Abstract
The two points of an esthesiometer were touched on the axes of a cross drawn on the inside surface of subjects’ forearms. One axis was drawn transversely (Line AB) and the other proximodistally (Line CD). Esthesiometer points (delivered simultaneously either on Line AB or CD) were always equidistant from the center of the cross, but they were reduced in separation distance until the two points felt like one (two-point threshold condition). A further condition consisted of the simultaneous delivery of two-point stimuli on Lines AB and CD in random order. Point separation was reduced until subjects could no longer report whether the two points touched were on Line AB or Line CD (orientation discrimination threshold). The latter threshold was found to be significantly lower than the two-point threshold, and this result was interpreted as support for the hypothesis that these two measures of tactile resolution take advantage of different properties of cutaneous receptive fields.
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Richardson, B.L., Wuillemin, D.B. Different orientations of sub-two-point threshold tactile stimuli can be discriminated. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 18, 311–314 (1981). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333637
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333637