Short-term visual deprivation, tactile acuity, and haptic solid shape discrimination.
Previous psychophysical studies have reported conflicting results concerning the effects of short-term visual deprivation upon tactile acuity. Some studies have found that 45 to 90 minutes of total light deprivation produce significant improvements in participants' tactile acuity as measured with a grating orientation discrimination task. In contrast, a single 2011 study found no such improvement while attempting to replicate these earlier findings. A primary goal of the current experiment was to resolve this discrepancy in the literature by evaluating the effects of a 90-minute period of total light deprivation upon tactile grating orientation discrimination. We also evaluated the potential effect of short-term deprivation upon haptic 3-D shape discrimination using a set of naturally-shaped solid objects. According to previous research, short-term deprivation enhances performance in a tactile 2-D shape discrimination task - perhaps a similar improvement also occurs for haptic 3-D shape discrimination. The results of the current investigation demonstrate that not only does short-term visual deprivation not enhance tactile acuity, it additionally has no effect upon haptic 3-D shape discrimination. While visual deprivation had no effect in our study, there was a significant effect of experience and learning for the grating orientation task - the participants' tactile acuity improved over time, independent of whether they had, or had not, experienced visual deprivation.
Department of Psychological Sciences, Ogden College of Science and Engineering, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States of America.
Charles E
CE
Crabtree
Department of Psychological Sciences, Ogden College of Science and Engineering, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States of America.
J Farley
JF
Norman
D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D046709:Pattern Recognition, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D012683:Sensory Deprivation / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult