Conflicting cues from vision and touch can impair spatial task performance: speculations on the role of spatial ability in reconciling frames of reference

In "hand assisted" minimally invasive surgery, the surgeon inserts one hand into the operative site. Despite anecdotal claims that seeing their own hand via the laparoscopic camera enhances spatial understanding, a previous study using a maze-drawing task in indirect viewing conditions found that seeing one's own hand sometimes helped and sometimes hurt performance (Keehner et al., 2004). Here I present a new analysis exploring the mismatch between kinesthetic cues (knowing where the hand is) and visual cues (seeing the hand in an orientation that is incongruent with this). Seeing one's left hand as if from the right side of egocentric space (palm view) impaired performance, and this depended on spatial ability (r=-.54). Conversely, there was no relationship with spatial ability when viewing the left hand from the left side of egocentric space (back view). The view-specific nature of the confusion raises a possible role for spatial abilities in reconciling spatial frames of reference.