{"id":1722,"date":"2014-11-23T15:55:55","date_gmt":"2014-11-23T20:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/?p=1722"},"modified":"2017-09-06T11:40:27","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T15:40:27","slug":"can-i-touch-your-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/2014\/11\/23\/can-i-touch-your-face\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I Touch Your Face?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Stepbrothers: click the image<\/p><\/div>\n

Imagine feeling around in your kitchen\u2019s miscellaneous junk drawer in the dark\u2014among rubber bands, lighters, pencil sharpeners, and notepads\u2014for a ballpoint pen. Not a pencil, and certainly not a highlighter. But that specific shape of pen. You know what a pen feels like, having felt them and seen them many times before, so the dark gives you no issue and you pull out exactly what you are looking for.<\/p>\n

Our bodies have many ways of interacting with surroundings and objects. All senses powerfully work together to interpret what an object is based on its size, weight, texture, color, even smell. Sometimes these senses are isolated, so we rely on solely on sight or exclusively on touch, seemingly very different methods we employ. Having great visual interpretation, as if you have a keen eye for painting styles, seems to not necessarily make you better at identifying a sculptor\u2019s work by touching and feeling <\/em>the art. (Make sure to wait until the docent has their back turned!) But much like training your body to run faster can help you swim better, training one sense could improve another.<\/p>\n

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Shape identification based on both visual perception and haptic interaction was studied by Wallraven et al. in order to better understand if our brain separates these types of shape identification, or if there is a cross-over of ability between sight and touch. Visual perception and identification of shapes is seeing an object and determining what it is purely based on your view of it. Haptic interaction uses touch to explore an object, like typing on different computer keyboards.<\/p>\n

Subjects being tested in the experiment were trained to recognize two different 3-D printed objects that were smoothly contoured, but distinct from one another. The participants categorized objects as best as they could based on their shape. Some were more similar to the first shape: Shape A, or the second: Shape B. The objects they experienced varied; some were just like Shape A or B, while others shared features from both objects, which lay on either end of a shape-spectrum. As a benchmark, all participants were initially tested. They had to categorize objects purely based on looks, without being allowed to touch the object, and then only by how they felt, as if they were wearing a blindfold. Later, half the subjects were trained to be very good at visual categorization; they could consistently identify an object as more similar to A or B based on viewing it. The other subjects were similarly trained in the haptic, \u2018feeling\u2019 manner. All participants explored the objects from a series of angles, so they did not just develop a single \u2018template\u2019 of the object: a representation of just a single view or angle.<\/p>\n

When tested after training, there was a great deal of cross-over in the abilities of participants! People who got good visually were better using their hands and visa versa.<\/p>\n

So improving identification based on vision improves identification based on touch. I would imagine that if the average person wore a blindfold and handed an apple in one hand and an orange in the other (s)he could distinguish the between the two. These are two fruits that most people living in temperate climate are very familiar with, but what about exotic fruits that have only been seen in pictures? The study done by Wallrave et al. suggests that a person who has never been to the Asian tropics and eaten dragonfruit or lychee nut could, when blindfolded, figure out that (s)he was holding one or the other, just based on visual experience with such exotic fruits.<\/p>\n

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Does this mean that we could all get to know our neighbors a little better by following suit of the blind neighbor in \u201cStepbrothers\u201d and touching each other\u2019s faces? (See video above). Imagine meeting someone and asking to feel their face, so you could recognize them in passing, or spot them in a Facebook picture. Not only would the social repercussions (and potential germ-related health problems) outweigh benefit, but another study done by Wallraven\u2014concerning the connection between sight and touch of faces\u2014suggests that we interpret faces differently based when seen versus felt.<\/p>\n

