Multisensory Texture Perception in Individuals with Williams Syndrome.

The sensory profile of people with Williams syndrome (WS) is characterised by atypical visual and auditory perceptions that affect their daily lives and learning. However, no research has been carried out on the haptic perception, in particular in multisensory (visual and haptic) situations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the communication of texture information from one modality to the other in people with WS.

Adults and 5-year-old children draw rectangles and triangles around a prototype but not in the golden ratio.

This study uses a production task to probe the representations of two geometrical shape categories (rectangles and triangles) in adults and children before the onset of geometry instruction. We specifically assessed whether drawings of these shapes would average around a prototype and whether the prototypical side-length ratio of the shapes would be situated in the range of the 'golden ratio', as it has been reported in the perception domain. We asked 78 adults and 68 five-year-old children to draw one rectangle and one triangle.