GROUPS OF 24 BLIND ADULTS (ALL SKILLED BRAILLE READERS) AND 24 SIGHTED COLLEGE STUDENTS WERE COMPARED ON A TACTUAL IDENTIFICATION OF FORM TASK IN WHICH RAISED DOTS WERE USED. THE TWO INFORMATION PARAMETERS, COMPLEXITY AND REDUNDANCY OF THE DOTS, WERE ASSESSED USING PUNCTIFORM METRIC FIGURES RESEMBLING HISTOGRAMS AND SIMILAR IN SIZE AND SPACING TO STANDARD BRAILLE DOTS. THE TASK WAS TO DECIDE WHICH, IF EITHER, OF THE TWO COMPARISON STIMULI WAS IDENTICAL TO THE STANDARD STIMULUS. A 4 X 2 X 2 FACTORIAL DESIGN WAS EMPLOYED. STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT RESULTS WERE FOUND BETWEEN THE VISUAL STATUS GROUPS, BETWEEN LEVELS OF COMPLEXITY, AND BETWEEN RANDOM AND REDUNDANT FIGURES (P IS LESS THAN .01 IN EACH CASE). ALSO, THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN GROUPS AND COMPLEXITY, GROUPS AND TYPE OF FIGURES, AND COMPLEXITY AND TYPE OF FIGURES WERE FOUND TO BE STATISTICALLY RELIABLE (P IS LESS THAN .01 IN EACH CASE). FINDINGS INDICATED THAT EFFICIENCY OF PERFORMANCE TENDS TO DECLINE WITH INCREMENTS IN STIMULUS COMPLEXITY. THE OVERALL TREND TOWARD GREATER EFFICIENCY OF PERFORMANCE WITH RANDOM THAN WITH REDUNDANT FIGURES WAS FOUND TO ACCORD WITH PREVIOUS FINDINGS REGARDING THE VARIABLES OF THE INFORMATION PARAMETERS USING VISUAL STIMULI. THE CONCLUSION WAS THAT THE INFORMATION HANDLING APPROACH TAPS A SINGLE PROCESS OF FORM PERCEPTION IN MAN. THE STUDY ALSO SUGGESTS REVISION OF THE PRESENT BRAILLE CODE TO EXPAND ITS 2 X 3 BRAILLE MATRIX TO A 4 X 4 SIZE FOR INCREASED BRAILLE READING RATE AND ACCOMMODATION OF TECHNICAL SYMBOLS IN VARIOUS SCIENCES. DIAGRAMS SHOWING SAMPLES OF CELL MATRICES OF DIFFERENT COMPLEXITY AND METRIC FIGURES USING BRAILLE DOTS AND A GRAPH SHOWING PERFORMANCE DIFFERENCES ARE INCLUDED. A BIBLIOGRAPHY LISTS 18 ITEMS. (KH)