Sequential Effect on Kinesthetic Perception

Abstract

In the literature on psychophysics, it is reported that during a psychophysical experiment when a user is subjected to many trials in succession, the perception of the current trial is observed to be overly similar to the previous trial (assimilation effect), and is observed to be dissimilar to distantly past trials (contrast effect). Overall, this behavior is called the sequential effect and is a very well-established phenomenon in psychophysics. In the literature, the sequential effect has been demonstrated on loudness of sound, and has been further assumed for other perceptual modalities like haptics and vision. However, to the best of our knowledge, we have not found any experimental study either claiming its existence for kinesthetic perception or for quantifying the effect. This motivates us to study the sequential effect on kinesthetic perception. In this chapter, we take up this study and find out whether or not the sequential effect exists, and how to quantify the effect. In order to study the presence of sequential effect for kinesthetic perception, we design an experimental setup where a user is subjected to a series of random force stimuli. We record the responses for several users. Thereafter, a logistic regression model is employed to observe how much the recorded responses are affected by the past stimuli. Based on the results of the logistic regression model, we demonstrate the presence of sequential effect for the kinesthetic stimuli. We also explain how to quantify the duration over which the sequential effect persists.