Which way is upright and normal? Haptic perception of letters above head level

In three experiments, the perception of the apparent orientation of block l etters shown in various orientations above the subject's head in the horizo ntal plane was examined. A block letter F with its front facing down toward the observer has two crossbars on its right side; the top is the part with the long crossbar, and the base has no bar. The experiments involved chang ing the locations of these parts with respect to the observer. In Experimen t 1, the subjects using touch most often identified a letter as having its left and right sides in a normal orientation if the front of the block lett er faced upwards away from the observer, with the bar on the right and the top of the letter farther from the subject than the letter's base. In Exper iment 2, the subjects judging visual uprightness favored positions in which the bars were on the right, the top of the block letter was near them, and the letter's front faced downwards toward the observer. In Experiment 3, t he subjects using touch most often assessed letters as being upright if the top of the letter was the farthest part and the bar was on the right. The results suggest that, when assessing orientation, subjects using touch favo red positions that would be reached by a letter moving vertically upwards f rom table height, but subjects relying on vision favored positions reached by a letter moving in an are centered on the subject's head ton the eyes, i n particular).