The Autonomy of Visual Kinaesthesis

TLDR

Kinaesthesis relies on registering changes accompanying body movement, traditionally thought to arise mainly from mechanical sources, but Gibson has argued that vision can also provide powerful kinaesthetic information. The study tested Gibson’s claim by inducing visual–mechanical conflicts through linear movement of the visible surroundings around subjects. The authors created visual–mechanical conflicts by moving the visible surroundings linearly forward and backward around subjects who were either passively or actively moving. Vision dominated in most trials, demonstrating that visual kinaesthesis is an autonomous sense rather than merely exteroceptive or an adjunct to mechanical kinaesthesis. J.J.

Abstract

Kinaesthesis, the sensing of body movement, which is essential for controlling activity, depends on registering the changes which accompany body movement. While there are two basic types of change—mechanical (articular, cutaneous, and vestibular) and visual—and so two potential sources of kinaesthetic information, the mechanical changes have traditionally been considered the basis of kinaesthesis, vision being considered a purely exteroceptive sense. J.J. Gibson, on the other hand, has argued that vision is a powerful kinaesthetic sense. To test this idea visual–mechanical kinaesthetic conflicts were created by moving the visible surroundings linearly forward and backward around a passively or actively moving subject. In most cases vision dominated. Therefore vision is not a purely exteroceptive sense, nor is visual kinaesthesis simply an adjunct to mechanical kinaesthesis. Vision is an autonomous kinaesthetic sense.