Can haptic maps contribute to spatial knowledge of blind sailors

In this preliminary study, we compared the capability of a blind sailor to access geographical information needed to navigate via an haptic device and via a tactile map. We assessed this spatial knowledge in an egocentered, an allocentered and a combined frame of reference. The subject first explored haptic or tactile maps before answering a series of questions in order to locate 6 salient objects within each map. Then, we used the triangulation technique to obtain easily scoreable physical representations of these cognitive locations. Basically, our results showed no difference between haptic and tactile condition even if slight differences were observed between the frames of reference. We suggest that the subject took great advantage of the haptic map because its sequential and dynamic features implied to focus on learning and memorizing the movement patterns rather than directly touching the global layout with reduced movements as it is the case when using a tactile map.