Norman J Farley, Adkins Olivia C, Dowell Catherine J, Hoyng Stevie C, Gilliam Ashley N, Pedersen Lauren E
Department of Psychological Sciences, Ogden College of Science and Engineering, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY, USA.
Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science, Bowling Green, KY, USA.
Perception. 2017 Aug;46(8):976-986. doi: 10.1177/0301006617690168. Epub 2017 Jan 22.
A total of 36 younger (mean age = 21.3 years) and older adults (mean age = 73.8 years) haptically explored plastic copies of naturally shaped objects (bell peppers, Capsicum annuum) one at a time for 7 s each. The participants' task was to then choose which of 12 concurrently visible objects had the same solid shape as the one they felt. The younger and older participants explored the object shapes using either one, three, or five fingers (there were six participants for each combination of number of fingers and age group). The outcome was different from that of previous research conducted with manmade objects. Unlike Jansson and Monaci (2006) , we found that for most objects, our participants' performance was unaffected by variations in the number of fingers used for haptic exploration. While there was no significant overall effect of the number of fingers, there was a significant main effect of age. The younger adults' shape matching performance was 48.6% higher than that of the older adults. When perceiving naturally shaped objects such as bell peppers, it appears that the usage of a single finger can be as effective as haptic exploration with a whole complement of five fingers.
共有36名年轻人（平均年龄 = 21.3岁）和老年人（平均年龄 = 73.8岁）通过触觉逐一探索自然形状物体（甜椒，辣椒属）的塑料复制品，每次探索7秒。参与者的任务是从12个同时可见的物体中选择与他们触摸过的物体具有相同立体形状的那个。年轻和年长的参与者使用一根、三根或五根手指探索物体形状（每种手指数量和年龄组的组合有6名参与者）。结果与之前对人造物体进行的研究不同。与扬松和莫纳奇（2006年）不同，我们发现对于大多数物体，参与者的表现不受用于触觉探索的手指数变化的影响。虽然手指数量没有显著的总体影响，但年龄有显著的主效应。年轻人的形状匹配表现比老年人高48.6%。在感知甜椒等自然形状的物体时，似乎使用单根手指与用整五根手指进行触觉探索一样有效。
