Transfer of calibration in dynamic touch: What do perceivers learn when they learn about length of a wielded object?

Abstract

Successfully performing everyday behaviours requires that perceptions and actions are properly calibrated to environmental properties. In three experiments, the authors tested whether calibration was specific to perception of a particular property of a wielded object from a particular grasp position on that object. The experiments investigate whether transfer of recalibration occurs across changes in grasp position (Experiment 1), object property (Experiment 2), and grasp position and object property (Experiment 3). The results suggest that a complete transfer of recalibration occurred in each case. Such results are consistent with recent research on dynamic touch and suggest that rather than recalibrating participants to one particular property of the wielded objects, feedback about a particular property served to recalibrate participants to the properties of the rod set as a whole.

Keywords:

• Perception–action
• Dynamic touch
• Haptic perception

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by an Illinois State University Faculty Research Award to J.B.W. We thank Dawn McBride for helpful discussion.