How do my fingers know it's a spoon when my eyes are shut?

Picture a soft cloth bag full of toys. There is a teddy, a ball and a wooden block. A spoon is hiding in there too. Close your eyes tight and slip your hand inside.

Your fingers bump into something cool and smooth. You can't see it at all, not even a tiny peek. So how can your fingers spot a spoon with your eyes shut?

The answer starts at your fingertips, which means the soft ends of your fingers. Your fingertips are full of tiny feeling spots. They feel things better than any other part of your hand.

Your fingertips slide slowly along the thing in the bag. They feel a long, thin handle and a round, scooping bowl at one end. Now your fingertips have felt its whole shape. Where do you think that feeling goes next?

Your fingertips send a quick message up your arm to your brain, inside your head. It zips along faster than a blink. The message tells your brain about a long handle, a round bowl, cool and smooth.

Your brain holds your memory, which means everything you have felt and seen before. Every spoon you have held at breakfast is in there, and every spoon from lunch and dinner too. Your brain looks through your memory for a match, the way you look through your toy box.

Your brain finds a spoon! Long handle, round bowl, cool and smooth. Everything fits, just like a puzzle piece. So you know it is a spoon, and your eyes stayed shut the whole time.

With your eyes shut, your fingertips feel the spoon's shape. Then your brain finds that shape in your memory, so you know it is a spoon.

Your hand slides out of the soft cloth bag, holding the spoon. You open your eyes, and there it is. Long handle, round bowl, just as your fingertips felt it.