Abstract
Two experiments studied the influence of tactual scanning mode and finger locus on pattern recognition. In Experiment 1, observers made visual matches to braille characters that were examined with either lateral scanning or free tracing. In Experiment 2, the same tactile scanning modes were used to explore embossed shapes. Performance was comparable with the extreme fingertip and the fingerpad. However, lateral scanning was inferior to tracing and yielded much lower recognition scores in both experiments.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Foulke, E. (1982). Reading braille. In W. Schiff & E. Foulke (Eds.), Tactual perception: A sourcebook. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Heller, M. A. (1985). Tactual perception of embossed Morse code and braille: The alliance of vision and touch. Perception, 14, 563–570.
Heller, M. A. (1986). Active and passive tactual braille recognition. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 24, 201–202.
Heller, M. A. (1987). The effect of orientation on visual and tactual braille recognition. Perception, 16, 291–298.
Heller, M. A., & Mitchell, B. Y. (1985). Helping new braille readers: Effects of spacing, finger locus, and gloves. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 61, 363–369.
Loomis, J. M. (1985). Tactile recognition of raised characters: A parametric study. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 23, 18–20.
Nolan, C. Y., & Kederis, C. J. (1969). Perceptual factors in Braille word recognition. New York: American Printing House for the Blind.
Phillips, J. R., Johnson, K. O., & Browne, H. M. (1983). A comparison of visual and two modes of tactual letter recognition. Perception & Psychophysics, 34, 243–249.
Thurlow, W. R. (1986). Some comparisons of characteristics of alphabetic codes for the deaf-blind. Human Factors, 28, 175–186.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Preparation of this report and some of the research were supported by NIH MBRS Grant 2 S06 RR-oS04O. Faith Heller provided helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. I wish to thank Emerson Foulke for the loan of a special slate that was used to emboss the forms used in Experiment 2.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Heller, M.A., Scrofano, D.K. & Nesbitt, K.D. Effect of tactual scanning mode on braille and shape recognition. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 27, 131–132 (1989). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329919
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329919