Humans have a very special way of recognizing faces that is very powerful. We holistically process faces, meaning we see them a whole entity, not feature by feature. We recognize each other based on how a nose fits with a toothy grin outlined by smile lines. Holistic processing is unique to much practiced, very proficient processes\u2014paramount for often used face recognition. The study shows that as we use a less practiced method of facial interaction\u2014touch\u2014we have a much harder time identifying differences without using powerful features, like a nose, as a distinguishing factor. This makes it so when we physically explore faces (how often do we do that really though?) we comprehend them feature by feature: as a nose here and eyebrows there.<\/p>\n

Some of the other most telltale signs of who a person is are their hair, skin type and skin tone. A serious haircut can completely change the way a person looks. (Find image of haircut?) \u00a0In this study, factors like hair and skin color were omitted, as the faces were 3-D printed in plastic. Unlike the previous study, where objects were shown to participants from all different angles, the faces presented were just the front of the face, not the entire head. This could have also contributed to weaker recognition of the faces because a \u2018template\u2019 model of the original benchmark face was used. A template means that the mind is simply trying to match features as closely as possible, so truer, deeper interpretation is not performed.<\/p>\n

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Hair made a big difference for this guy<\/b><\/p>\n

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One factor that was identified through touch was age. In Wallraven\u2019s study on processing of faces, age was consistently recognized with merely a touch due to the increased texture on older faces. He writes \u201cNevertheless, it seems as if in this case age (which was apparent mainly through wrinkles on the face) could reliably also be extracted\u201d (Wallraven 2014). While subjects could easily tell if the face they touched was older or younger, a factor I am curious to know more about is discrimination of different faces that are in the same age range. A paper by Harrison and Hole (2009) tells about humans learned bias toward recognizing and identifying differences in faces of others that are similar ages (partially due to constant contact). I wonder if, using touch, we could avoid the own-age bias and more easily tell people apart. Due to the weaker nature of haptic identification, I imagine it would in fact be harder to tell one old face from another, using only what our fingertips can feel as a guide.<\/p>\n

While I do not suggest feeling every friend\u2019s face or touching every object in sight, there is merit to tactile exploration of new objects. Getting to know an object through many senses, especially sight and touch, can familiarize the object and aid future recognition and use. If you have new lab instruments or tools to use, looking at images before getting your hands on them could help identification and use proficiency. Make like a baby and pick up and explore your surroundings! Tactile exploration can help visual identification, and vice versa, but stick to unfamiliar objects, because it will not help as much with your friend\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

Wallraven, Christian, Heinrich Bulthoff, Steffen Waterkamp, Loes Van Dam, and Nina Gaibert. “The Eyes Grasp, the Hands See: Metric Category Knowledge Transfers between Vision and Touch.”\u00a0Springer Link<\/i>(2013).\u00a0Springer Link<\/i>. Springer. Web. 23 Nov. 2014. <http:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.3758\/s13423-013-0563-4\/fulltext.html>.<\/p>\n

Wallraven, Christian. “Touching on Face Space: Comparing Visual and Haptic Processing of Face Shapes.”Springer Link<\/i>\u00a0(2014).\u00a0Springer Link<\/i>. Springer. Web. 23 Nov. 2014. <http:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.3758\/s13423-013-0577-y\/fulltext.html><\/p>\n

Images:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/24.media.tumblr.com\/eb843c799502fd0235accc3efe4f3bd2\/tumblr_mh0aj3T6Yn1qg5xklo1_r1_1280.gif<\/p>\n

http:\/\/slickmen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Health-Benefits-Of-Lychee-.jpeg<\/p>\n

-http:\/i.imgur.com\/wQw1c3k.jpg-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine feeling around in your kitchen\u2019s miscellaneous junk drawer in the dark\u2014among rubber bands, lighters, pencil sharpeners, and notepads\u2014for a ballpoint pen. Not a pencil, and certainly not a highlighter. But that specific shape of pen. You know what a pen feels like, having felt them and seen them many times before, so the dark […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6249,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80219,80218],"tags":[130381,370830],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1722"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6249"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1722"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3723,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1722\/revisions\/3723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}