WE investigated the ability of human subjects to duplicate with the le
ft hand the spatial location of the right hand, using only kinesthetic
cues. Under this experimental condition, subjects produced large and
idiosyncratic errors which varied with the spatial location of the han
d. Tactile cues originating from contact of the hand with a rigid surf
ace generally led to a decrease in the variable error. However, even w
ithout tactile cues, the variable error was small compared with other
tasks in which subjects are required to estimate the spatial location
of the hand on the basis of kinesthetic cues. The results suggest that
subjects did not derive an estimate of the location of the right hand
in extrapersonal space, but rather that they performed the task withi
n intrapersonal space.