Now You Feel It, Now You Don't: The Effect of Movement, Cue Complexity, and Body Location on Tactile Change Detection

Objective To evaluate the effects that movement, cue complexity, and the location of tactile displays on the body have on tactile change detection. Background Tactile displays have been demonstrated as a means to address data overload by offloading the visual and auditory modalities. However, change blindness-the failure to detect changes in a stimulus when changes coincide with another event or disruption in stimulus continuity-has been demonstrated to affect the tactile modality and may be exacerbated during movement. The complexity of tactile cues and locations of tactile displays on the body may also affect the detection of changes in tactile patterns. Limitations to tactile perception need to be examined. Method Twenty-four participants performed a tactile change detection task while sitting, standing, and walking. Tactile cues varied in complexity and included low, medium, and high complexity cues presented to the arm or back. Results Movement adversely affects tactile change detection as hit rates were the highest while sitting, followed by standing and walking. Cue complexity affected tactile change detection: Low complexity cues resulted in higher detection rates compared with medium and high complexity cues. The arms exhibited better change detection performance than the back. Conclusion The design of tactile displays should consider the effect of movement. Cue complexity should be minimized and decisions about the location of a tactile display should take into account body movements to support tactile perception. Application The findings can provide design guidelines to inform tactile display design for data-rich, complex domains.