Effect of Attention Saturating and Cognitive Load on Tactile Texture Recognition for Mobile Surface

Abstract

We investigate users ability to recognize tactile textures on mobile surface when performing a primary task that either saturates the attention or is cognitively demanding. Our findings indicate that the attention saturating task decreases performance by 6.98% and increases frustration, mental demand and physical effort compared to a control condition. The recognition task can be done in an eyes-free style while continuing to perform the primary task. While cognitively demanding task demands more time to switch to the texture recognition task but decreases the time needed to recognize the texture without compromising accuracy compared to a control condition. The two tasks are handled sequentially with gaze attention directed to the current performed task. For both primary tasks, the recognition rate stays higher than 82% and the total time does not decrease, suggesting that tactile texture could be effectively recognized and used by users when performing a primary task. Finally, we discuss the implications of our work for tactile feedback based interaction.It is our hope that our findings will contribute toward a better understanding of tactile feedback perception on touchscreen when performing another primary task.