Date of Award
10-23-2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Dr. A.K.M. Rezaul Karim
Abstract
The present study investigated crossmodal communication in perceptual discrimination between visual and tactile modalities. Towards this end, the study was conducted on 32 children aged 7-11 years in four schools situated in the city of Dhaka. Two experiments were conducted each in two phases, "tactile to visual" and "visual to tactile" phases, following a novel behavioral approach. We assessed correctness of response and reaction time for discriminating unknown Japanese letters and geometric shapes. Data were analyzed in a series of one-sample t-tests and paired-sample t- tests, as well as in a series of one-way repeated measures ANOVAs using visual field location or tactile space as a within-subjects factor. Results revealed that in both the "tactile to visual" and "visual to tactile" phases, correct response proportion (CRP) averaged over the participants were significantly different from zero in all the visual field locations or tactile spaces. In both the phases, the average CRP scores were also significantly different from zero irrespective of visual field locations or tactile spaces. Moreover, results demonstrated that correct response proportion (CRP) was significantly higher in "tactile to visual" phase than in "visual to tactile" phase. Consistently, reaction time (RT) was significantly shorter in "tactile to visual" phase than in "visual to tactile” phase. It indicates that children identified letters and shapes more correctly when they experienced the stimuli tactilely and were tested visually. Finally, children's performance was significantly better in geometric shape discrimination as compared to Japanese letter discrimination in terms of correctness of response and reaction time. These results support all the hypotheses formulated in this study.
Recommended Citation
Bristy, Shakila Parvin, "Crossmodal Communication in Perceptual Discrimination: A Behavioral Study on Visual and Tactile Modalities" (2019). Psychology Theses and Dissertations. 1.
https://commons.und.edu/psych-grad/1
Comments
This thesis was submitted to the Department of Psychology, University of Dhaka, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology. It is retained on the UND Scholarly Commons as a representation of prior scholarship of a current doctoral student.