first thing I do when I am going to touch something is look at it. Instinctually, I observe the texture and compsition of the object. I observe if the object is rough, soft, or maybe sharp which would influence me not to touch the object. I also observe such things as if the object is going to be light or heavy. I speculate this before I even touch the object to instincually gather as much information as I can.

In identifying an object, Lederman concludes that humans rely on their sense of touch just as much as their sense of sight. Lederman’s first set of experiments “showed relatively strong emphasis on visual as opposed to tactual cues regarding the spatial density of raised dot patterns” (Lederman). Lederman’s second set of experiments “demonstrated considerably greater emphasis on the tactual as opposed to visual cues when observers were instructed to judge the roughness of the same surfaces” (Lederman). Although we may not use our sense of touch as much as our sense of sight, in some cases it is the more dominant or effective sense used to identify an object.

In cases where the sense of sight is lost by a human, such as blindness, the sense of touch is predominately used. Without the sense of sight to guide one in everyday life, one dempends on his/her sense of touch. One’s hands are used as eyes to explore the world all thanks to the sense of touch.

Touch also has other relations to sight as senses. When two people touch it can mean several different things. If two people shake hands to meet for the first time, this is considered to be very formal. On the other hand, a quick high-five or hand slap/shake is percieved as casual or informal. A more personal or intimate type of touch such as kissing is reserved for close family or dating relationships.

All of these types of touch can also be expressed through sight. Formal atire usually consists of a tuxedo or a suit and tie. Casual dress has a wide variety of acceptable atire, anything such as T-shirts, jeans, or hoodies will be acceptable. Furthermore, one can also dress in atire such as lingerie to be percieved as intamite.

The sense of touch and smell are closely related. This is also true about touch and sight. They are both used in identifying and touching objects. Touch can also be used as a substitute for sight when vison is lost. Touch and sight are also related in that one can also appear in the same mannor they touch such as formal, casual, or imtamite.

Works Cited

Perception of texture by vision and touch: multidimensionality and intersensory integration. 15 Oct. 2007 <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=2940321&dopt=Citation>

Smell & Taste. 15 Oct. 2007. < http://www.entnet.org/healthinfo/topics/smell_taste.cfm>