Constructivist and ecological approaches in tactual perception

2002 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-106
Author(s):  
Edouard Gentaz ◽  
Yvette Hatwell ◽  
Arlette Streri
Keyword(s):  
Tactile Perception ◽  
Active Touch ◽  
Tactual Perception ◽  
Passive Touch ◽  
Tactile Modality

Constructivist and ecological approaches are also observed in tactile perception studies. The question is whether identification and localization are dissociated in the tactile modality as well, and whether Norman's conception may be generalized to the field of touch. An analogue to blindsight was evidenced in passive touch, but no such dissociation was observed in active touch. A study is in progress in this domain.

scholarly journals Edge orientation perception during active touch

2018 ◽  
Vol 120 (5) ◽  
pp. 2423-2429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Olczak ◽  
Vaishnavi Sukumar ◽  
J. Andrew Pruszynski
Keyword(s):  
Motor System ◽  
Active Touch ◽  
Contact Forces ◽  
Edge Orientation ◽  
Passive Touch ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Orientation Perception ◽  
Psychophysical Studies ◽  
Psychophysical Task ◽  
Better Than

Previous studies investigating the perceptual attributes of tactile edge orientation processing have applied their stimuli to an immobilized fingertip. Here we tested the perceptual attributes of edge orientation processing when participants actively touched the stimulus. Our participants moved their finger over two pairs of edges, one pair parallel and the other nonparallel to varying degrees, and were asked to identify which of the two pairs was nonparallel. In addition to the psychophysical estimates of edge orientation acuity, we measured the speed at which participants moved their finger and the forces they exerted when moving their finger over the stimulus. We report four main findings. First, edge orientation acuity during active touch averaged 12.4°, similar to that previously reported during passive touch. Second, on average, participants moved their finger over the stimuli at ~20 mm/s and exerted contact forces of ~0.3 N. Third, there was no clear relationship between how people moved their finger or how they pressed on the stimulus and their edge orientation acuity. Fourth, consistent with previous work testing tactile spatial acuity, we found a significant correlation between fingertip size and orientation acuity such that people with smaller fingertips tended to have better orientation acuity. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Edge orientation acuity expressed by the motor system during manipulation is many times better than edge orientation acuity assessed in psychophysical studies where stimuli are applied to a passive fingertip. Here we show that this advantage is not because of movement per se because edge orientation acuity assessed in a psychophysical task, where participants actively move their finger over the stimuli, yields results similar to previous passive psychophysical studies.

scholarly journals In the Tactile Discrimination of Compliance, Perceptual Cues in Addition to Contact Area Are Required

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 1535-1539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chang Xu ◽  
Yuxiang Wang ◽  
Steven C. Hauser ◽  
Gregory J. Gerling
Keyword(s):  
Contact Area ◽  
Active Touch ◽  
Applied Force ◽  
Perceptual Cues ◽  
Tactile Discrimination ◽  
Passive Touch ◽  
Contact Areas ◽  
Effective Dynamic ◽  
Soft Objects ◽  
Finger Pad

In our ability to discriminate compliant, or ‘soft,’ objects, we rely upon information acquired from interactions at the finger pad. We have yet to resolve the most pertinent perceptual cues. However, doing so is vital for building effective, dynamic displays. By introducing psychophysical illusions through spheres of various size and elasticity, we investigate the utility of contact area cues, thought to be key in encoding compliance. For both active and passive touch, we determine finger pad-to-stimulus contact areas, using an ink-based procedure, as well as discrimination thresholds. The findings indicate that in passive touch, participants cannot discriminate certain small compliant versus large stiff spheres, which generate similar contact areas. In active touch, however, participants easily discriminate these spheres, though contact areas remain similar. Supplementary cues based on stimulus rate and/or proprioception seem vital. One cue that does differ for illusion cases is finger displacement given a volitionally applied force.

COGNITIVE STYLE PERFORMANCE AND FORM DISCRIMINATION

1973 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glen M. Vaught ◽  
Paul A. Roodin
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Cognitive Style ◽  
Field Dependence ◽  
Active Touch ◽  
Female College Students ◽  
Form Discrimination ◽  
Female College ◽  
Passive Touch ◽  
Field Independent ◽  
Field Dependent

Forty-two male and 42 female college students were subdivided into field independent, medium, and field dependent identity groups and matched for sex. Each subject was given 24 active and 24 passive touch form discrimination trials. The results showed that active touch form discrimination yielded fewer errors than passive touch and that females were better form discriminators than males. The interaction between field dependence, form discrimination and sex showed that in contrast to field independent subjects, field dependent males made more form discrimination errors while females improved. This interaction is discussed in relation to the field dependence literature.

