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| author | Gabriella Bottalico |
| title | Identifying Objects Through Touch |
| abstract |
People are able to quickly and efficiently identify familiar objects using our sense of touch. Past research has indicated that people are able to do so because
they have created mental representations of objects using our senses of sight and touch (Craddock & Lawson, 2009; Klatzky et al., 1985). The objective of this
thesis is to provide further insight into the structure (i.e., kinds of perceptual information) included in these object representations. I tested whether the
size and prior experience of the objects play a role in our ability to haptically (i.e., through touch) identify objects in a short amount of time. This study
had two parts. The first part consisted of 50 participants completing a survey indicating how they typically encounter 40 objects -- either by looking or touching.
The second part consisted of 130 participants completing a blind identification task in which they haptically identified normative size objects and smaller objects.
The objects examined belonged to two categories: those that are typically seen and those that are typically looked at. Participants had either 1 or 5 seconds to
haptically explore the objects. Results indicated that participants were more accurate in their responses when they had 5 seconds to haptically explore the objects
than when they had 1 second. In addition, participants were more accurate in their responses when they haptically explored objects than those typically viewed. The
order in which they first haptically identified the objects, whether first haptically identified objects typically looked at or typically touched, affected their
responses as well. Results also indicated that smaller objects are typically haptically identified better when they are typically looked at than those that are
typically touched. Implications of these findings are discussed.
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| school | The College of Liberal Arts, Drew University |
| degree | B.A. (2016) |
| advisor | Dr. Hilary Kalagher |
| committee | Dr. Scott Morgan
Dr. Christopher Andrews
Dr. John Muccigrosso |
| full text | GBottalico.pdf |
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