We sought to provide a quantitative overview of haptic tests, so as to identify what has been done in this area so far, and discuss possible avenues for the future design of haptic tests for use with persons with visual impairment. We reviewed 24 haptic psychometric tests, that is, tests performed in the haptic modality, with no reliance on vision. We found that haptics (i.e., tactilo-kinesthetic perception or the sense of active touch) has been used in two different ways: first, to assess nonverbal/practical intelligence, replacing vision in haptic analogs of mainstream tests (e.g., tactile adaptations of Wechsler performance scales); second, to assess, per se, the quality of haptic functioning in specialized tests (e.g., Tactual Profile, Haptic Test Battery). In both cases, we found that only a limited number of tests had been standardized for children and/or were developmental tests. We also noticed an overwhelming use of 3D material in the tests, and a general lack of a comparison group (blindfolded sighted participants) during the standardization process. We discuss the usefulness of designing developmental haptic test batteries to assess 2D haptic functioning in visually impaired and sighted children.
To fill an important gap in the psychometric assessment of children and adolescents with impaired vision, we designed a new battery of haptic tests, called Haptic-2D, for visually impaired and sighted individuals aged five to 18 years. Unlike existing batteries, ours uses only two-dimensional raised materials that participants explore using active touch. It is composed of 11 haptic tests, measuring scanning skills, tactile discrimination skills, spatial comprehension skills, short-term tactile memory, and comprehension of tactile pictures. We administered this battery to 138 participants, half of whom were sighted (n=69), and half visually impaired (blind, n=16; low vision, n=53). Results indicated a significant main effect of age on haptic scores, but no main effect of vision or Age × Vision interaction effect. Reliability of test items was satisfactory (Cronbach's alpha, α=0.51-0.84). Convergent validity was good, as shown by a significant correlation (age partialled out) between total haptic scores and scores on the B101 test (rp=0.51, n=47). Discriminant validity was also satisfactory, as attested by a lower but still significant partial correlation between total haptic scores and the raw score on the verbal WISC (rp=0.43, n=62). Finally, test-retest reliability was good (rs=0.93, n=12; interval of one to two months). This new psychometric tool should prove useful to practitioners working with young people with impaired vision.
Research into haptic perception has mostly focused on three-dimensional (3D) objects, and more needs to be known about the processing of two-dimensional (2D) materials (e.g. raised dots and lines and raised-line shapes, patterns and pictures). This study examines the agerelated changes in various skills related to the haptic exploration of 2D raised-line and dot materials and how these skills are related to haptic picture perception. Ninety-one participants, aged 4 years to adult, were asked to perform a series of haptic tasks that entailed (1) finding dots and following lines, (2) matching elements based on texture, shape, and size, (3) matching elements based on spatial location and orientation, (4) memorizing sequences of dots and shapes and (5) identifying complete and incomplete raised-line pictures. On all the tests, the results showed that scores improved with age. Shape discrimination scores accounted for variability in comprehension scores for outline pictures. We suggested that identifying tactile pictures by touch improved with age and mainly depended on the improvement of shape discrimination skills.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.