Psychophysical aspects of surface touch in material of different thermal conductivity

Abstract

The multidimensionol scaling of tactual impressions were carried out by direct and indirect methods. In the direct method, similarity-dis-similarity of tactual impressions is rated numerically and in the indirect method, similarity was scaled from the semantic differential applied to tactual stimulus samples. Fairly good correspondence was found between the two methods. Tactual perception seems to be relatively simple, and warmness-coldness impression is really unidimensional. Correlations between the factor loadings of samples on each axis and some of the physical or psychological characteristics were calculated.
Furthermore, marmness impression were scaled by Scheffe's method of paired comparison. The sensory scale value for warmness was directly proportional to the logarithm of thermal conductivity.