The effect of egocentric reference frames on palmar haptic perception of orientation was investigated in vertically-separated locations in a sagittal plane. Reference stimuli to be haptically-matched were either presented haptically (to the contralateral hand) or visually. As with prior investigations of haptic orientation perception, a strong egocentric bias was found such that haptic orientation matches made in the lower part of personal space were much lower (i.e., perceived as higher) than those made at eye level. The same haptic bias was observed when the reference surface to be matched was observed visually as was observed for bimanual matching. These findings support the conclusion that, despite the presence of an unambiguous allocentric (gravitational) reference frame in vertical planes, haptic orientation perception in the sagittal plane reflects an egocentric bias.
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