title: Sensory and Emotional Perception of Wooden Surfaces through Fingertip Touch.
abstract: Previous studies on tactile experiences have investigated a wide range of material surfaces across various skin sites of the human body in self-touch or other touch modes. Here, we investigate whether the sensory and emotional aspects of touch are related when evaluating wooden surfaces using fingertips in the absence of other sensory modalities. Twenty participants evaluated eight different pine and oak wood surfaces, using sensory and emotional touch descriptors, through the lateral motion of active fingertip exploration. The data showed that natural and smooth wood surfaces were perceived more positively in emotional touch than coated surfaces. We highlight the importance of preserving the naturalness of the surface texture in the process of wood-surface treatment so as to improve positive touch experiences, as well as avoid negative ones. We argue that the results may offer possibilities in the design of wood-based interior products with a view to improving consumer touch experiences.
authors.affiliation: Department of Built Environment, School of Engineering, Aalto University Espoo, Finland.
authors.forename: Shiv R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Bhatta
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Kaisa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tiippana
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems, Aalto University Espoo, Finland.
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vahtikari
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems, Aalto University Espoo, Finland.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.affiliation: Department of Built Environment, School of Engineering, Aalto University Espoo, Finland.
authors.forename: Marketta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kyttä
keywords: emotional touch; fingertip touch; surface treatments; tactile perception; texture perception; wood