TEXTURE PERCEIVED WITH FINGERS

Relative assessments of 10 attributes commonly used to describe the texture of liquids on human skin were obtained for 14 liquids of widely variant rheological properties. The results were analyzed to show that these judgments can be predicted accurately from assessments of just 3 attributes: smoothness, thinness and warmth. Smoothness was closely related to forces of contact lubrication, and could be predicted from measurements of coefficients of friction. Thinness was closely related to viscous forces, consistent with other predictions of assessments of thickness and spreadability. Warmth was not studied further. The results show how careful definition of the stimulus on the skin''s surface can sharply simplify interpretation of the psychophysical experiment.