Relative Contributions of Active and Passive Touch to a Child's Knowledge of Physical Objects

1979 ◽  
Vol 48 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1331-1346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey L. Derevensky
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Shape Perception ◽  
Active Touch ◽  
Passive Touch ◽  
Haptic Exploration ◽  
Educational Implications ◽  
Physical Objects ◽  
Sensory Training

Literature was examined for contributions of both active and passive touch to a child's knowledge of shape perception. While research suggests that passive touch provides a useful function, haptic exploration or active touch is more effective for information processing. Various models and their educational implications for sensory training are discussed.

Perception of Simulated Local Shapes Using Active and Passive Touch

2009 ◽  
Vol 102 (6) ◽  
pp. 3519-3529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan M. Smith ◽  
C. Elaine Chapman ◽  
François Donati ◽  
Pascal Fortier-Poisson ◽  
Vincent Hayward
Keyword(s):  
Force Feedback ◽  
Index Finger ◽  
Force Fields ◽  
Motor Command ◽  
Lateral Force ◽  
Vertical Movement ◽  
Active Touch ◽  
Displacement Fields ◽  
Passive Condition ◽  
Passive Touch

This study reexamined the perceptual equivalence of active and passive touch using a computer-controlled force-feedback device. Nine subjects explored a 6 × 10-cm workspace, with the index finger resting on a mobile flat plate, and experienced simulated Gaussian ridges and troughs (width, 15 mm; amplitude, 0.5 to 4.5 mm). The device simulated shapes by modulating either lateral resistance with no vertical movement or by vertical movement with no lateral forces, as a function of the digit position in the horizontal workspace. The force profiles and displacements recorded during active touch were played back to the stationary finger in the passive condition, ensuring that stimulation conditions were identical. For the passive condition, shapes simulated by vertical displacements of the finger had lower categorization thresholds and higher magnitude estimates compared with those of active touch. In contrast, the results with the lateral force fields showed that with passive touch, subjects recognized that a stimulus was present but were unable to correctly categorize its shape as convex or concave. This result suggests that feedback from the motor command can play an important role in processing sensory inputs during tactile exploration. Finally, subjects were administered a ring-block anesthesia of the digital nerves of the index finger and subsequently retested. Removing skin sensation significantly increased the categorization threshold for the perception of shapes generated by lateral force fields, but not for those generated by displacement fields.

scholarly journals Sign Construction Based on Heightened Tactile Perception by Persons with Congenital Deafblindness

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Goran A.G.C. Forsgren ◽  
Marlene Daelman ◽  
Paul Hart
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Tactile Perception ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Tactile Modality ◽  
Micro Analysis

Low readability is a main concern regarding communication with persons with congenital deafblindness (Nafstad & Rødbroe, 2015). This is because most of the expressions come from the bodily-tactile modality and are often based on tactile iconicity. It is difficult for a seeing and hearing partner to understand these expressions from the perspective of cultural language. The goal of this qualitative study is to show the emergence of sign constructions based on heightened tactile perception (Borchgrevink, 2002; Nicholas, 2004). Two videos, each showing one of two participants with congenital deafblindness, were subjected to qualitative micro-analysis. A key focus of this research concerns the combination of exploration and cognitive processing indicated by self-addressed expressions, and how this combination contributes to sign constructions. The linguistic quality of these sign constructions is further examined by detailing handshape, movement and location according to the work by Stokoe, 1960 and Bellugi & Klima, 2001. The results provide support for the proposition of a new sign category based on heightened tactile perception.  https://doi.org/10.21827/jdbsc.4.31373

Discrimination Thresholds for Passive Tactile Volume Perception by Fingertips

Perception ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (12) ◽  
pp. 1252-1267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Zhilin Zhang ◽  
Ritsu Go ◽  
Chunlin Li ◽  
Jinglong Wu
Keyword(s):  
Surface Area ◽  
Object Perception ◽  
Discrimination Threshold ◽  
Active Touch ◽  
Passive Touch ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Haptic Object ◽  
Volume Perception

