The authors investigated the mechanical basis of length perception through dynamic touch using specially designed rods in which the various moments of mass distribution (mass, static moment, and rotational inertia) were varied independently. In a series of 4 experiments, exploration style and rod orientation were manipulated such that the relative…

This study shows that in a novel task--bimanual haptic tracking--neurologically normal human adults can move their 2 hands independently for extended periods of time with little or no training. Participants lightly touched buttons whose positions were moved either quasi-randomly in the horizontal plane by 1 or 2 human drivers (Experiment 1), in…

People with autism and Asperger syndrome are anecdotally said to be hypersensitive to touch. In two experiments, we measured tactile thresholds and suprathreshold tactile sensitivity in a group of adults with Asperger syndrome. In the first experiment, tactile perceptual thresholds were measured. Two frequencies of vibrotactile stimulation were…

After haptic habituation to a ring display, infants perceived the rings in two experiments as parts of one connected object. In both haptic and visual modes, infants appeared to perceive object unity by analyzing motion but not by analyzing figural goodness. (RH)

Watching a rubber hand being stroked, while one's own unseen hand is synchronously stroked, may cause the rubber hand to be attributed to one's own body, to "feel like it's my hand." A behavioral measure of the rubber hand illusion (RHI) is a drift of the perceived position of one's own hand toward the rubber hand. The authors investigated (a) the…

One hundred 18-month-olds were tested using sequential touching and following 4 different priming contexts using sets of toys that could be simultaneously categorized at either the basic or global level. An exact expression of the expected mean sequence length for arbitrary categories was derived as a function of the number of touches made, and a…

These proceedings contain the papers of the 14th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2017), 18-20 October 2017, which has been organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) and endorsed by the Japanese Society for Information and Systems in…

The creative application of low-cost, readily available materials and techniques promotes inclusion and provides accessibility in the classroom and laboratory for students who are blind or have low vision. Difficulties encountered by these students include operation of laboratory equipment, execution of ordinary laboratory procedures, and use of…

This study focuses on children's response to nonsense shapes varying in complexity to the tactual modality. Voluntary haptic exploration and preference choices measured were related to age and discussed in relation to Schachter's differentiation between allocentric and autocentric modes of perception. (GO)

The study examined whether spontaneous variations in the frame of reference occurring over time have a more substantial effect on haptic mental rotation abilities of four blindfolded sighted subjects than of four adventitiously blind subjects. Results indicated the mental rotation functions for the two groups were virtually identical. (Author/DB)

It has been suggested that the inertia tensor governs many instances of haptic perception. However, the evidence is inconclusive because other candidate mechanical parameters (i.e., invariants) were not or were insufficiently controlled for in pertinent experiments. By independently varying all candidate mechanical parameters, the authors were…

This laboratory experiment utilizes the characteristic aromas of some functional groups to exploit the sense of smell as a discriminating tool in an organic qualitative analysis scheme. Students differentiate a variety of compounds by their aromas and based on their olfactory classification identify an unknown functional group. Students then…