QUESTION:

I imagine it must be the same way that a
congenitally blind person imagines his reality, albeit
through the sense of touch.  He can never know perspective,
and maybe that this why the few conginitally blind persons
who have had their eyes 'fixed' in later life have so much
trouble in adjusting to it?

ANSWER:
I believe congenitally blind persons do develop perspective in the conventional sense you mean. I seem to remember reading a study in the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness about the expression of ideas of perspective in congenitally blind persons. The author(s) concluded the blind persons' notions of perspective seemed identical to those of sighted persons.

The problems you mentioned for those who have had their sight restored probably have more to do with the difficulty the brain has in adapting to the sudden flood of visual sensation, not the understanding of perspective, per se. In other words, the problem seems to lie in sensory processes, not cognitive processes.

(Answered by Lance Potter)

(This article is from email discussions through owner-piaget-list@interchange.ubc.ca)