Haptic object perception is still poorly understood up to now. This study investigated the ability of human fingers to discriminate the volume of objects by passive touch. Experiments measured the discrimination threshold of volume using three tasks: passive tactile volume perception, passive tactile area perception, and active tactile volume perception. In each trial, we utilized two plastic cubes to successively stimulate the fingers, and participants were instructed to make comparisons between the stimulus objects’ volume and area. Results showed that there was no significant difference in the discrimination thresholds of tactile volume perception between passive touch and active touch, whereas significant differences in the discrimination thresholds between fingertips, such as the thumb versus the pinky finger. In passive touch, the discrimination thresholds of volume perception were larger than that with surface area perception. We found that the discrimination of the volume of objects is more difficult than the discrimination of the area of the objects.

Differential effects of the mode of touch, active and passive, on experience-driven plasticity in the S1 cutaneous digit representation of adult macaque monkeys

2020 ◽  
Vol 123 (3) ◽  
pp. 1072-1089
Author(s):  
Anita Cybulska-Klosowicz ◽  
François Tremblay ◽  
Wan Jiang ◽  
Stéphanie Bourgeon ◽  
El-Mehdi Meftah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Somatosensory Cortex ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Active Touch ◽  
Primary Somatosensory Cortex ◽  
Firing Rates ◽  
Passive Touch ◽  
Passive Exposure ◽  
Area 3B

This study compared the receptive field (RF) properties and firing rates of neurons in the cutaneous hand representation of primary somatosensory cortex (areas 3b, 1, and 2) of 9 awake, adult macaques that were intensively trained in a texture discrimination task using active touch (fingertips scanned over the surfaces using a single voluntary movement), passive touch (surfaces displaced under the immobile fingertips), or both active and passive touch. Two control monkeys received passive exposure to the same textures in the context of a visual discrimination task. Training and recording extended over 1–2 yr per animal. All neurons had a cutaneous receptive field (RF) that included the tips of the stimulated digits (D3 and/or D4). In area 3b, RFs were largest in monkeys trained with active touch, smallest in those trained with passive touch, and intermediate in those trained with both; i.e., the mode of touch differentially modified the cortical representation of the stimulated fingers. The same trends were seen in areas 1 and 2, but the changes were not significant, possibly because a second experience-driven influence was seen in areas 1 and 2, but not in area 3b: smaller RFs with passive exposure to irrelevant tactile inputs compared with recordings from one naive hemisphere. We suggest that added feedback during active touch and higher cortical firing rates were responsible for the larger RFs with behavioral training; this influence was tempered by periods of more restricted sensory feedback during passive touch training in the active + passive monkeys. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We studied experience-dependent sensory cortical plasticity in relation to tactile discrimination of texture using active and/or passive touch. We showed that neuronal receptive fields in primary somatosensory cortex, especially area 3b, are largest in monkeys trained with active touch, smallest in those trained with passive touch, and intermediate in those trained using both modes of touch. Prolonged, irrelevant tactile input had the opposite influence in areas 1 and 2, favoring smaller receptive fields.

Can passive touch be better than active touch? A comparison of active and passive tactile maze learning

1981 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry L. Richardson ◽  
Dianne B. Wuillemin ◽  
Gail J. Mackintosh
Keyword(s):  
Maze Learning ◽  
Active Touch ◽  
Passive Touch ◽  
Better Than

Experience-driven remodeling of S1 digit representation in awake monkeys: the challenge of comparing active and passive touch

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariama Dione ◽  
Justine Facchini
Keyword(s):  
Active Touch ◽  
Motor Action ◽  
Passive Touch ◽  
Sensory Inputs ◽  
Touch Perception ◽  
Motor Strategies

Many studies have compared active and passive touch to understand how motor action shapes touch perception. Current views emphasize the difficulties in making such a comparison and promote investigating how motor strategies enable the filtering out of sensory inputs to reshape touch perception. Cybulska-Klosowicz et al. (2020) suggest that primary somatosensory (S1) cortical remodeling of digit representation occurs during active touch. Here, alternative interpretations are proposed and the relevance of studying multidigit scanning is emphasized.

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