Investigating the Effect of Area of Stimulationon Cutaneous and Proprioceptive Weight Perception

Abstract

Weight perception is mediated by cutaneous perception (pressure on the skin) and proprioception (force on muscles and tendons). In this paper, the role of the size of the stimulation area is investigated for these two types of perception. In a magnitude estimation experiment, subjects were asked to estimate the weight of different masses with different contact areas using only cutaneous information or a combination of cutaneous and proprioceptive information. It was found that for cutaneous information, there is a small but significant influence of pressure on weight perception. This is of interest for the design of haptic interfaces that display weight.