Movement of a grid of bars between the two hands creates the tactile illusion of a velvet-like material, namely the velvet hand illusion (VHI). In addition, haptic grouping seems to involve the activation of a network of widely distributed bilateral sensorimotor and parietal areas as reflected by the consistent event-related desynchronization found in alpha and beta bands. We conclude that, as occurs in visual perception, grouping the elements of the haptic scene by means of their spatial proximity is faster than forming the same objects by means of texture similarity. Independent component clustering analysis revealed the activation of a bilateral network of sensorimotor and parietal areas while performing the task.
Behavioral results showed faster response times for patterns grouped by spatial proximity relative to texture similarity. We analyzed behavioral responses (accuracy and response times) and conducted an independent component analysis of brain oscillations in alpha and beta bands for haptic stimuli grouped by spatial proximity and texture similarity, using a speeded orientation detection task performed on a novel haptic device (MonHap). The present study aims to examine whether the same occurs in the haptic modality using two grouping principles widely studied in vision, spatial proximity and texture similarity. proximity is also applicable for both visual and haptic grouping.īehavioral and neurophysiological findings in vision suggest that perceptual grouping is not a unitary process and that different grouping principles have different processing requirements and neural correlates. These results support our hypothesis that the principle of for academic, not-for profit purposes permitted provided this text is included. Similarly, when subjects perceived an unequal spacing between the elements they used spatial position to determine groupings. This supports our hypothesis that the principle of similarity is equally applicable for both visual (colour) and haptic (texture) grouping. Overall we found that a significant number of subjects used texture or colour to group the elements when there was an equal spacing between the elements. The hypothesis of the experiment described in this paper is that people will use touch to group display elements in the same way they group elements visually. A direct comparison is made with the visual grouping of elements using the same two principles of similarity and proximity. This paper focuses on how individuals use the sense of touch (haptics) to group display elements using the Gestalt principles of similarity and proximity. The early studies of Gestalt principles of grouping were predominantly concerned with visual perception, although more recently they have been investigated for auditory perception.
Gestalt theory, originally described in 1910, attempts to explain the way people perceive and recognise patterns. When designing multi-sensory displays it is necessary to consider human perceptual capabilities and understand how people find patterns and how they organise individual elements into structures and groups.