Book Review: Psychology of Touch and Blindness, Morton A. Heller and Edouard Gentaz

Psychology of Touch and Blindness, Morton A. Heller and Edouard Gentaz. New York: Psychology Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2014,284 pp.; paperback, $59.95; hardcover, $150. Psychology of Touch and Blindness, by Morton A. Heller and Edouard Gentaz, offers a comprehensive look at the nature of touch for researchers and other professionals who seek a deep understanding of the theoretical and neurological aspects of the subject. Practitioners, however, may find the book too theoretical and lacking discussion about how the information included in the text can be applied when working with adults or children who are visually impaired (that is those who are blind or have low vision). Although the book does not provide strategies for the explicit application of its theories, the text includes a large amount of information on the basic science of touch and the haptic abilities of people with visual impairments. Those readers who are willing to investigate the information fully enough to make their own connections between the research being presented and practice could apply such knowledge to the education of people with visual impairments. CONFUSING TERMINOLOGY Although the book covers an incredible amount of information, the tone of the book is quite understandable. Technical terms and jargon are explained and often include examples or analogies that further illustrate the concepts or points. The authors frequently relay personal experiences and encounters with individuals who are blind to support points being made. Although I appreciated this approach and the attention the authors gave to explaining concepts and unfamiliar terms that might lead to confusion, I was surprised that person-first language was not used. The language used by the authors also caused confusion at times--they always used the terms blind people or blind subjects, which left me wondering if all the individuals who participated in the highlighted studies were totally blind. Another example of confusing language occurred in the chapter "Picture Perception and Blind People," in which one study that was discussed reported that "blind individuals did very poorly when asked to draw pictures." Surely the study was not conducted with participants who are totally blind; otherwise, the finding could not have been surprising! THOUGHT-PROVOKING RESEARCH Despite some of the confusion surrounding the subjects described in the chapter on picture perception, the information provided on the ability of individuals who are blind to accurately interpret pictures was quite interesting. The analysis of the research provided simple, practical strategies (such as making the tactile images larger) for improving the abilities of individuals who are visually impaired to better interpret tactile pictures. The book also provided a thorough and engaging discussion of the haptic abilities and inabilities of individuals who are blind, some of which were quite surprising. For instance, studies found participants could not only identify unknown people with great accuracy by touching the individuals' faces, but they could also tactually identify a range of facial expressions indicating a wide variety of emotions without any training. The functional implications of these skills are not obvious, but it is interesting to learn about the refined haptic abilities of those studied. Another study discussed in the book found that haptic perception of texture could be even more accurate than visual perception. Another highlight of the book was the in-depth discussion of the implications for weighing one sense against another in bimodal sensory situations, which could have interesting application for individuals with low vision. …