Abstract
Haptic texture perception is based on sensory information sequentially gathered during several lateral movements (“strokes”). In this process, sensory information of earlier strokes must be preserved in a memory system. We investigated whether this system may be a haptic sensory memory. In the first experiment, participants performed three strokes across each of two textures in a frequency discrimination task. Between the strokes over the first texture, participants explored an intermediate area, which presented either a mask (high-energy tactile pattern) or minimal stimulation (low-energy smooth surface). Perceptual precision was significantly lower with the mask compared with a three-strokes control condition without an intermediate area, approaching performance in a one-stroke-control condition. In contrast, precision in the minimal stimulation condition was significantly better than in the one-stroke control condition and similar to the three-strokes control condition. In a second experiment, we varied the number of strokes across the first stimulus (one, three, five, or seven strokes) and either presented no masking or repeated masking after each stroke. Again, masking between the strokes decreased perceptual precision relative to the control conditions without masking. Precision effects of masking over different numbers of strokes were fit by a proven model on haptic serial integration (Lezkan & Drewing, Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 80(1): 177–192, 2018b) that modeled masking by repeated disturbances in the ongoing integration. Taken together, results suggest that masking impedes the processes of haptic information preservation and integration. We conclude that a haptic sensory memory, which is comparable to iconic memory in vision, is used for integrating sequentially gathered sensory information.
Highlights
Perception refers to the processes of organizing and integrating sensory information in order to give meaning to detected stimuli, while sensation is the process during which sensory information is received and provided to perception (Wolfe et al, 2012)
The results showed that masking can impede the process of information preservation during haptic exploration, and support our hypothesis that haptic sensory memory is used for storing information from different strokes
That is, masking impeded the process of information preservation during haptic exploration, supporting our hypothesis that haptic sensory memory is used for storing information from different strokes (Averbach & Sperling, 1961; Gegenfurtner & Sperling, 1993)
Summary
Perception refers to the processes of organizing and integrating sensory information in order to give meaning to detected stimuli, while sensation is the process during which sensory information is received and provided to perception (Wolfe et al, 2012). Sensation occurs during sequential exploratory hand movements, and, haptic perception includes the serial integration of sensory information as a fundamental task (Henriques & Soechting, 2005; Klatzky & Lederman, 1999; cf Gibson, 1966). A sensory memory, later referred to as iconic memory, was first detected by Sperling (1960) for the visual sense. When a cue was presented immediately after the letter array, which indicated that only one specific row needed to be
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