Tactile short-term memory for stimuli presented on the fingertips and across the rest of the body surface

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which tactile information that is unavailable for full conscious report can be accessed using partial-report procedures. In Experiment 1, participants reported the total number of tactile stimuli (up to six) presented simultaneously to their fingertips (numerosity judgment task). In another condition, after being presented with the tactile display, they had to detect whether or not the position indicated by a (visual or tactile) probe had previously contained a tactile stimulus (partial-report task). Participants correctly reported up to three stimuli in the numerosity judgment task, but their performance was far better in the partial-report task: Up to six stimuli were perceived at the shortest target-probe intervals. A similar pattern of results was observed when the participants performed a concurrent articulatory suppression task (Exp. 2). The results of a final experiment revealed that performance in the partial-report task was overall better for stimuli presented on the fingertips than for stimuli presented across the rest of the body surface. These results demonstrate that tactile information that is unavailable for report in a numerosity task can nevertheless sometimes still be accessed when a partial-report procedure is used instead.

Tactual perception: a review of experimental variables and procedures

“…Time is a crucial variable in perception and memory, and our ability to maintain a certain stimulus in memory actually contributes to the definition of that specific memory storage. For instance, a partial report paradigm in a numerosity task with tactile stimulation showed that in short-term registers, participants can access information that they could not report in a regular tasks requiring a complete recall (Auvray et al 2011). As such, in tactual experiments, if the participants are taking longer to perceive the stimuli, they will take longer to perform the task, which can result in a need to establish specific durations of haptic memory stores.…”

The attentive homunculus: ERP evidence for somatotopic allocation of attention in tactile search

“…Furthermore, the vast majority of tactile attention studies have examined attention to the hands (but see Heed and Roeder, 2010). Differences between the hands compared to when the whole body is relevant have been reported for tactile memory (Auvray, Gallace and Spence, 2011).…”

Effects of Numerosity Range on Tactile and Visual Enumeration

“…The common vibro-tactile apparatus used in previous experiments had only eight tactors. This limitation led previous experiments (such as in Auvray, Gallace, & Spence, 2011; Gallace et al., 2008) to exclude the thumbs or to use only one hand at a time (such as in Cohen et al., 2014). The thumbs are usually the starting finger in finger counting for Western individuals (Lindemann, Alipour, & Fischer, 2011) and accordingly, it would be important to include them in the fingers that are stimulated.…”

“…Ferrand et al., 2010; Gallace et al., 2008; Plaisier, Bergmann Tiest, & Kappers, 2010a; and Riggs et al., 2006, respectively), the input surface (body parts or fingertips; e.g. Cohen et al., 2014; Gallace et al., 2006, respectively), and the range of stimuli presented (within the passive tactile enumeration 5, 6, 8, or 10; Auvray et al., 2011; Cohen et al., 2014; Ferrand et al., 2010; Gallace et al., 2008, respectively). These differences in methodology may undermine understanding.…”