About 10% of visually impaired Americans use canes to aid locomotion. Prior research has found surprisingly little influence of mechanical variables of these probes on judgments of walkway variables explored with them, and cane users spontaneously report employing various cane substitutes with little decrement. Cane users seem able to adapt to the mechanical variables of their tools, which approach functional transparency to the qualities explored. New research is discussed in which traditional-style aftereffects will be sought in conditions in which participants wield the same probe for several consecutive trials.
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