Tactile Illusions

    As we learned reading our text, See What I'm Saying, our brain's senses do not work independently as once thought. Our perceptual experiences are essentially multi-sensory. Because what you feel is strongly affected by what you hear, (cross-modal interaction), we can experience illusions with our sense of touch when paired with hearing. If you happen to have access to a chalkboard this is an interesting illusion to test out. Write your name on the chalkboard. Now write your name on the chalkboard while listening to music with headphones on. You should feel a difference in the chalkboard. Without hearing the sound of the chalk scraping against the board, it should feel smoother. This example of cross-modal interaction is most powerful between our sense of touch and hearing.