Somatosensory perception of running shoe mass

Abstract

Running shoes are often marketed based on mass. A total of 50 young adult males participated across two separate experiments to determine how well they could perceive the relative masses of five different running shoes using hands versus feet. For the foot portion, subjects were blindly fitted with the shoes and asked to rank their masses individually using visual analogue scales (VAS) and verbal rankings. For the hand portion, two different methods were used, one presenting all shoes simultaneously and the other presenting the shoes individually. Verbal accuracy and VAS scores correlated across subjects for the hand and foot, but accuracy in mass perception by the feet was 30% compared to 92% or 63% by the hand (depending on the method). These results indicate the foot perceives mass poorly compared to the hand, and that consumers' perception of shoe mass may come more from handling shoes versus wearing them.

Abstract

Practitioner Summary: A total of 50 young adult males participated across two experiments to determine how accurately the foot could perceive running shoe mass compared to the hand. The foot was significantly less accurate than the hand in judging mass. Initial perceptions of running shoe mass likely derive more from handling versus wearing.

Keywords::

• footwear
• mass
• perception
• running shoe
• weight

Acknowledgements

We thank all the subjects who participated in the research. SJS was the lead student investigator for Experiment A and contributed portions of the paper in partial fulfilment of both an honours thesis and a biology thesis. JGG was the lead student investigator for Experiment B, in partial fulfilment of a biology thesis. CLK advised on experimental design, performed the final statistics and contributed to the figures and tables. DSS was the primary investigator and thesis advisor and wrote the paper. Stephen Faux (Drake University Psychology Department) provided advice on experimental design. Students in the 2011 and 2012 sections of FYS 29 ‘Running: Body, Mind, and Sole’ at Drake University helped with data collection and subject recruitment. Some of the supplies were purchased by the FYS programme at Drake University.