ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors present the hypothesis as a metacognitive tactile superiority and discuss its generality, selectivity, and possible indirect origins. Tactile processing is highly mediated, and rests on expectations and unconscious inferences, no less than the other senses. With the maturation of cutaneous somatosensory receptors at 4–7 weeks gestation, the tactile system shows precedence over vision and hearing. Most of the studies of perceptual certainty have looked at vision, but a few others have considered audition or, less frequently, touch. The phenomenological argument is especially adequate to capture the secure feeling of the reality or presence of an object provided by touch. Beyond subjective feelings of trust being the more secure sense, an action-based account finds some grounding in empirical work. Importantly, metacognitive ratings of confidence may also be translated into ratings of various feelings, as well as vividness, and considered as a good measure of awareness.
