Tactile Temporal Order Judgment with Tools: Questioning Past Literature and Exploring New Directions in Tool Use

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2012
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Haverford College. Department of Psychology
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Award
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
We presented participants with a temporal order judgment (TOJ) task with vibratory stimuli presented to the ends of held tools. We manipulated whether the hands and tools were uncrossed or crossed, predicting that participants would respond more accurately if the responding body part and tool tip were in the same hemispace (see Yamamoto & Kitazawa, 2001). Participants were split into two groups (24 subjects in each group). One group responded manually with the stimulated tools, the other group responded with foot pedals. Contrasting previous findings, we found no significant effect of manipulating tool position when the hands were uncrossed, regardless of response type. Response type appeared to affect overall accuracy, as participants were significantly more accurate when responding with the stimulated tools compared to responding with foot pedals. Interactions were also found between response type and sex. Compared to males, females made a substantially greater number of confusion errors when responding with feet, but not when responding with tools. Additionally, compared to males, females made substantially more confusion errors with the arms crossed, reflecting previously reported results in tactile TOJ on the hands (Cadieux, Barnett-Cowan & Shore, 2010). These results suggest potential differences in spatial mapping and tactile processing in males and females. Subdividing subjects into groups based on accuracy on easy trials revealed that some subjects' performance was not at all affected by tool position, while other subjects were. Applications of these results to our understanding of how humans use tools are discussed.
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