Abstract
The perception of material/object properties plays a fundamental role in our daily lives. Previous research has shown that individuals use distinct and consistent patterns of hand movements, known as exploratory procedures (EPs), to extract perceptual information relevant to specific material/object properties. Here, we investigated the variation in EP usage across different tasks involving objects that varied in task-relevant properties (shape or deformability) as well as in task-irrelevant properties (deformability or texture). Participants explored 1 reference object and 2 test objects with a single finger before selecting the test object that was most similar to the reference. We recorded their finger movements during explorations, and these movements were then categorised into different EPs. Our results show strong task-dependent usage of EPs, even when exploration was confined to a single finger. Furthermore, within a given task, EPs varied as a function of material/object properties unrelated to the primary task. These variations suggest that individuals flexibly adapt their exploration strategies to obtain consistent and relevant information.
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Acknowledgments
L.L., K.D., A.K. and J.P. were supported by the Hessisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst (HMWK; project ‘The Adaptive Mind’), K.D. and K.D. were supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – project number 222641018 – SFB/TRR 135, A5 & B8. The authors would also like to thank Viktoria Neuwirt for data collection and data coding. Manuela Kußler and Sara Vitagliano for data coding.
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Lin, L.P.Y. et al. (2025). Task-Adapted Single-Finger Explorations of Complex Objects. In: Kajimoto, H., et al. Haptics: Understanding Touch; Technology and Systems; Applications and Interaction. EuroHaptics 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14768. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-70058-3_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-70058-3_11
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