Texture perception in sighted and blind observers

Heller, Morton A.

doi:10.3758/bf03208032

Cited by 172 publications

(117 citation statements)

References 39 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…By either definition, it is clear that textures composed ofelements too small to appreciably deform the skin must be perceived in some nonspatial way, perhaps involving vibratory activation of rapidly adapting channels (Heller, 1989;Johnson & Hsiao, 1992;LaMotte & Srinivasan, 1991). Thus, studies ofcoarse-texture perception implicate spatial processing, whereas data on perception of fine textures are at least compatible with the use of vibrational cues.…”

mentioning

confidence: 85%

“…For example, another early study (Meenes & Zigler, 1923) reported that subjects who described moving textured stimuli as rough or smooth did not find these terms appropriate to describe the same surfaces when lateral movement was disallowed, preferring to describe their sensations in terms of even or uneven pressure; but there is no indication in their study that this was more true of fine textures than of coarse textures. More recent studies of roughness perception generally confine themselves to relatively coarse textures (Connor et aI., 1990;Connor & Johnson, 1992) or do not measure performance under conditions of static touch (Heller, 1989;Lamb, 1983;Lederman, 1974;Lederman & Taylor, 1972;Stevens & Harris, 1962;Taylor & Lederman, 1975). Thus, Phillips, Johnson, and Browne's (1983, p. 243) prediction that "texture discrimination ... that is believed to depend on information relayed by the [vibration-sensitive] rapidly adapting afferents should be profoundly affected by skin movement" has rarely been subjected to quantitative test.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Evidence for the duplex theory of tactile texture perception

Hollins

Risner

2000

Perception & Psychophysics

376

269

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Three experiments are reported bearing on Katz's hypothesis that tactile texture perception is mediated by vibrational cues in the case of fine textures and by spatial cues in the case of coarse textures. Psychophysical responses when abrasive surfaces moved across the skin were compared with those obtained during static touch, which does not provide vibrational cues. Experiment 1 used two-interval forced-choice procedures to measure discrimination of surfaces. Fine surfaces that were readily discriminated when moved across the skin became indistinguishable in the absence of movement; coarse surfaces, however, were equally discriminable in movingand stationary conditions. This was shown not to result from any inherently greater difficulty of fine-texture discrimination. Experiments 2 and 3 used free magnitude estimation to obtain a more comprehensive picture of the effect of movement on texture (roughness) perception. Without movement, perception was seriously degraded (the psychophysical magnitude function was flattened) for textures with element sizes below 100 llm; above this point, however, the elimination of movement produced an overall decrease in roughness, but not in the slope of the magnitude function. Thus, two components of stimulation (presumably vibrational and spatial) contribute to texture perception, as Katz maintained; mechanisms for responding to the latter appear to be engaged at texture element sizes down to 100llm, a surprisingly small value.In his classic treatise The World of Touch, David Katz (1925 advanced the view that the tactile perception of the texture of surfaces is a complex process, depending on a "spatial sense" for discernment of coarse textures and a "vibration sense" for an appreciation offiner textures. Katz offered a number of ingenious observations to support his theory: For example, he demonstrated that papers can be discriminated by an observer drawing a wooden rod across them but that wrapping the rod in cloth greatly impairs performance (p. 115). These results suggest the use of vibrational cues. Katz's view, referred to here as the duplex theory oftactile texture perception, is succinctly captured in his statement that surfaces touched very lightly could not be clearly perceived, because "the spatial sense ofthe skin could no longer discern the coarse texture of the materials, and the vibrations necessary for the recognition of fine texture were lost as a result of the minimal friction" (p. 138).

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 85%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for the duplex theory of tactile texture perception

Hollins

Risner

2000

Perception & Psychophysics

376

269

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For instance, tactually perceived two-dimensional shapes may be visualized (Heller, 1989;Lederman, Thorne, & Jones, 1986). Sensory information may also be condensed so that less must be remembered, such as converting the absolute position of an object in space to relative body coordinates (e.g., updown, left-right;see Millar, 1978a).…”

Section: Recodingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discrimination of vibrotactile frequencies in a delayed pair comparison task

Sinclair

Burton

1996

Perception & Psychophysics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study quantified human short-term-memory decay functions for delayed vibrotactile frequency discriminations. Subjects indicated which of two successive intervals contained the higher or lower frequency of a pair separated by delay periods of 0.5-30 sec. Performance decreased as a function of length of delay and was higher when delays were unfilled than when they were filled with a backwardscounting task This interpolated task may have interfered with rehearsal of a coded representation of the remembered vibrotactile frequency. A change in decay rate after 5-sec delays suggests a switch from reliance on sensory memory to the coded frequency representation. Performance and decay rate depended on presentation order of higher or lower frequency within pairs. Reciprocal performance asymmetries seen in high-versus low-frequency ranges did not result from simple response bias.

show abstract

“…They further proposed that this visual mediation is needed for the interpretation of pictures, since haptics excels in the perception of solids. Solid forms possess the substancerelated attributes that haptics does very well with, namely texture (see Heller 1989b), hardness, thermal properties, and so forth. An important line of data that supports this position derives from the finding that blindfolded sighted subjects may have difficulty naming unfamiliar tangible pictures (Lederman et al 1990), yet are able to name the identical solid objects (Klatzky et al 1993).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Superior Haptic Perceptual Selectivity in Late-Blind and Very-Low-Vision Subjects

et al. 2003

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Blindfolded sighted, congenitally blind, late-blind, and very-low-vision subjects were tested on a tangible version of the embedded-figures test. The results of ANOVAs on accuracy measures yielded superior performance by the very-low-vision and late-blind subjects compared with the blindfolded sighted and congenitally blind participants. Accuracy of the congenitally blind subjects was similar to that of the blindfolded sighted participants. However, all groups of blind subjects were significantly faster than the blindfolded sighted subjects. It is suggested that experience with pictures combined with haptic skill aid perceptual selectivity in touch.

show abstract

Texture perception in sighted and blind observers

Cited by 172 publications

References 39 publications

Evidence for the duplex theory of tactile texture perception

Evidence for the duplex theory of tactile texture perception

Discrimination of vibrotactile frequencies in a delayed pair comparison task

Superior Haptic Perceptual Selectivity in Late-Blind and Very-Low-Vision Subjects

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About