Abstract
The present study was designed to investigate the effect of stimulus duration on vibrotactile sensation magnitude for the lingual dorsal surface and the thenar eminence of the right hand through use of the psychophysical scaling method of magnitude estimation. Magnitude estimation values for the tongue and hand were derived from 20 normal young adults. Measurements were made at a frequency of 250 Hz with stimulus durations of 100, 500, and 1,000 msec. Results showed the upper power function exponents to be steeper at all three stimulus durations for the lingual dorsal surface than for the thenar eminence, and the exponents for both the tongue and hand were smaller for 1,000 msec than for 100 msec. Pearson product moment correlations were performed on the subject magnitude estimation responses for the three stimulus durations. The durational correlations were performed independently for both test structures. Correlation coefficients for both test structures at all three stimulus durations tended to increase as stimulus intensity was increased. The correlation coefficients did not reflect changes in the relationship between individual subject responses as a result of stimulus durational changes at any of the sensation levels tested. Results are compared to previous research and discussed in terms of internal scaling mechanisms and learning effect.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Berglund, B., Berglund, U., & Ekman, G. (1967). Temporal integration of vibrotactile stimulation. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 25, 549–560.
Bosma, J. F. (1967). Symposium on oral sensation and perception. Springfield, IL: Thomas.
Fucci, D., Petrosino, L., Wallace, D., & Small, L. (1982). Modification of instrumentation for research on lingual vibrotactile sensitivity: Elimination of the tongue clamping procedure. Review of Scientific Instruments, 53, 1294–1296.
Gescheider, G. A. (1976). Evidence in support of the duplex theory of mechanoreception. Sensory Processes, 1, 68–76.
Hellman, R. P., & Zwislocki, J. (1961). Some factors affecting the estimation of loudness. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 33, 687–694.
Hellman, R. P., & Zwislocki, J. (1963). Monaural loudness function at 1000 cps and interaural summation. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 35, 856–865.
Stevens, S. S. (1955). The measurement of loudness. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 27, 815–820.
Stevens, S. S. (1959). Tactile vibration: Dynamics of sensory intensity. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 57, 210–218.
Teghtsoonian, R. (1973). Range effects in psychophysical scaling and a revision of Stevens’ Law. American Journal of Psychology, 86, 3–27.
Teghtsoonian, M., & Teghtsoonian, R. (1983). Consistency of individual exponents in cross-modality matching. Perception & Psychophysics, 33, 203–214.
Verrillo, R. T. (1965). Temporal summation in vibrotactile sensitivity. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 37, 843–846.
Verrillo, R. T. (1968). A duplex mechanism of mechanoreception. In D. R. Kenshalo (Ed.), The skin senses. Springfield, IL: Thomas.
Verrillo, R. T., & Chamberlain, S. C. (1972). The effect of neural density and contactor surround on vibrotactile sensation magnitude. Perception & Psychophysics, 11, 117–120.
Verrillo, R. T., & Smith, R. L. (1976). Effect of stimulus duration on vibrotactile sensation magnitude. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 8, 112–114.
von Békésy, G. (1957). Neural volleys and the similarity between some sensations produced by tones and by skin vibrations. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 29, 1059–1069.
von Békésy, G. (1959a). Neural tunneling along the skin and between the inner and outer hair cells of the cochlea. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 31, 1236–1249.
von Békésy, G. (1959b). Similarities between hearing and skin sensations. Psychological Review, 66, 1–22.
Zwislocki, J. (1960). Theory of temporal auditory summation. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 32, 1046–1060.
Zwislocki, J. (1965). Analysis of some auditory characteristics. In R. D. Luce, R. R. Bush, & E. Galanter (Eds.), Handbook of mathematical psychology (Vol. 3). New York: Wiley.
Zwislocki, J., & Goodman, D. (1980). Absolute scaling of sensory magnitudes: A validation. Perception & Psychophysics, 28, 28–38.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fucci, D., Petrosino, L., Harris, D. et al. Stimulus duration effects on vibrotactile magnitude estimation for the tongue and hand. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 24, 193–196 (1986). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330546
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330546