A Systematic Comparison of Perceptual Performance in Softness Discrimination with Different Fingers

Attention, Perception & Psychophysics
Aaron C Zoeller, Knut Drewing

Abstract

In studies investigating haptic softness perception, participants are typically instructed to explore soft objects by indenting them with their index finger. In contrast, performance with other fingers has rarely been investigated. We wondered which fingers are used in spontaneous exploration and if performance differences between fingers can explain spontaneous usage. In Experiment 1 participants discriminated the softness of two rubber stimuli with hardly any constraints on finger movements. Results indicate that humans use successive phases of different fingers and finger combinations during an exploration, preferring index, middle, and (to a lesser extent) ring finger. In Experiment 2 we compared discrimination thresholds between conditions, with participants using one of the four fingers of the dominant hand. Participants compared the softness of rubber stimuli in a two-interval forced choice discrimination task. Performance with index and middle finger was better as compared to ring and little finger, the little finger was the worst. In Experiment 3 we again compared discrimination thresholds, but participants were told to use constant peak force. Performance with the little finger was worst, whereas performance for the o...Continue Reading

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Citations

Sep 29, 2021·Journal of Vision·Müge CavdanKatja Doerschner

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Software Mentioned

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