Abstract
When estimating the softness of an object by active touch, humans typically indent the object’s surface several times with their finger, applying higher peak indentation forces when they expect to explore harder as compared to softer stimuli [1]. Here, we compared how different types of prior knowledge differentially influence exploratory forces in softness discrimination. On each trial, participants successively explored two silicone rubber stimuli which were either both relatively soft or both relatively hard, and judged which of the two were softer. We measured peak forces of the first indentation. In the control condition, participants obtained no information about whether the upcoming stimulus pair would be from the hard or the soft category. In three test conditions, participants received implicit (pairs from the same category were blocked), semantic (the words soft and hard), or visual prior knowledge about the softness category. Visual information was provided by displaying the rendering of a compliant object deformed by a probe. Given implicit information, participants again used significantly more force in their first touch when exploring harder as compared to softer objects. Surprisingly, when given visual information, participants used significantly less force in the first touch when exploring harder objects. There was no effect when participants were given semantic information. We conclude that different types of prior knowledge influence the exploration behavior in very different ways. Thus, the mechanisms through which prior knowledge is integrated in the exploration process might be more complex than expected.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Lezkan, A., Drewing, K.: Predictive and sensory signals systematically lower peak forces in the exploration of softer objects. In: IEEE WHC 2015, pp. 69–74 (2015)
Klatzky, R.L., Lederman, S.J.: The haptic glance: a route to rapid object identification and manipulation. In: Gopher, D., Koriat, A. (eds.) Attention and Performance XVII. Cognitive Regulation of Performance: Interaction of Theory and Application, pp. 165–196. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah (1999)
Lederman, S.J., Klatzky, R.L.: Hand movements: a window into haptic object recognition. Cogn. Psychol. 19, 342–368 (1987)
Klatzky, R.L., Lederman, S.J., Metzger, V.A.: Identifying objects by touch: an “expert system”. Percept. Psychophys. 37(4), 299–302 (1985)
Srinivasan, M.A., LaMotte, R.H.: Tactual discrimination of softness. J. Neurophysiol. 73(1), 88–101 (1995)
Metzger, A., Drewing, K.: Haptically perceivd softness of deformable stimuli can be manipulated by applying external forces during the exploration. In: IEEE WHC 2015, pp. 75–81 (2015)
Friedman, R.M., Hester, K.D., Green, B.G., LaMotte, R.H.: Magnitude estimation of softness. Exp. Brain Res. 191, 133–142 (2008)
Saig, A., Gordon, G., Assa, E., Arieli, A., Ahissar, E.: Motor-sensory confluence in tactile perception. J. Neurosci. 32(40), 14022–14032 (2012)
Kaim, L., Drewing, K.: Exploratory strategies in haptic softness discrimination are tuned to achieve high levels of task performance. IEEE Trans. Haptics 4, 242–252 (2011)
Ernst, M.O., Bülthoff, H.H.: Merging the senses into a robust percept. Trends Cogn. Sci. 8(4), 162–169 (2004)
Newell, F.N., Ernst, M.O., Tjan, B.S., Bülthoff, H.H.: Viewpoint dependence in visual and haptic object recognition. Psychol. Sci. 12(1), 37–42 (2001)
Cherry, C.: On Human Communication. Wiley, California (1957)
Paulun, V.C., Schmidt, F., van Assen, J.J.R., Fleming, R.W.: Shape, motion, and optical cues to stiffness of elastic objects. J. Vis. 17(1), 20 (2017)
Sokal, R.R., Rohlf, F.: Biometry: The Principles and Practice of Statistics in Biological Research, 4th edn. Freeman, New York (2013)
Loftus, G.R., Masson, M.E.: Using confidence intervals in within-subject designs. Psychon. Bull. Rev. 1(4), 476–490 (1994)
Masters, R.S.W.: Knowledge, knerves and know-how: the role of explicit versus implicit knowledge in the breakdown of a complex motor skill under pressure. Br. J. Psychol. 83, 343–358 (1992)
Easton, R.D., Greene, A.J., Srinivas, K.: Transfer between vision and haptics: memory for 2-D patterns and 3-D objects. Psychon. Bull. Rev. 4(3), 403–410 (1997)
Goodale, M.A., Milner, A.D.: Separate visual pathways for perception and action. Trends Neurosci. 15, 20–25 (1992)
Cellini, C., Kaim, L., Drewing, K.: Visual and haptic integration in the estimation of softness of deformable objects. I-Perception 4(8), 516–531 (2013)
Pascual-Leone, A., Grafman, J., Hallett, M.: Modulation of cortical motor output maps during development of implicit and explicit knowledge. Science 263(5151), 1287–1289 (1994)
Acknowledgements
We thank Tamara Dobrjanski and Claire Weyel for their help in producing the stimuli and collecting the data. This research was supported by German Research Foundation (DFG; CRC/TRR135, A05, C01).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this paper
Cite this paper
Zöller, A.C., Lezkan, A., Paulun, V.C., Fleming, R.W., Drewing, K. (2018). Influence of Different Types of Prior Knowledge on Haptic Exploration of Soft Objects. In: Prattichizzo, D., Shinoda, H., Tan, H., Ruffaldi, E., Frisoli, A. (eds) Haptics: Science, Technology, and Applications. EuroHaptics 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10893. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93445-7_36
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93445-7_36
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-93444-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-93445-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)