Abstract
Prior research has shown that verbal estimates of a target's distance may be dissociable from estimates of the target's distance assessed by walking to it with vision blocked (blind-walking). This study examined whether blind-walking responses can be modified by false feedback about walking accuracy, and whether verbal distance estimates would also be modified by this feedback. During pre-adaptation measures, subjects viewed targets placed at various distances between 20 and 70 feet, shut their eyes, verbally estimated the distance to the target, and walked to the remembered target location. Following this, subjects were shown a target 45 feet away and blind-walked toward it on five trials during which they were given false distance feedback. Short adaptation condition: Twelve subjects were instructed that they had reached the target when they had walked 35 feet (or, if they stopped walking before 35 feet, were instructed to keep walking until they had walked 35 feet). Long adaptation condition: Twelve other subjects were instructed that they had reached the target when they had walked 55 feet (or, if they stopped walking before 55 feet, were instructed to keep walking until they had walked 55 feet). Post-adaptation verbal and blind-walking measures were then obtained in the same manner as the pre-adaptation measures. Results demonstrated that blind-walking was significantly longer following long adaptation than following short adaptation. In comparison, verbal estimates were uninfluenced by the adaptation procedure.