EXPLORATORY STRATEGIES AND LATERALIZATION IN HAPTIC PERCEPTION

This paper reports a novel approach to investigate exploratory strateg ies and hemispheric lateralization in haptic perception. The duration and spatial distribution of digital contacts on the stimulus were stud ied in four mono- or dihaptic tasks. In dihaptic conditions, the left hand touched a larger surface of the stimuli, and was better at recogn ition than the right hand. In monohaptic testing, a similar asymmetry was observed in strategies, although the two hands did not differ on t heir success rates. The use of a monohaptic tactile-tactile situation suggests that asymmetries were more likely to appear during the initia l coding of the stimulus than during its recognition. Altogether, thes e experiments show that the analysis of exploratory strategies is more suited to demonstrate hemispheric asymmetries than the analysis of re sponse times and success rates.