title: Perceived arm posture and remote haptic perception of whether an object can be stepped over.
abstract: The authors investigated whether the perceived posture of the arm plus a hand-held object influences remote haptic perception of whether an object can be stepped over. Blindfolded participants (N = 20) determined whether they could step over bars at different heights by exploring the bars with a T-shaped rod. The rod was weighted so that the perceived posture of the arm-plus-rod was shifted up, down, or left unchanged. Both the leg length of the participant and the perceived posture of the arm-plus-rod systematically influenced perception of whether the bar could be stepped over. The results highlight the role of perceived posture of the arm-plus-rod in remote haptic perception and have potential implications for the design of navigation aids for the visually impaired.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Campus Box 4620, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790, USA. JeffreyWagman@ilstu.edu
authors.forename: Jeffrey B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Wagman
authors.forename: Kona R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001132:Arm; D001827:Body Height; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D011187:Posture; D011340:Problem Solving; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012683:Sensory Deprivation; D012858:Size Perception; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014110:Touch