PRE-GIBSONIAN OBSERVATIONS ON ACTIVE TOUCH

James J. Gibson's (1962) now-classic "Observations on Active Touch" demonstrated the superiority of active over passive touch in object discrimination tasks and thereby exposed the paradigmatic limits of preceding research. Before Gibson, according to the received view, the sense of t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:History of psychology 2016-05, Vol.19 (2), p.93-104
Main Author: Wagner, Armin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Austria
Cutaneous Sense
Germany
History
History of medicine and histology
History, 19th Century
History, 20th Century
Human
Humans
Psychophysiology - history
Switzerland
Tactual Perception
Touch
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Summary:James J. Gibson's (1962) now-classic "Observations on Active Touch" demonstrated the superiority of active over passive touch in object discrimination tasks and thereby exposed the paradigmatic limits of preceding research. Before Gibson, according to the received view, the sense of touch had been treated as a mere receptive channel, ignoring the hand's explorative movements. This article challenges this common narrative by juxtaposing Gibson's article with research published in the German-speaking parts of Europe between the early 19th and mid-20th centuries. The concept of "active touch" did not originate from Gibson's paper alone, nor should earlier appearances of the term be treated simply as exceptional cases. On the contrary, throughout the 19th century, the concept facilitated fundamental theoretical, cross-disciplinary discussions and ultimately evolved into an object of experimental study on its own.
ISSN:1093-4510
1939-0610
DOI:10.1037/hop0000028