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Length Perception by Dynamic Touch: The Effects of Aging and Experience

¹ Department of Physical Education, National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan.
² School of Kinesiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
³ Department of Natural Science Education, National Taipei University of Education, Taiwan.

Address correspondence to Dr. Michael G. Wade, School of Kinesiology, University of Minnesota, 224 A Cooke Hall, 1900 University Avenue SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455. E-mail: mwade{at}umn.edu

Two experiments investigated the effects of age and experience on length perception. A total of 46 participants were asked to wield and estimate the length of unseen rods by adjusting a movable board to equal their estimate of the reachable distance of the rod. The results demonstrated that (a) participants used the haptic subsystem of dynamic touch to perceive dissimilarities in object length and (b) experience playing racquet sports was more influential than the effect of age in perceptual judgments regarding object length. The results are discussed in the context of the ecological approach to haptic perception.

Key Words: Dynamic touch • Length perception • Experience • Aging • Ecological perspective