Abstract
We investigated the influence of pre-penetration and penetration velocity changes (deceleration/constant velocity/acceleration) on visual hardness judgments. Participants were asked to judge, using an analog scale, the relative hardness of the penetrated objects compared to a standard pattern with no changes in acceleration. The results show that perceptual hardness was higher when the penetrating object decelerated during pre-penetration, or accelerated during penetration, but was lower when the velocity changed from acceleration to deceleration. Our findings reveal that the visual perception of hardness is influenced by velocity changes of the penetrating object during penetration. In addition, the current results imply that velocity change during pre-penetration, which is not directly related to actual penetration in a natural environment, is one factor determining the visual perception of texture.
