Using Immersive Virtual Reality to Examine How Visual and Tactile Cues Drive the Material-Weight Illusion.

The material-weight illusion (MWI) demonstrates how our past experience with material and weight can create expectations that influence the perceived heaviness of an object. Here we used mixed-reality to place touch and vision in conflict, to investigate whether the modality through which materials are presented to a lifter could influence the top-down perceptual processes driving the MWI. University students lifted equally-weighted polystyrene, cork and granite cubes whilst viewing computer-generated images of the cubes in virtual reality (VR).

Visuo-motor attention during object interaction in children with developmental coordination disorder.

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) describes a condition of poor motor performance in the absence of intellectual impairment. Despite being one of the most prevalent developmental disorders, little is known about how fundamental visuomotor processes might function in this group. One prevalent idea is children with DCD interact with their environment in a less predictive fashion than typically developing children.

Examining Whether Semantic Cues Can Affect Felt Heaviness When Lifting Novel Objects.

It is well established that manipulations of low-level stimulus properties unrelated to mass can impact perception of heaviness, the most famous example being the size-weight illusion whereby small objects feel heavier than equally-weighted larger objects. Interestingly, manipulations of high-level cues such as material have also induced weight illusions, highlighting that cognitive expectations alone are enough to create illusory weight differences. Less is known, however, about what type of cognitive expectations can influence perception of heaviness.