BASIC AND APPLIED STUDIES OF TACTILE PERCEPTION

这项补助金的继续将基础研究与 振动触觉刺激的感知与应用研究评价 听觉障碍者语言交流触觉辅助器 人士 这项研究计划的目标是增加 触觉系统处理能力的知识， 提供信息，以设计改进的触觉 艾滋病 结合触觉的基础研究， 心理物理学和知觉与触觉辅助评估 应该能让我们深入了解复杂的模式 以及这些图案应该如何被 以获得最佳的语音识别。 在基本的触觉感知研究的相互作用的空间， 振动触觉刺激中的时间和频率变化， 研究以确定它们对触觉处理的影响， 刺激。 这些相互作用在各种任务中进行检查 设计用于覆盖从简单的刺激检测到 复杂模式识别 随着实验的进行， 刺激的复杂性逐渐增加， 更接近的模式类型所提出的 多通道触觉语音感知设备， 实验操作可能与以下性能有关： 这样的装置。 在言语交流触觉辅助工具的应用评价中， 进行了大量的实验， 用于改进设备设计和培训的汇聚信息 程序. 触觉辅助器对语言的影响 将学习感知和言语产生技能， 将研究长期使用触觉辅助工具的效果。 在 此外，一组实验，系统地评估 多通道触觉设备的特定物理参数（例如， 通道数量、刺激器的位置和类型、处理 战略等）将进行，以确定是否 目前用这种装置获得的性能水平可以 进一步改善。 这些不同研究方向的结果应该提供一个 对我们的加工知识有了相当大的补充 触觉系统的功能，以及这些功能的应用 通过触觉呈现的语言感知能力 艾滋病

The continuation of this grant combines basic research into the perception of vibrotactile stimuli with applied research evaluating tactile aids for speech communication by hearing-impaired persons. The goals of this program of research are to add to knowledge of the processing capabilities of the tactile system and to provide information leading to the design of improved tactile aids. The combination of basic investigation of tactile psychophysics and perception with the evaluation of tactile aids should yield important insights into how complex patterns are processed by the tactile sense and how such patterns should be presented to obtain optimal recognition of speech. In the basic tactile perception studies the interactions of spatial, temporal, and frequency variations in vibrotactile stimuli are studied to determine their effects on tactile processing of such stimuli. These interactions are examined in a variety of tasks designed to cover the range from simple detection of stimuli to complex pattern recognition. As the experiments progress, stimuli are gradually increased in complexity and made to approximate more closely the types of patterns presented by multichannel tactile speech perception devices, so that experimental manipulations can be related to the performance of such devices. In applied evaluations of tactile aids for speech communication, a number of lines of experimentation are pursued to provide convergent information for improving device design and training procedures. The contributions of tactile aids to both speech perception and speech production skills will be studied, and the effects of long-term use of tactile aids will be examined. In addition, a set of experiments that systematically evaluates specific physical parameters of multichannel tactile devices (e.g., number of channels, location and type of stimulators, processing strategies, etc.) will be undertaken to determine whether the levels of performance presently obtained with such devices can be further improved. The results of these varied lines of research should provide a considerable addition to our knowledge about the processing capabilities of the tactile system, and the application of these capabilities in the perception of speech presented through tactile aids.