Kent Christopher, Skinner Andy L, Weeds Carys, Benton Christopher P
Perception. 2014;43(10):1097-106. doi: 10.1068/p7713.
Edges are fundamental properties of our environment and the objects we interact with. There is a lack of research on the haptic perception of edges, especially the sharpness of an edge. Skinner et al. [2013 PLoS ONE, 8(9): e73283] found that haptic discriminability of sharpness was clearly superior when using a relatively unrestrained, free exploration strategy compared with a static single touch strategy. In the free exploration condition two distinct movement patterns were frequently used by participants: a proximal-distal movement of the fingerpad across the test edge and a medial-lateral movement of the fingerpad along the test edge. Here, using the same stimuli and two-alternative forced-choice method of constant stimuli as Skinner et al. (2013), we demonstrate that a proximal-distal movement results in substantially lower sharpness discrimination thresholds than a medial-lateral movement. The underlying neurophysiology and implications for the design of haptic displays are considered.
边缘是我们所处环境以及我们与之交互的物体的基本属性。目前对于边缘的触觉感知，尤其是边缘的锐度，缺乏相关研究。斯金纳等人[《公共科学图书馆·综合》，2013年，第8卷，第9期：e73283]发现，与静态单次触摸策略相比，使用相对无限制的自由探索策略时，锐度的触觉辨别能力明显更优。在自由探索条件下，参与者经常使用两种不同的运动模式：指腹沿测试边缘的近端 - 远端移动以及指腹沿测试边缘的内侧 - 外侧移动。在此，我们使用与斯金纳等人（2013年）相同的刺激物和恒定刺激的二选一强制选择方法，证明近端 - 远端移动所产生的锐度辨别阈值比内侧 - 外侧移动要低得多。文中还考虑了其潜在的神经生理学原理以及对触觉显示器设计的影响。
