Even though S.B. had regained his vision, after more than fifty years of blindness, he always closed his eyes in traffic. He continued to function as if he was still blind.
But why? Does information about traffic not transfer from one sense to another? (See our blog for the scientific approach and the crossmodal correspondences between the senses.)
Without vision, S.B. would be used to listening for human activity and unique spatial characteristics when identifying an area, such as conversations about fish and the openness of the sea. He would be helped by echoes of his own sounds and sounds that stand out from the background, like a fan in a quiet street. (See how The Oxford Sound Album started.) S.B. would have listened for contrasting sounds. And enjoy echoes in narrow places; Walking up Queen’s Lane and New College Lane, constantly varying soft sounds; on Radcliffe Square on an early summer morning, and quiet but informative places; Walking inside the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin. Nonetheless, he may have been inspired by the chaotic sounds while Walking through Clarendon Centre. Rain and snow mask information: making it hard, for example, to determine the speed of cars and the distance to a building. To be able to navigate in chaotic and masked sounds, S.B. would have had to tap harder with his white cane to create a better echo against walls, bushes, and poles at pedestrian crossings. But the rain would also help him hear silent objects, like parked bikes and street furniture.
S.B. was experienced in listening for, paying attention to, and intervening with sounds in traffic, and he would have added tactile information too (typically from his white cane, face, and feet) about surfaces, obstructions, and gradients. So, what changes with vision?
Had S.B. started using vision alone, then he would constantly be looking for shapes, for example, in the city skyline, colours, and textures on the Royal Mile. He would have enjoyed how the sunlight enhanced and changed the shapes. As well as three-dimensional architecture and movement, like bay windows and passersby. He would have received information about human activities and danger from signs only.
Indeed, using vision alone, S.B. would be looking for and paying attention to some of the same information about traffic as when he was blind, namely shapes and surfaces/textures; however, not intervene with it. So, again, why did S.B. after having regained vision continue to function in traffic as when he was blind?
There seem to be two possible explanations. One is that when people combine vision and hearing, paying attention to visual shapes reduces their attention to sound and vice versa. S.B. then, who was so very experienced in paying attention to the sounds in traffic, would not have focused on any visual information regardless of whether his eyes were open or closed. Perhaps not even knowing they were closed. Or perhaps getting so confused by the visual information that he closed them. The other explanation is that when people combine visual and auditory information, they tend not to pay attention to either unless the two match. For S.B. a match may never have been possible: he was too experienced in hearing.
Now challenging and inspiring us to use hearing alone, vision alone, and both senses together:
Hearing Princes Street – St David Street
Seeing Princes Street – St David Street
Hearing and seeing Princes Street – St David Street
Hearing and seeing inside a coffee shop
Hearing and seeing Princes Street
Hearing and seeing Victoria Street
See our blog for Activities; especially 13-15.
Some suggestions for further listening and reading:
Herssens, J., Roelants, L., Rychtáriková, M., & Heylighen, A. (2011). Listening in the Absence of Sight: The Sound of Inclusive Environments. Proceedings of Include 2011, 10-17.
Sabourine, C. J., Merrikhi, Y., & Lomber, S. G. (2022). Do blind people hear better? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26(11), 999-1012.
Schafer, R. M. (1994). The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books.
Southworth, M. (1969). The Sonic Environment of Cities. Environment and Behavior, 1(1), 49-70.
Stein, B. E., & Meredith, M. A. (1993). The merging of the senses. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
