The development of haptic processing skills from childhood to adulthood by means of two-dimensional materials.

Abstract

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.

Size and Quality of Drawings Made by Adults Under Visual and Haptic Control

“…Under both visual conditions, ongoing shape control was possible without hindrance. By contrast, in the blindfolded condition, it was not possible to control the shape haptically during drawings made on paper (although the drawing process might be monitored by proprioceptive information), and this was limited by the capacity of working memory when producing drawings on foil (Mazella et al, 2018;Yoshida et al, 2015). In our view, creating raised-line drawings without sight control requires both fine drawing skills and the ability to read drawings by touch (i.e.…”

“…Participants in our study may have wanted to have more tactile control over the overall shape that was created on foil, therefore trying to produce drawings that could be embraced with the hand (notably, hand-sized drawings are recommended for tactile graphic design: Edman, 1992). Furthermore, due to the sequential and relatively slow nature of manual perception, the working memory load should be larger in the case of controlling the process of drawing bigger drawings by touch than when producing smaller depictions Klatzky, 1987, 2009;Mazella et al, 2018;Morimoto, 2020;Revesz, 1950;Yoshida et al, 2015). Presumably, the participants produced smaller drawings in the foil haptic condition to avoid overloading their working memory.…”

Identification of Textured Tactile Pictures in Visually Impaired and Blindfolded Sighted Children

“…Originally carried out by a few groups of scientists (e.g., Heller, 1989;Lederman et al, 1990;D'Anguilli et al, 1998), research dedicated to the haptic (i.e., the sense of active touch, Revesz, 1950) identification of two-dimensional (2D) pictures has become the object of increasing interest in recent years, as testified to by recent publications (Mazella et al, 2018;Overvliet and Krampe, 2018;Lebaz and Picard, 2019;Vinter et al, 2019). If recognizing common 3D objects on the basis of haptic information alone is a highly efficient daily activity for children irrespective of their visual status (Simpkins, 1979;Bushnell and Baxt, 1999), identifying what 2D haptic patterns depict is a less frequent activity for sighted persons, but not for visually impaired individuals who read Braille patterns or interpret tactile maps or diagrams or images in tactile books, etc.…”

Propriedades psicométricas do teste de percepção háptica da mão: alto relevo com formas geométricas

“…Este método é mais difícil do que simplesmente nomear o objeto e tem sido usado principalmente em estudos de função da mão em participantes com limitações para nomeação dos objetos(37,97,98). Embora estes procedimentos sejam eventualmente utilizados na prática clínica, Independentemente do tipo, os testes avaliam predominantemente participantes adultos e geralmente estão confinados a interações hápticas com materiais em três dimensões (3D), em oposição a materiais em duas dimensões (2D)(99).Há variedade entre a forma de validação dos instrumentos hápticos e em geral, as evidências de validação apresentam limitações. O Functional Tactile Object Recognition Test, que desenvolvido para voluntários acometidos por acidente vascular cerebral (AVC), foi submetido à validade discriminante (100).…”